Serious Play Forum

[Rob Oddi, CCMP, PMP]

Hi everyone! I’m just completing my LSP training as I type and I have the opportunity to do an LSP session for 2hrs at two difference conferences. Both focus on organizational change management. Where I have a bit of a gap is, how do I introduce the content to deliver value to the attendees that contribute to the discourse of the conference, where people leave not only thinking LSP is cool and unique, but also there was valuable contribution towards the theme of the event itself. Also assuming those at tables are all strangers to eachother.

Would love to hear any stories or pieces of advice from those with exposure to this type of event.

Thanks.

[Eli De Friend]

Hi Rob,

I think many of us on here have had your challenge. Naïvely, I used to think that I could use a facet of the conference’s theme while uniting the group through the one thing that links the participants, the conference itself. So in your case, I would in the past develop a 2-hour roadmap about how should the organising committee of the conference adapt to the changing demands of participants. I actually did this for a 3-hour session at a project management conference for example.

However, not all of your participants will be sufficiently intellectually agile to see themselves as simultaneously fulfilling various roles:
– a participant of the conference with ideas for improvement (creating the demand)
– a member of the think-tank defining the conference’s future strategy
– a member of the organising committee needing to implement the changes recommended
– a participant of the conference learning the LSP methodology

So these days I would recommend creating a fictional or real scenario with documentary information that you could possibly even send to participants ahead of time. It requires less imagination than the former approach.

All the best,

Eli

[Eli De Friend]

Hi Rob,

I think many of us on here have had your challenge. Naïvely, I used to think that I could use a facet of the conference’s theme while uniting the group through the one thing that links the participants, the conference itself. So in your case, I would in the past develop a 2-hour roadmap about how should the organising committee of the conference adapt to the changing demands of participants. I actually did this for a 3-hour session at a project management conference for example.

However, not all of your participants will be sufficiently intellectually agile to see themselves as simultaneously fulfilling various roles:
– a participant of the conference with ideas for improvement (creating the demand)
– a member of the think-tank defining the conference’s future strategy
– a member of the organising committee needing to implement the changes recommended
– a participant of the conference learning the LSP methodology

So these days I would recommend creating a fictional or real scenario with documentary information that you could possibly even send to participants ahead of time. It requires less imagination than the former approach.

All the best,

Eli

[Ben]

I thought Dr Marko Rillo’s session at the Joomla World Conference was an excellent way to get people learning about LEGO Serious Play. A lot of the 2 hour session was about teaching the audience about play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQncdPcvfKk

I like Eli’s idea of providing a fictional scenario. The issue with conferences is that you will have people from different organisations so they don’t have a shared problem to solve.

[Rob Oddi, CCMP, PMP]

I agree Ben, and thanks for the video link. I remember seeing that video. It’s true.. the conference can be tough, but im an expert of the topic of the conference (organizational change), so i’ll find a way to do both a ‘sell’ and ‘add value!’

thx again

[Guy Winterbotham]

I’ve done a couple with the theme “What would a supportive community for X look like?” It allows folks to consider the future direction the community that has come to the conference. At 2 hrs I have done a shared model. I’ve used explorer kits and asked folks to build the shared model in a way they can recover the kit. In one case I was able to video the shared stories and offer it to the organizers of the session for their future planning.

[Mark Matlock]

@guidow “I’ve used explorer kits and asked folks to build the shared model in a way they can recover the kit. ”

Please share your method, I’m curious about how you structured this, sounds great.

M

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