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Upcoming LSP Community Face-2-Face in September 2010

May 31, 2010 in News and Events, Pro Community Rulebook

What are the rules of the Game?

On 14th April 2010, a number of future ex-Certified LEGO SERIOUS PLAY partners met with LEGO management and then amongst themselves to discuss the feasibility of creating a community. From LEGO’s side, it was made clear that LEGO would in future only refer, be it in person or on the web, to open communities of parties interested in LEGO SERIOUS PLAY.

Even prior to the April 14th meeting, some interested parties were already feeling that the community would have to establish the rules of the game, before it could function effectively and before any other decisions could be made.

Others felt that before deciding on the rules, the objectives of the community should be established.

Others again felt that we should just get out there and do business together and the objectives and rules would work themselves out.

If anyone reading this article is interested in contributing to the establishment of this community, please comment below…

Serious Play Case Study – Building Country Vision 2018

May 28, 2010 in Serious Play Case Studies

160 Estonian visionary thinkers and opinion leaders used LEGO bricks to build country vision.

The Development Fund‘s FUTURES FORUM 3 “Globally Competitive, Locally Attractive Estonia in 2018″ took place on 6 May 2010 at 10-17 at the Chamber Hall of Theater “Estonia” This year’s Futures Forum was the kick-off for the wider discussion of Estonia’s mid-term future. The purpose of the debate is to reach a shared vision about the possible sources of economic growth for Estonia in rapidly-changing world.

The day was opened by the President of the Republic of EstoniaToomas Hendrik Ilves. Thereafter a group of individuals from a think tank described 4 potential regional future scenarios. To get inspiration for creative vision-building the participants listened to a number of lectures. Eamonn Kelly (CEO emeritus of the Global Business Network and former chairman of Scottish Enterprise), Mikko Kosonen (President of the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and former Strategy Director of Nokia) and scenarios guru Peter Schwartz

Marko Rillo with LEGO model

Marko Rillo explains shared vision building

During the second half of the day the participants received LEGO SERIOUS PLAY exploration bags to come up with their vision for country mid-term future for 2018. They were sitting in tables of 10, each lead by qualified instructor.

They had 3 minutes to build their individual models: “How do I see Estonia in 2018″. Thereafter each one of the participants described their models to the other members of their group. The groups spent an hour to come up with shared vision and identifying primary success factors. Finally a number of groups presented their understanding to the other participants. The results of visioning task are available at the Development Fund website.

Slideshow of the event
is available on Flickr

New Serious Play Products Announced by LEGO

May 17, 2010 in About Serious Play

With the introduction of SERIOUS PLAY Open Source model – LEGO has somewhat changed its product portfolio and announced 4 product types that it is shipping worldwide for the SERIOUS PLAY applications. All are well familiar to facilitators. You may order the products via your selected facilitator or directly via Serious Play website.

Window Exploration Bag

LSP window bag pile

Lego Window Exploration Bag - art.2000409

These small bags come in a box that holds a collection of 100. One bag per participant. It is useful either for short “teaser” workshops or for introductory tasks – for skills building or for warm up.

Each bag includes:

  • Small selection of standard bricks.
  • Small selection of special elements and minifigure parts.
  • Small LEGO SERIOUS PLAY folder.

Starter Kit

LSP starter kit

Starter Kit - art. 2000414

Comes as one kit per participant. Can be used for warm up and some initial tasks for longer workshops or for problem solving tasks during well framed meetings.

Each kit includes:

  • Selection of standard LEGO bricks combined with a few DUPLO elements.
  • Selection of special elements such as wheels, tires, windows, trees, minifigure parts, sticks, globes and small base plates
  • Imaginopedia for Core Process.

Identity and Landscape Kit

LSP identity and landscape kit

Identity and Landscape Kit - art. 2000415

One kit per group of 10-12 participants. Can be used for full 1-3 days of group workshop that is aimed at building shared understanding of a new strategy, a complex problem, new identity or to brainstorm for out-of-box creative ideas.

Each kit includes:

  • Large special mix of LEGO bricks combined with DUPLO elements including animals.
  • Extensive selection of special elements such as wheels, tires, windows, trees, minifigure parts, sticks, globes, spiral tubes, ladders, fences and spider webs.
  • Large selection of base plates.
  • 3 grey plastic sorting trays.

Connections Kit

LSP connections kit

Connection Kit - art. 2000413

One kit per group of 10-12 participants. Can be used for follow-up of the full workshop that is aimed at building complex relationships between different actors at a business landscape and explore how the system as a whole responds to changes in environment.

Each kit includes:

  • Large selection of long LEGO bricks.
  • Extensive selection of connecting elements such as spiral tubes, ladders, fences, bridges and strings.
  • 10 identical bags containing bricks for the “pencil case” exercise.
  • 3 light grey plastic sorting trays.

PS. Images have been taken from www.seriousplay.com website.

Lego to Establish Open Serious Play Community

May 1, 2010 in About Serious Play

LEGO has announced today the following:

As of May 1st 2010 LEGO has decided to allow everyone – including facilitators outside of our previous partner network – to use LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®. LEGO will no longer be sustaining a network of licensed partners offering LEGO SERIOUS PLAY and as a result LEGO SERIOUS PLAY can be obtained through a wide community of facilitators using the method as part of their toolbox.

As a client looking for an experienced LEGO SERIOUS PLAY facilitator to run a workshop or as a professional facilitator or consultant looking for training in order to apply LEGO SERIOUS PLAY to your toolbox, we encourage you to search the internet for LEGO SERIOUS PLAY facilitators within your country.

Groups of facilitators are currently in the process of setting up online community platforms. You will be able to find links to those communities on this site when they are established.

A description of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® core method will be offered as open source to all facilitators, who wish to benefit from using the method. The description is currently under development and will be made public on this site later this year.

LSP small logo

Serious Play Research

February 28, 2010 in Serious Play Research

According to Wikipedia

Johan Roos and Bart Victor created the “serious play” concept and process in the mid-1990s as way to enable managers to describe, create and challenge their views of their business. Dr. Roos is now President of Copenhagen Business School and Dr. Bart Victor is Cal Turner Professor of Moral Leadership at Vanderbilt University but when they created serious play they were both professors at IMD in Switzerland. The conceptual foundation of serious play combines ideas from constructivism (Piaget 1951), its subsequent version constructionism (Harel and Papert 1991), complex adaptive system theory (Holland 1995) and autopoietic corporate epistemology (von Krogh and Roos 1994; 1995) applied to the context of management and organizations.

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Next Serious Play training session is booked

February 9, 2010 in News and Events

The next facilitator training session in March 2010 in Enfield, Conneticut, USA is already fully booked. Stay tuned for information on upcoming events on our website.

Why Serious Play?

January 28, 2010 in About Serious Play

According to information on seriousplay.com website LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ methodology provides the following outcomes …

A Tool for Building Results

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ is a radical, innovative, experiential process designed to enhance business performance. It is based on the belief that everyone can contribute to the discussion, the decisions and the outcome.

The use of LEGO bricks simply enables you to take a speedy shortcut to the core. The bricks work as a catalyst – and when used for building metaphors, they trigger processes that you were previously unaware of.

Participants come away with skills to communicate more effectively, to engage their imaginations more readily, and to approach their work with increased confidence, commitment and insight.

Fast-Track to the Real Issues and Make More, Better and Faster Decisions

With LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ you will inevitably surface indiscussables and save time through deep dialogue about your complex issues so you can make more, better and faster decisions. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ levels the playing field, engaging 100% attention and participation.

“I’m convinced we covered more in that day than would have been possible in a week of workshops facilitated by more traditional means, and by less able facilitators [Big Blue Stuff]”
- J. Johns, Government Industry Group,

Leverage Your Organization’s Expertise

Fully harvest the insight, ideas and imagination available in your organization. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ taps into the human ability to imagine - to describe and make sense of the business at hand, to initiate change and improvement, and even to create something radicially new.

“The LEGO SERIOUS PLAY experience inspires the imagination and creativity that we all possess but sometimes we unknowingly keep too deep beneath the surface.”
- Lance Saunders, Sr. Vice President, Leo Burnett, Canada

Reach Confidence and Commitment to Shared Goals

Building landscape models with LEGO bricks, giving them meaning through storymaking, and playing-out various possible scenarios, deepens understanding, sharpens insight, and socially “bonds” together the group who “plays” together. Participants come away with increased confidence and more committed to the shared and common goals.

“We used LSP in a complex merger between several units. The process and the 3D models helped us to develop a shared understanding of our future business reducing uncertainty and making it possible to accelerate the merger process”
- Laust Joen Jakobsen, Director, CVU Greater Copenhagen

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Next Serious Play training event

January 26, 2010 in News and Events

According to SERIOUSPLAY.com website the next Facilitator Training will take place during March 8-11, 2010 in Enfield, Connecticut, USA. If you want to register then send your request to seriousplay@lego.com

SeriousPlayPro.com website is up

January 24, 2010 in Generic Discussion

During our LEGO SERIOUS PLAY training sessions at Billund with Per Kristiansen and Jacquie Lloyd Smith our group came to conclusion that it would be of utmost importance that we set up an impartial community website that connects certified SERIOUS PLAY facilitators.
After some initial exchanges of information the core of the website - SERIOUSPLAYpro.COM has been set up. Welcome!

SeriousPlayPro.com Logo

SeriousPlayPro.com Logo

It is obviously still at beta testing mode so if you identify any links that do not work or propose some new functions then do not hesitate to contact us.