Serious Play Forum

[Arjan Passenier MSc]

Hi all,

I am currently working as a business integration manager for a company that has bought two smaller companies… now they asked me (because they know I am a LSP facilitator as well) to design a way of getting to know each other. I am a bit reluctant about this, because I won’t have any control over the way it will be used once introduced.

The idea at this moment is to give everyone a exploration bag and build their own work environment… and maybe a little bit of them self in it. With this build they have to introduce their self to a colleague.

I am really in doubt if this is a good way of using LEGO… does anyone have a better idea?

Thanks in advance,
Arjan Passenier MSc

[Alison Cook (nee Rex)]

Hi Arjan

I have used LSP with a group of regional directors/managers, each in satellite locations, with different priorities, departments etc. LSP worked very well for them to explain about roles, issues, priorities, how they felt. The outcome was very successful – resulting in a great deal of deeper understanding and respect. I often use an imaginary nightmare or Fantastic organisation for getting participants to talk about their ideals and dislikes/issues, so as to disassociate from the current situation.

After their ‘about me’ build, you could focus on future values and behaviours for the group, how they want to work together in the future, this works well for helping people to integrate.

Regards
Alison

[Arjan Passenier MSc]

Hi Alison,

Thanks for you reply… could you tell me how you kept control of the process? How did you manage to let the participants share their story? I am very curious about your approach… at first sight this would be great to use here.

Regards,
Arjan

[Alison Cook (nee Rex)]

In simple terms: Tell about yourself. tell about a nightmare organisation; so understanding what they didn’t want to happen in their future organisation. Tell about your organisation of the future (values and behaviours). Build the shared model, which resulted in their set of guiding principles i.e. how they will work and behave together in the future.

Hope this helps.
Alison

[Yannick Le Morvan]

Alison hi,

Thank you for sharing your thought.
I’m going to have 25 peoples directors or managers, from production, sales, products management from all around the world.
I have been given 90 min split in 3 times, I dislike the idea but I need to kick off and need to give an awareness to the board of Directors & Managers so, then I can run as needed with their team.

– Did you give any warm up/intro exercise(s) before or jump straight in?
– Any guidance’s on time frame from your side?
Rgds, Yannick

[Ed Chester]

Yannick – if this is a multicultural group from “around the world” that don’t already know each other, then I wouldn’t consider using LSP in such a short time as 30 minutes. I believe it will be inevitably shallow, and potentially embarrassing, and undermine the value of the great work you could do if you were given adequate time.
However, if you have a group that has met and worked together before but never met LSP, then you can do something quite surprising in a short time which opens up questions about other ways they can use alternative communication and decision processes.
For short time, with small group, _if_ they have met each other OR there are not concerns about culture, language, spoken communication, then would use the ‘Explain This’ exercise but in an intense way: limited time, multiple “laps”, and on the final lap – also limited words to share the story: i.e. cut to the shortest, most accurate meaning they can without losing content.
In short – beware of doing things that undermine or undervalue you yourself, or LSP as a suite of methods.
Good luck!

[Yannick Le Morvan]

Ed hi,

Thanks for your prompt feedback here. In fact they know each others and worked with each others. All are fluent in English. I have been tasked by the General Manager to give kind of LSP Awareness to gain Directors buy in & approbation, to work with their team’s, who have different needs identified during the last 2 years.

Q > Which set of bricks will you consider for this activity ? window exploration kit or starter kit ?
Never used Window exploration kit so far !
Rgds, Y

[Ed Chester]

If it’s so short, even exploration kit isn’t needed for a round of Explain This, provided you can make a set of identical kits with a good mix of 6-8 parts each. If you don’t have those ready to go or are short of time to prepare them, then go with WEK.

[Yannick Le Morvan]

Thanks

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