Alan McShane

[Alan McShane]

Given they are from different companies…

Definition of the “Ideal Team Member” and then turn the stories into stories about specific behaviours. They can then reflect on how the measure / select / train talent like this …. depending on the profile of the attendees. Indeed they can reflect on whether they are personally the ideal or not

Second part individual and then shared model on the ideal collaborative environment / perfect team followed by reflection on what they are or are not doing to create teams like this in their organisations.

Alan.

[Alan McShane]

Hi Irene,

A worry shared is a worry halved ; )

Yes you are right. Bad execution has an impact on us all. That said, the accreditation does not guarantee good execution. As Rodrigo says, it comes from learning, sharing, failing, improving, experience etc.

Alan.

[Alan McShane]

Hi Irene,

As I understand it, anyone can use Lego bricks in their offerings as long as they do not infringe copyright or trademark rules or make it seem that they represent Lego in any shape or form and that applies to LSP offerings and non-LSP offerings. See here for guidelines on Trademark https://www.lego.com/en-us/seriousplay/trademark-guidelines

With regard to LSP itself, it is open-source and therefore available to be adapted and modified in its use by anyone. See the following post http://seriousplaypro.com/about/open-source/

Both accredited and non-accredited facilitators can offer LSP freely but once again the title they use for that offering needs to respect copyright / trademark rules and make it clear they do not represent Lego.

In other words the accreditation gives us the experience, the training and the support of the Master Trainer we trained with and all that comes with the training. However the title / accreditation is not issued by nor endorsed by Lego and as such it does not gives us exclusivity to the use of the method or it’s variants (regardless of how we label them).

That’s my tuppence worth …. but since it is an important point for many of us here, the community can feel free to correct me… That’s what we are all here for ; )

Alan.

[Alan McShane]

Hi Sofie,
A couple of suggestions:
1) Limit the number of bricks for the tower building. give them the bottom and the top and tell them to choose only ten more. This will focus the building and might help to focus the stories too.
2) Give specific instructions (for example “tells us what you have built and what it says about you”) and stick to that brief. There will be time for complicated stories later. Also as mentioned by Rodrigo, state upfront some time guidlines if needed. If they are known to all you can assertively / politelty police them
3) I assume that Step 2 for you is Copy a model. If so, I keep this really simple, getting them to copy a simple 6 or 7 brick model (I usually pre-assemble it in the middle of the table). That means that copying is fairly quick.
4) I assume that Step 3 is modify the previous model (metaphorical jump for those who haven’t gone there yet). I make this an easy jump but always adapt it to be content relevant (even if only starting to open the subject). For example if the subject later is Team Life … this could be modify to represent the ideal or worst team member … This gives us an opportunity to already start addressing some of the “meat” as skills finishes and bigger questions loom.

Hope this helps and feel free to reach out to me if needed.

Alan.

[Alan McShane]

Thanks for the comments and good to see you both have or have had similar thoughts and frustrations from time to time.

Balint – Your right that they prove us wrong regularly so they need to be there. Just comes down to observation and facilitation and reading if they are being “lazy as a dog” or not (had to get that one in)!

Eli – I fully agree that engagement and valid stories are the endgame.

And of course it’s not about wasting time by building a Cow from lot’s of small bricks. It’s about the step before that i.e. when I don’t give you a big Cow and you touch, see and find inspiration on the table using your hands and they lead you to something altogether different.

In the end it comes down to reading the group, the individuals and facilitation. Thanks for your inputs again.

Alan.

[Alan McShane]

Hi Patrizia,

Here`s a brief outline for a demo I have done a few times which works (at least for me):

1) One 2×1 red transparent
2) Two 1×4 any color but same as 3)
3) One 2×4 any color
4) One 2×3 curved any color

These make a nice alternative to the duck bricks (at least for me) and in simple terms the challenges start off with animals, then pushing for different types of animals and, moving onto a “joint animal” with two others near you and lastly a one brick challenge with the single red transparent brick where they give it meaning relative to an issue they have at hand. It briefly touches on the key elements of LSP and I pitch it that way but with “lighter material” and fewer bricks meaning it can be done with large groups in about 60 mins.

The part that surprised me most was the one brick challenge with some great metaphors straight off.

Regards,

Alan.

[Alan McShane]

To close this one out …. In the end – for all the reasons above – I avoided the change decision and the process already underway and instead looked at desired and undesired behavior when faced with difficult challenges and how this influences the team. I did dodge the “change” bullet of course but there were some very nice reflections in the end on how just being negative was not going to solve anything and we ended up in a “proactive” frame of mind …

Thanks to you all ..

[Alan McShane]

Many thanks to all for the comments and ideas. It is truly inspirational to get input from you all! This is one of the reasons I love LSP and the community!

Joyce, I will check out Change-Pro. I have a feeling it will not fit this client but I will look at this as a future toolbox option. Many thanks.

Per, Nice ideas and the idea of landscaping has me thinking. … I have landscaped “issues” on the the Circles of Control / Influence so that the group realise that many of the issues are indeed under their control or influence and not 100% external. …. you have me thinking …

Eli, World cafe might work … I was thinking of a poster session in groups to explore and share ideas as an alternative and World Cafe might work. Thank you!

Either way, as is the case so often, time is the first thing to address and I will start the battle there.

Regards, Alan.

[Alan McShane]

Many thanks to you all …. I think the fact that I put this out there is for all the reasons you have mentioned and I knew I was being asked to do a difficult job – sell change! It is an NGO where the democratic process has been bypassed and the change is off and running for the last 6 months. My gut feeling is to not use LSP because of its power to open up problems that will not be treated and possibly get the client to change their approach or focus for any such session. I will keep you posted!

[Alan McShane]

Thanks for this Omar! This is more food for thought and I like the approach a lot! Going to see what I can do with it.

Agile I have only touched on but the more I read and see, the more I like it.

Regards,

Alan.

[Author]

Posts