Increase Creativity With LSP

The creative power of the third dimension

Creative techniques can help to stimulate group work and promote innovative thinking. The “LEGO® Serious Play®” method (LSP for short) works with three-dimensional models made of LEGO bricks. Sam (Yiheng Cen), innovation consultant at TOM SPIKE, spoke with Christoph Beck, editor-in-chief of the corporate magazine “methodik” from HelfRecht AG. The original length of the interview on the topic of creativity was shortened for the purpose of the blog post.

Children have been building their world with LEGO bricks for decades. They creatively combine the colorful building blocks to create a wide variety of scenarios: The red brick becomes a bus, the green brick a forest, the blue brick a sea, the group of three small and two larger bricks a family. There are no limits to the imagination.

LEGO has also found its way into many a company. Project teams and workshop participants use the building blocks to tackle business challenges in a completely different way: Three-dimensional models are used to vividly and visually present the respective topic. LEGO® Serious Play®, or LSP for short, is the name of this technique. It helps to look at problems and tasks from a different perspective, to create a shared understanding and to discover new approaches and solutions in this way.

Yiheng Cen is a certified facilitator for the LEGO® Serious Play® method and materials. In an interview with “methodik”, the innovation consultant explains how this method works and what it achieves.

Mr. Cen, LEGO is generally regarded as a children’s toy. In the business sector, people tend to expect professional digital tools to support innovation processes, for example. Why does it make sense to work with the colorful bricks in a workshop?

Even if it looks like LEGO games at first glance: LEGO® Serious Play® is a professional tool that has been tried and tested in innovation management for years. The “serious” makes the difference. In other words, the “serious” use of the building blocks according to a special methodical approach. This adds a third dimension to group work. This opens up an additional creative window, promotes interaction within the team and therefore produces better results than the classic process.

What do you miss about traditional group or workshop work?

The team is too often not really involved. The boss or project manager presents their topic with lots of charts and lots of words. The monologue leads to the group switching off, not really understanding the problem and approaching the project work with diminished motivation. You cannot expect a good solution on this basis.

And why should a workshop with LEGO® Serious Play® be any different? What makes the difference?

The difference is working on a three-dimensional model. Classic planning is usually two-dimensional: A problem or a vision is presented on paper, screen or whiteboard with writing, sketches and graphics. The whole thing is explained verbally and then discussed. However, if I present the topic in a three-dimensional model made of LEGO bricks, I make it more vivid, more visual, more tangible – and therefore more comprehensible in the sense of the word. The new perspective helps you to think in a new way. To a holistic view of the topic. And to an exchange of ideas within the group. On this basis, completely different solutions can then be developed and defined.

In which situations is it advisable to use LSP?

The seemingly playful approach makes LSP an excellent icebreaker at the start of a workshop or planning meeting. Visualizing a topic with LEGO bricks and then talking about it very quickly leads to lively interaction and a relaxed, open atmosphere. I always recommend LSP when the aim is to stimulate creativity in a team. The method also has a particular added value in that, for example, the causes and effects of a problem are clarified in a mutual exchange, thus creating the necessary shared understanding of the topic in question. What also makes the tool so versatile is that it can be combined with any current innovation method, whether agile project management, design thinking, business model canvas, scrum or others.

What topics can be dealt with using this method?

Basically, you can use LSP for any topic or problem – whether it’s developing new product or business ideas, optimizing internal processes, eliminating quality defects, intensifying customer contacts, strengthening cooperation and team spirit, stopping the decline in sales or fundamentally realigning the company strategically. In other words, whenever you want to generate as many ideas as possible for good solutions and innovative concepts as a team.

For which project phase is LSP particularly suitable?

The method is particularly suitable for looking at and analyzing a problem holistically in order to arrive at a really good solution. The three-dimensional models are particularly well suited to visualizing a problem and communicating it in a way that is comprehensible to everyone involved. Once the problem has been discussed and clearly defined, many ideas automatically emerge as to how it can be solved. These can then be processed into a target image.

What is the secret of LSP’s success compared to traditional project methods?

Essentially, there are four points. Firstly, the principle of extreme simplification in a model: the result is a kind of metaphor that gets to the heart of the problem or topic. Secondly, the hand-brain connection: The three-dimensional model you can touch supports the generation of ideas. Thirdly, the personal interpretation: each project participant explains their model to the others and why they have implemented the common topic in this particular way. And that’s the fourth point – the involvement of everyone, the swarm intelligence, so to speak: everyone has their say, is involved, actively contributes. This is something that is often lacking in standard project work.

Let’s say I want to try this out with my team: Can I just bring a bag of bricks from the children’s room?

LEGO does offer special LSP sets that contain additional elements that can be used to symbolize network relationships and their effects, for example. However, a selection of normal bricks will do for testing purposes.

There are certified LSP facilitators like you who can guide a workshop group through the creative process. If I want to start with my team without a facilitator: How do I proceed sensibly? What should I pay attention to?

The first thing you should do is introduce your team members to visual thinking in metaphors. Start with a small warm-up exercise: take any LEGO brick and let the participants collect what it could symbolize for them. A square white brick with four studs might be a polar bear for some, an innovative smartphone with four cameras for others, a pile of paper regulations, the new warehouse or something else. The group usually comes up with numerous creative interpretations very quickly.

What happens next?

Present your team with the challenge that is to be addressed in the workshop. Each team member is then given the task of presenting this challenge in an individual model. Without specifications or restrictions. It is not about realistically reproducing the topic, but rather interpreting it personally and packaging a story in a visual way. Ten minutes should be enough for this. Everyone now explains what they want to express with their construction. The others can ask what exactly is meant by these figures, these colors, this design. Each model can and should be discussed briefly. The decisive factor is that the meaning behind it is correctly understood by everyone.

What effect does this approach have on the group?

Through this process, everyone involved experiences the topic from very different perspectives and with different emphases. This gives rise to new thoughts, new questions and a new understanding. The discussion about the models and the stories and interpretations packed into them reinforce this further. And above all, this approach ensures that everyone is actively involved.

How long should the whole thing take?

You should allow around two hours for this first phase. Then take a break before moving on to the second stage, the team model: the group presents the challenge in a joint model. There are two options for this: Either all the individual models are put together. Or a new joint model is created in which important elements from the individual constructions are used. The second option has the advantage that the group discusses the challenge intensively once again. You should also allow around two hours for this phase.

So what does the team model stand for?

It is the common understanding of the challenge in a three-dimensional representation. The problem is thus worked out clearly and plausibly for all participants. On this basis, ideas for solutions can then be specifically compiled in the group.

TOM SPIKE boosts creativity in companies

Weak ideas, a lack of ideas and frustration when brainstorming is a common challenge in companies. TOM SPIKE helps companies to develop the right and best ideas. Depending on the objective, LEGO® Serious Play®” (LSP), a Design Thinking Workshop, TRIZ in thePatent Booster Workshop or other tools, methods and moderation techniques can help. For TOM SPIKE, the aim is always to ensure that the ideas are implemented at the end of the process, not just to increase the diversity and craziness of the ideas. Because it is the success at the end that makes the innovation an innovation. Otherwise, unfortunately, it was just a fixed idea.