Rita Oliveira Pelica explains the power of Lego® Serious Play®

Rita Oliveira Pelica is the Chief Energy Officer & Founder of ONYOU. At Social Now 2019, she will invite participants to devise the contours of a smarter and stronger organisation with Lego® Serious Play®.

I asked her about the benefits of this methodology and what participants of Social Now should expect from this session.

Me: At Social Now 2019, we will be using LEGO blocks to represent the current challenges of Cablinc, the fictitious company created for the conference, and then to prototype a better way of working. What is the benefit of using LEGO blocks for that?

Rita Oliveira Pelica

Rita: The Lego® Serious Play® (LSP) methodology gives each person the opportunity to “build knowledge”, turning ideas into prototypes. The LEGO blocks will be turned into models that have a meaning – they’ll become stories!

With LSP, each person will share insights, perspectives and points of view on a first round. After that, participants will be given a challenge: to build a common story, co-creating a shared model as a team. This means that everybody contributes to the final result. Participants are engaged and empowered.

Having cognitive diversity, the final prototype will be richer because it embodies the collective intelligence of the group.

Communication and collaboration will bring better decisions and better outputs – a prototype built together increases the added value of the model (story) and people’s commitment.

Me: What can LEGO blocks offer over words?

Rita: Sometimes it’s hard to put into words our ideas, our imagination! When you build, you are creating knowledge and can go deeper in your approach (at an unconscious level) – that’s what Piaget called the constructionist learning. We construct mental models to understand the world. When we apply (put in practice) our imagination, we are creative. When we play, we are flowing (named by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi) and we can perform, fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus and enjoyment. That’s the Aha moment!

As a result, when we play, we are happier and more productive. That’s the LEGO power, using the colours, the formats and the 3D perspective of the blocks. We bring “life” into the sessions.

Me: What can participants expect from a session like this?

Participants can expect a “hands-on” learning experience based on playfulness. They will the main actors, building the session in “real time”; co-producing the contents of this story. They will experience a new way of thinking – handstorming -, find out their creativity skills, and improve critical thinking. All this, while being part of a collaborative and participative process and exploring a new leadership mindset. It will be #hardfun!