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LEGO Serious Play facilitation training: mission accomplished.

On May 8 I joined Juego Serio, Sparkling Strategies and Cocoon Projects in Barcelona to attend a LEGO Serious Play (LSP) Facilitation training. I had been waiting that moment a lot.

I met the method in 2013 when I had the chance to help my friend Stelio facilitating some LSP- based workshops designed by him. With those few kickstarting experiences the power of LSP had just shown a part of its potential, but definitely enough for making me eager to know more about it. I had been facilitating meetings and workshops for 10 years at the time and this looked like the most powerful facilitation method ever met.

Release early, release often. #wip #wiplimit #sagradafamilia #barcelona #españa #trip

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A versatile technique

LSP is a great envisioning method and I loved the way the facilitation training was held: we mainly ran LSP sessions with Lucio Margulis, one of the few LSP facilitation trainers in the world. He gave us a strong theorical background while using LEGO Serious Play to outline all the main LSP facilitation concerns and showing us both usual facilitation patterns and his own skill in action. He proved to be able to ask very powerful questions. It was amazing to stare in silence at how deep the analysis of an apparently easy subject could become. I saw people talking of their aspirations, their assumptions about the context we were working in, their tentative solutions and I even saw people break out in tears.

Squeezing value out of people

The best feature of LEGO Serious Play by the way is not just using LEGO on job – which is actually the very reason why most of the people are curious about it at first. The best of LSP is gracefully forcing each person attending a meeting to formulate, express and share her thoughts on the meeting’s subject. All of her thoughts about the subject. Even the least fair, the most uncomfortable ones.

Have you ever been in a meeting? Sure.
Have you ever seen a meeting in which 2 people out of ten talk all the time? Sure.
Have you ever seen a meeting in which, while 2 people don’t stop talking, other 4 just nod (?) and 4 chat on their smartphones? Sure.
LSP puts an end to this.

What does that mean for an enterprise? For a team? For a non-profit org? For a board?

Mainly two things:

  1. Serendipity is a powerful mode which to let happen things by. Exploring the deep thoughts about a strategical issue in each single head is going to surprise you. Moreover, those surprises will be very focused on the whole team goal.
  2. Making everyone’s ideas about a topic is an investment in clarity. No one will be honestly in condition to say ‘I didn’t understand we were about to do this’ or ‘I did not agree. This was your decision, not mine’. No one anymore. The range of alibis in use in a team using LEGO Serious Play is mercilessly destined to narrow down to zero.

I am already using LSP in my workshops and coaching sessions. I just started to walk along my path to LSP mastery. Will I meet you along the road?

I grandi consulenti secondo @meedabyte: squali, morti e sciacalli. #epicwin #LSP #barcelona #españa @LSPMed

A photo posted by Jacopo Romei (@jacoporomei) on