LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a methodology with its origins in the 1990s, when the LEGO Group commissioned professors Johan Roos and Bart Victor at IMD business school in Switzerland to develop a new approach to strategic thinking. What they created drew on constructionist learning theory and decades of organisational research. Their research demonstrated that changing the medium, through the use of LEGO bricks, changes the mode by which we think and communicate. It has since been used to help thousands of teams across the world. Ayesha, Founder of Brick Thought, trained through Inthrface, the only LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® training provider in the world endorsed by Professor Johan S. Roos, co-inventor of the methodology.

Flow state: The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes 'flow' as the condition of absorbed, purposeful focus that emerges when a task is engaging but not overwhelming. Building with LEGO bricks creates those conditions and so creates a different mental state.

Metaphor: The method guides participants toward imaginative and metaphorical building rather than literal representation. The hand and mind work together to give visual shape to meaning, including to things like emotions and relationships that are difficult to express directly.

Constructionism: The methodology is grounded in constructionism, developed by Seymour Papert at MIT. The argument is that we think most deeply when we are building something tangible. The act of building allows complex thinking to become concrete.

Inclusivity: Everyone builds individually before anything is shared, meaning everyone has time to think alone. When sharing, each person talks through their model, assigning their meaning. No one else can change it. Group dynamics, power imbalance and habits have less influence than usual.

Contact: Email me at [email protected] with a little information about your challenge.

Exploratory call: I won't do a hard sell, just a conversation about what your team is working on and whether Brick Thought can help you.

Recommendation: After the call, you'll get a recommendation and quote from me on how Brick Thought can help you. If I don't think I can help, I will say that plainly too.

Post-booking: We prepare through a couple of conversations so that I can design the 'build prompts' to suit your specific challenge. I then travel to the location of your choice to deliver the session. Post session debrief varies in approach depending on the team.

Pre-session preparation: I create 'build prompts' specific to your challenge through conversation with you. They are designed to allow your team to genuinely reflect.

On the day: I set the scene, make sure everyone understands how the process works, and then facilitate open-endedly. My role is to hold the process and create the conditions for your team to explore the challenge. I don't provide advice or solutions on the challenge itself.

Post-session: What happens after a session varies by client and is agreed in advance. It might include a debrief in various forms, photographs and video of the builds, or planning of follow up sessions.

• The methodology works best in groups of 3 to 8 people, larger groups can sometimes be accommodated.
• All materials are provided.
• You need a meeting room with table space to build from.
• I cover the whole UK, any travel and accommodation costs required would be clearly shown in your quote.

A Brick Thought session is not a team building activity. Teams do enjoy themselves, but that is a side effect rather than the point. Sessions are better compared to strategic planning workshops. They are built to address a business challenge. The LEGO bricks are simply the medium by which the conversation changes.

The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology has been used by leadership teams across the world for over two decades, across sectors and at every scale of organisation. The range of challenges it has been applied to is broad.

For Brick Thought specifically, clients might be:

• Strategy work at any stage: starting from scratch, refreshing something outdated, or finalising one that has stalled.
• Revisiting what the business stands for after a period of significant growth.
• Understanding collective skills, roles and objectives after a merger, acquisition, or restructure.
• Agreeing the approach before a funding round or investor conversation.

• When the decision has already been made and there is no room for change.
• If team dynamics have broken down too significantly to allow for safe and honest contribution.
• Teams that cannot come together physically. Brick Thought does not offer virtual sessions.

If I don't feel a Brick Thought session will work for you, that will be said plainly after the exploratory call.