Building a Better Business Using the Lego Serious Play Method 1st Edition

Building a Better Business Using the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Method is a fascinating account that details the evolution of an intervention intended to help a mega-sized toy maker unlock human potential within its own organization. Performance improvement and strategic planning professionals will appreciate the authors’ keen attention to insights gained and full disclosure of lessons learned.Authors Per Kristiansen and Robert Rasmussen were instrumental in developing the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) method when it began as a research idea inside the LEGO corporation in 1996, managed it when it was owned by the independent company Executive Discovery as well as when it returned to The LEGO Group as a business unit.Kristiansen and Rasmussen also developed and delivered the first facilitator training programs for the LSP method which has been used as a thinking, communication, and problem solving technique for a variety of organization types since 2001. Since that time, the technique has been used globally by governments and municipalities, service organizations, financial institutions, start-ups, the manufacturing industry, and many others. Kristiansen and Rasmussen continue to train and certify facilitators in LSP around the world today.At its core, LSP is a facilitated process in which participants use LEGO bricks to build and ascribe meaning to three-dimensional models. This method is based in part on learning theories (namely constructivism and constructionism) which suggests that a hands-on experience produces a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the world and its possibilities. This results in participants being able to communicate more effectively, engage their imaginations more readily, and to approach their work with increased confidence, commitment and insight.With accounts that span from LEGO company headquarters in Denmark to the Imagination Lab in Lausanne, Switzerland where researchers Bart Victor and Johan Roos first piloted and documented the LSP process, to Rasmussen’s farmhouse in Connecticut where much research and education took place, the successes and trials of LSP are laid bare for examination and reflection and most of all, learning.In addition to 18 different case studies and other examples of practical applications, Kristiansen and Rasmussen also tackle some of the most common misconceptions about LSP and make clear that despite its widespread applications, LEGO does not attribute its successful financial turn-around in the mid-2000’s to LSP.Building a Better Business Using the LEGO® Serious Play® Method is not a how-to book. Rather, it provides clear, well organized information about the key concepts and applications of LSP and the scientific principles upon which it is based. For example, one chapter details specific neuroscience concepts and describes how LSP activates attention density, encourages semantic processing, and supports long-term memory recall.This is a remarkable business history book. LEGO SERIOUS PLAY was not conceptualized by product strategists or developed by LEGO to reach a new market segment; it was merely an idea for internal use. Only when the company saw its potential did it evolve and begin to transform. Today, LSP is an open-source process used by a diverse group of trained and certified facilitators all over the world on several continents. Its universal applications are used effectively in many different cultures and languages.

In thi sbook kristensen and his co author discuss the theoretical background behind lego serious play and the power which is the method to change organization by communicating on a different level.. This is not a practical book, for that the are other books like serious work.

I got this book because I've seen the LEGO Serious Play method that the author describes in this book, and I am a believer. It's a wonderful and engaging process.What this book does is explain exactly WHY it is a wonderful and engaging process. Be advised that reading this book will not necessarily prepare you to deliver the Serious Play methodology. Rather, it will lead you deep into a discussion around how adult learners construct knowledge and generate insight. In that way it is an important addition to my library of Organizational Learning Resources.The book is full of helpful, digestible nuggets of knowledge. For example, Kristiansen describes the "four elements of keeping attention focused" for adult learners, and I found it enormously informing in my work as a designer of learning experiences. Similarly, he clarifies the the factors that must be present for group intelligence to emerge (which include "group sensitivity" and "turn taking.") Again, these I find these simple frameworks valuable in offering a language to clarify experience so that I can be more purposeful in how I create organizational interventions.I got the book because I love the LEGO SeriousPlay methodology, but was surprised to find such a cogent, accessible summary of the literature around organizational learning. The presentation is clear and direct; rendering your system visually with LEGO is fun and engaging; and the possibility for organizational transformation is compelling. What's not to love about that?

Delivered on time and in excellent condition!

I had the opportunity to Certify as a Lego® Serious Play® facilitator with Per, and had the opportunity to involve in the Process, the Methodology, and the results, and the book it's a great way to get in to the Method, and also if you already certified, a great help to complement the arguments to work with this great methodology.A really good tool...

Great primer, but I was hoping for lots more practical details.Good theory, background, science, history...Still feels like Lego Serious Play is proprietary the way information on the ground about actually doing it is so scarce. Was hoping this book was an exception, but like most resources I have found on the topic, it points people to get a training class (those are about $3500).

This is an excellent book for all LSP facilitators but even more for any business owner/manager that is looking for new ways to make decisions as a group.

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