Tuesday Slot 1Using LEGO® Serious Play® for Envisioning a Sustainable Future I
26 September 2017, by Tobias Wegener
When was the last time you played with Lego? If the answer is “not for a long time”, you probably missed this workshop! 25 adults had gathered to explore the possibilities of the somewhat unusual method that since 2010 has gained popularity in universities, companies and NGOs.
Some participants seemed sceptical at first, but were quickly won over by the smiles and the good atmosphere in the room. “You can’t be creative when you are in a bad mood”, encouraged Dr. Claudia Schmitt, Managing Director & Scientific Coordinator of the Center for a Sustainable University (University Hamburg) and initiator of the HSDS, “ Lego Serious Play® is a powerful tool to share mental models, and especially useful in diverse groups.”
Things get started …
The first task sounded rather easy: Build a duck out of 7 pieces in 5 minutes and then explain why it’s a duck. The goal of this little “introducktion”: Show how many different ideas and notions exist in our heads about what makes a duck a duck.
… and become more sophisticated!
Then, the tasks got more challenging: The participants had to build a model about what is the most important aspect of the university of the future to them and then explain their LEGO model to their peers. Finally, the groups tried to combine their aspects into one shared model. It was fascinating to see how every model was different, depending on the individual background, experiences and ideas of their builder - ranging from LEGO figurines holding hands (to symbolise future networking) to nets holding back people (to symbolise old-fashioned curriculums).
In the video feature we are using royalty free music from www.bensound.com.