“We’ve tried brainstorming.”
It’s something I hear time and time again.
A leadership team has spent hours in a boardroom discussing strategy, a project team can’t agree on priorities, or a business is trying to solve a problem that seems to go round in circles. Everyone leaves the meeting feeling like they’ve talked a lot, but very little has actually been achieved.
So why does this happen?
The Problem with Traditional Meetings
Most meetings rely on the same basic process:
- One person asks a question.
- The most confident people speak first.
- Others agree (or quietly disagree).
- A decision is made.
- The meeting ends.
On paper, that sounds reasonable.
In reality, it often leads to:
- Groupthink.
- Dominant personalities controlling the conversation.
- Introverted team members remaining silent.
- Assumptions going unchallenged.
- Decisions based on opinion rather than shared understanding.
The result is usually the same: people leave aligned on paper, but not in reality.
Thinking with Your Hands
LEGO® Serious Play® takes a completely different approach.
Instead of asking people to explain complex ideas verbally, participants build physical models that represent their thinking.
That simple shift changes everything.
When someone builds a model, they’re forced to organise their thoughts in a way that words alone often can’t achieve. More importantly, everyone around the table can literally see the idea.
The conversation moves from debating opinions to exploring models, metaphors and possibilities.
It becomes far less personal and far more collaborative.
Every Voice Matters
One of the most powerful aspects of LEGO® Serious Play® is that everyone participates.
Traditional meetings often follow the 80/20 rule – around 20% of participants contribute the majority of the conversation.
LEGO® Serious Play® turns that on its head.
Everyone builds.
Everyone explains.
Everyone contributes.
That means quieter team members often share insights that would never have emerged during a conventional meeting.
Building Shared Understanding
Many business problems aren’t caused by a lack of intelligence.
They’re caused by people having different mental models of the same problem.
Ask five managers to describe the biggest challenge facing their organisation and you’ll often hear five different answers.
By building those perspectives physically, differences become visible.
That shared understanding is often the breakthrough that organisations have been searching for.
It’s Not About the Bricks
When people first hear about LEGO® Serious Play®, there’s often a smile.
“You’re going to solve business problems with LEGO?”
It’s a fair question.
The bricks aren’t the solution.
They’re simply the language.
Just as whiteboards help people sketch ideas and flipcharts help teams organise thoughts, the bricks provide a powerful medium for thinking, communicating and exploring complex problems.
Once people experience it, the scepticism usually disappears within minutes.
Where It Works
LEGO® Serious Play® has been used across organisations of every size to support:
- Strategic planning
- Leadership development
- Team building
- Organisational change
- Innovation workshops
- Problem solving
- Vision and values sessions
- Project kick-offs
The methodology adapts to the challenge, rather than forcing every challenge into the same workshop format.
Final Thoughts
The biggest business breakthroughs rarely come from someone talking for an hour in front of a PowerPoint presentation.
They come from teams thinking together, challenging assumptions and building a genuine shared understanding.
Sometimes, all it takes is giving people a different way to think.
At Brickwyse, we use the internationally recognised LEGO® Serious Play® methodology to help organisations think differently, collaborate more effectively and solve complex business challenges.
Think. Build. Transform.