LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is a tool or a method for a reflections and

communication process to be used with groups of people.

It is about expressing your self and listening to the others.

It is about using the LEGO bricks to build models that you can use for
telling about your thoughts, feelings, ideas and ways of experiencing
things that happen.
The models are supposed to be representations, symbols or metaphors
for the things you would like to express.

The tool/method uses LEGO bricks and it contains a set of rules:

Rule #1: “The Process Rule”:

The LSP process structure should be followed at all times during the
process.
The process structure is:
1. The Building Challenge Question is framed.
2. Everyone present and participating builds according to the Building
Challenge Question.
3. When the building time has run out, the participants take turns in
telling about their LEGO construction/ model being a response to
the Building Challenge Question.

Rule #2: “The Building Rule”:

All Building Challenge Questions will ask for some kind of construction
with the LEGO bricks. All participants always build a model according to
the same Building Challenge Question. The participants always start with
an individual construction.
When the Building Challenge Question is asked the participants should
start building right away.
The participants should not plan on beforehand what they want to build.
The participants should not be talking with each other during the building
time.

Possible Building Challenge Questions:

- Build a tower (and tell about it afterwards)
- Build a bridge (and tell about it afterwards)

Rule #3: ”The Metaphor Rule”:

The most important in LSP is the meaning of the model – not the looks of
it! If you say that what you’ve built is supposed to be an elephant, then the
other participants can imagine that it is an elephant even though it does
not look like one.
So, this is not about building models of concrete things from the concrete
world around us – LSP is about every participant building something that
s/he can use for telling about her/his thoughts, ideas, feelings and
experiences, related to the Building Challenge Question that has been
posed.
LSP is about building something that you can use as a metaphor or a
symbolic representation for telling about one’s thoughts, ideas,
experiences, etc.

Possible Building Challenge Questions

- Build an imaginary animal. – Tell about it (shortly)
- Rebuild your imaginary animal in order to use it to tell the others about
what a good friend is and means to you.
- Tell about what your model expresses about what a good friend is and
means to you.

Rule #4: ”The Story Making Rule”:

The response or answer to the Building Challenge Question is always the
participant’s story told through the LEGO bricks.
Everybody tells their story every time.

The purpose of this rule is to get the focus on the story making and not on
the making of the specific models!

Possible Building Challenge Questions

- Build a model which you can use to tell about the best school day you
have had during the last 2 weeks.
- Tell about your model.

Rule #5: “The Respect rule”:

All participants must build; all participants must share and tell the meaning
and story of their own model; all participants must be listened to!
Questions to the participants may only be asked about the models!
A model can never be ‘wrong’. What counts is the participant’s own
meaning that s/he has assigned to the LEGO bricks and to the
construction.
The participants can’t and mustn’t apply meaning or interpretation to each
other’s models/ constructions.

Keep this in mind when using LSP!