This objective of this ongoing series of workshops using Lego Serious Play and other design methods was to help the Auckland Council’s Community and Cultural Strategy Unit stay relevant in an organisation that has moved from a phase of strategic planning into a phase of action and getting things done.

That involved using Lego Serious Play to help the unit re-define their identity, purpose, and role in the new organisational landscape. The workshops were videoed captured using video and digital stills, and this video was edited and hosted on Vimeo to allow the client to review and distil the key out-takes from the workshops.

“Mark did an amazing job supporting my team with the challenging task of clearly defining and articulating our role and value to the organisation during a time of significant organisational change and a divisional redesign.

We had a couple of workshops based on the “Serious Lego” model where we actually built our identity. Sounds easy - try using your left and right side brain equally and simultaneously and with a facilitator that wouldn’t let you cut corners or be vague. This was just the right approach for my team of visual, tactile, opinionated people (in the absolutely positive sense).

What I also really liked about Mark was that he was completely flexible- adjusting the programme to suit the team and using other techniques - including good old Post Its - to achieve results. Sometimes “consultants’ have a formulae and that’s it, whether the team is responding to it or not.

What we ended with was clear direction on actions we need to take immediately and the basis of an action plan.”
— Raewyn Stone - Manager, Community & Cultural Strategy Unit - Auckland Council
Lego Serious Play can be cognitively challenging, and forces participants to think in quite different ways to what they might be used to. The reward, however, comes in the richness of the solutions it generates.

Lego Serious Play can be cognitively challenging, and forces participants to think in quite different ways to what they might be used to. The reward, however, comes in the richness of the solutions it generates.

Working with your left and your right hands together creates 'whole brain thinking', and this in turn guides the formation of new solutions that conventional problem solving methods often miss.

Working with your left and your right hands together creates 'whole brain thinking', and this in turn guides the formation of new solutions that conventional problem solving methods often miss.

The participants shown here are using a technique called 'brain-writing' to extend and capitalise on the insights from the Lego Serious Play session.

The participants shown here are using a technique called 'brain-writing' to extend and capitalise on the insights from the Lego Serious Play session.