'Team building’ – not exactly
a phrase that inspires real enthusiasm or genuine
excitement out of anyone who’s
been around the office worker
block. Most of us have done one too
many trust falls to be hoodwinked
that easily, even if it does mean an
afternoon off the job.
But it doesn’t have to be that
way, and Constructive.xyz are
aiming to breathe fresh life into the
experience – with LEGO blocks.
Using the ‘open source’ LEGO
SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) methodology,
co-founders and facilitators at
Constructive.xyz Oliver Clark and
Oliver Knapman run customised
workshops for teams,
with themes ranging
from ‘identity and
culture’ to ‘real
time strategy’.
‘Uncovering
untapped
potential in
individuals
and teams is
our currency
and we can use
that to help them identify problems, find solutions
and prepare themselves for the
future,’ Clark says. ‘Shanghai,
with its cross-cultural teams, its
diverse, fast-paced economy and
its sheer size, always stood out to
us as having vast reserves of that
untapped potential.’
Thrilled at the news
of the
Legoland Discovery
Centre arriving in
Shanghai and, quite
honestly, heartbroken
at the realisation
that it was a kids-only
affair, we jumped at
the chance of a LEGO-centred workshop. (We’re totally
competent adults with real
jobs. Promise.)
To begin, we get a
quick presentation
of the philosophy
and organisational
psychology behind
LSP. The methodology
comes largely from
the thoughts of three
men: developmental
psychologist Jean Piaget, mathematician
Seymour Papert
and neurosurgeon
Wilder Penfield.
Piaget brings a
Constructivist approach,
which posits that humans
produce knowledge and form meaning based on
their experiences;
Papert adds in the
Constructionist
angle that learning
happens when we are
active in the creation
of tangible objects;
and Penfield’s work
contributes the idea
of ‘hand knowledge’, that people have developed to
live in a 3D world, with our mind
mirroring this.
Intertwining these
three theories, the LSP workshop
model is highly hands-on and
focuses squarely on the experience
of creating something physical. It’s
meant to provoke and disrupt – in a
constructive way.
‘The most memorable moments
for me are when someone who doesn't ordinarily get their voice heard, perhaps a very junior
member of the team, produces an
idea that takes the most senior
or experienced participants by
surprise,’ says Knapman. ‘You can
see all of the ingrained hierarchies
and restrictions dissolve in a
really satisfying way and when that
happens you get unexpected results
and insights. There’s always much
more depth to people than you think,
and sometimes you’ve been sharing
a desk with them for years.’
The workshop is based on a
series of ‘challenges’ proposed
by the facilitators, our spur-of-the-moment LEGO ‘answers’ and our
possibly-embarrassingly-earnest
explanations of their meaning. The
challenges begin straightforward
and literal (‘build a tower in two
minutes’) but quickly transition into
the realm of metaphor (‘illustrate
a bad boss’, ‘show your role on the
team’). Even with only ten people,
it’s amazing all the different ways a
tower can look, not to mention
the more conceptual models.
Three hours fly by, and
it’s easy to understand
how programmes
start from a half-day
minimum but can stretch
to two days or more.
As the minutes pass,
everyone relaxes into
‘playing with purpose’
and tiny revelations start
happening. Knapman is
right; it’s enlightening
to hear from
interns who are
industrious but
often quiet, or
to hear your
boss attempt
to describe the
LEGO metaphor
depicting the rock
and the hard place
he frequently finds
himself between.
In the few minutes I have before
I have to explain my second
LEGO structure, there’s much
soul-searching as to what in my
subconscious could have thought
the all-black-and-gold hovercraft
commanded by a skeleton with
a wise owl perched atop its head
was a reasonable answer. I’m not
entirely sure that I’m dissolving any
hierarchies with this one, but I can
see the potential.
Constructive.xyz runs LEGO
SERIOUS PLAY workshops begin at around 500RMB per head depending on group size and can run from three hours to two days. See constructive.xyz or email
info@constructive.xyz for details.