Thinking outside the blocks

Lego is much more than a toy. The plastic blocks can help you to explore your creativity and learn to think in new ways.

Read the following story by Kanin Srimaneekulroj from the Bangkok Post to learn more about the benefits of playing with Lego bricks.

Companies are learning how to unlock their employees’ potential through the use of the iconic children’s toy, Lego.

A SERIOUS BUSINESS

Narudee Kristhanin (Poom), director of inspiration and managing partner at Eureka International, has a lot of experience working in human development.

Her latest project under the Eureka International consultant network, the Lego Serious Play development workshop, isn’t what you might expect. The Serious Play method uses Lego bricks to encourage participants to think in abstract and metaphorical ways. It is designed for use in individual, team and corporate strategy development. The ideas is to get people to think more creatively in order to achieve growth, both personally and as a team.

“The method allows us to build a metaphorical model of how we see ourselves and share it with others. We get to examine our own ideas in a way that we can see clearly — like we are presenting our own identity to ourselves. Sharing our creations also helps us to understand more about how we see ourselves and how others see us. Hopefully, it allows us to relate to each other better,” she said.

WIDER PERSPECTIVES

Narudee’s personal development workshop was recently held in Bangkok in collaboration with the Iconic Women Alliance (IWA) as part of their “New Year, New You” campaign.

Attendees were each given an identical set of Lego bricks and asked to build or modify a series of models. They could choose colours, shapes or figures to represent various aspects of their lives in whatever way they wanted. They then took turns explaining their models to the other attendees.

BUILDING TOGETHER

Developed by Lego over the last 15 years, the Serious Play method has been used in the development of businesses all over the world.

“The people at Lego realised that the blocks themselves were the answer. If they can unlock the imagination of children, why can’t they have the same effect on adults? Why can’t Lego be used to unlock an adult’s potential too?” Narudee said.

The Lego Serious Play model can be used by those who are interested in self-development and can also function as a business strategy development method.

“Most of my clients tend to be corporations. They’re concerned about the unity of ideas between individuals within the organisation or the formation of actionable strategies,” Narudee explained.