3 Dimensions

Here are two views of the same reality.

Model the third. Imagine how long it would
take to visualize a third view in your head?

Most people have great difficulty manipulat-

ing multi-dimensional information in their heads
- yet most complex decision-making is multi-
dimensional. 3-D modeling can be an effective
alternative.

Imaginopedia for Skills Building

www.SERIOUSPLAY.com

LEGO, the LEGO logo, the Knob and the Brick configurations
and SERIOUS PLAY are trademarks of the LEGO Group.
©2007 The LEGO Group. 4527560
 A valuable tool

Play with a purpose

Play is the best way people have to imagine, interact, and learn, especially when they
face complex and uncertain challenges. Play frees us to take risks, to imagine the
unimaginable and to take on different roles.

Through play we can test and hone our skills, develop new insights, and prepare
ourselves for the unknown. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ is a technique for deep reflection, an
effective dialogue and creative problem solving.

What comes out of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™?

When we play with great materials (we We call this kind of play adult play, play
sometimes call them toys) we can play with great materials, and play with a
even better. purpose – LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™.

Great materials allow us to construct new LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is a deep and
ideas and new worlds, to enrich what we lasting experience that stays with you
make with meaning, and really get into beyond the time you spend in a workshop.
the stories that matter. And when we play The play process becomes a valuable tool
about something that is important, like that you can rely on to “work” no matter
our business, we can enrich everyone’s what the situation.
quality of life at work.

Communication is easier, social bonding

is strengthened, and increased insight,
confidence and commitment is created.

2 3
 Basic

What happens during Your LEGO® Bricktionary

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™?
Making connections, making sense, and
seeing possibilities happens best when in
a group and when linked to emotions.
Bricks Plates
While you are involved in LEGO SERIOUS
PLAY, you see things differently: Ideas
come to life with more detail, and you
generate a wider and more imaginative
range of possibilities than you would
ordinarily.

People at play are more present, more

engaged, more passionate and better Gears Axles and
performers. LEGO SERIOUS PLAY social- connectors
ly bonds together the team that plays
together and creates a lasting atmos-
phere of imagination and trust.

LEGO SERIOUS PLAY provides a tool for

deep reflection and effective dialogue.
Wheels, tires, Hinges and Minifigure, a window
and bearings turntables of opportunity, a flag pole… or
just Bricks.

102,981,500 is the number of different ways you can combine six 8-stud bricks of the same color.
If you haven’t got that much time, you can take three 8-stud bricks – of the same color – and fit
4 them together in 1,600 ways. Two 8-stud bricks – of the same color – can be put together 24 ways. 5
 The process

Building in your mind and with your hands They all fit together – try it!
The exercises in this Imaginopedia are
designed to take you through a three- A
stage process (Constructing, Metaphors,
and Story Making) of perfecting your
skills as a story maker using a specially
designed set of LEGO® Bricks.
We call this process Skills Building and
it has been developed to guarantee the
best possible learning experience in the
workshop. B
Have fun playing seriously! Your facilitator
will guide you throughout the workshop.

6 7
 Constructing Constructing

Constructing Reach for the sky!

Chances are, whatever job training you The world, however, is not square. To be
Using your hands to build something releases thoughts and concepts that are “stuck” had did little to prepare you for deal- effective, we must learn to expect change
in your head. Thoughts that are “built” tend to be more memorable and more easily ing with completely new and constantly and see it as opportunity. For instance, a
understood by yourself and others. changing situations. In most cases, a brand new opportunity has just popped
formal education consists of lectures and up. You want to be the first to “reach the
textbooks, which train us to follow proto- top”, so build upwards as fast as you can.
cols and to think firmly inside the box.
Bridge to the opportunities!
The opportunity is there on the other side. jump higher and wider to get to it. So how
The tall tower
Like all the best opportunities, you have to can you get there quickly?
Challenge C2 Rules
Make the tallest structure you can with the • Start your construction on the biggest
The wide bridge
Challenge C1 Rules
bricks. Make it as quickly as you can but
prepare for the unexpected! Wait for your
facilitator to give you the ”go” signal.
base plate.
• Eventually a LEGO® Minifigure must be
fixed at the very top of the structure.
Make a bridge with the widest and highest • When finished it must be possible to pass • You may use only the elements in your
span possible. Make it as quickly as you at least one hand under your bridge. individual set of bricks.
can but prepare for the unexpected! Wait • You may use only the elements in your
for your facilitator to give the go-signal. individual set of bricks.

8 9
 Meaning with metaphors Meaning with metaphors

Giving meaning with metaphors It is your meaning in the model

Metaphors are Many of the metaphors we use in a “lumbering dinosaur”? Can you identify Who is to decide
The Model
powerful tools
that can lead us
business such as “niche” or “life-cycle”
have been borrowed from the field of
biology. For example, some businesses
an enterprise that’s a “racehorse hitched
to a wagon with a broken wheel”? Do you
know a business that “eats people alive”?
Challenge M1 Step 1 Rules
on the meaning of
a model – which
to think about our could be described as “high-flying hawks” Is that department a “money pit”? Ever Look at page 12 + 13 and 14 + 15. • You may ask your facilitator for technical metaphor is the right
while others could be “snakes in the been “stuck between a rock and a hard Choose one of the models and build it support at any time.
realities in new grass”. Do you know a company that is place”?
one?
according to the instructions. • When you are finished, wait for your
ways. These might facilitator to give you further instructions.
challenge existing We think you are!
assumptions and When you built a
beliefs and reveal model, it is your
new possibilities. meaning that is the
The Model
Challenge M1 Step 2 Rules
‘right’ one.

Now adapt your model – your facilitator • Change, add to, or delete from the model Are you ready to
Open minded or Eagle-eyed or Well protected or Free thinker or
pulling in opposite high-flying tired-out? an air head?
will provide instructions. as you like. have a go at it?
directions? employee? • Think in terms of metaphors – feel free
to exaggerate and to be as dramatic
and passionate as you like (look at page
10 for inspiration).
• If you feel stuck let the bricks guide you
– just start building.

The Model
A methodical Walk the talk or High-level Flower power or
Challenge M1 Step 3 Remember
thinker or a talk the walk? communication or cluttered Now tell the other participants about your • The model, the metaphors, and the mean-
controlled mind? a fight on words? combustion?
metaphor. ing are all yours. The other participants
10 can ask only clarifying questions. 11
 Meaning with metaphors

Model 1
1 2 3 4

Congratulations!
When you are
finished, return to
5 6 7 8 page 11 and wait for
your facilitator to
start step 2 of the
challenge.

12 13
 Meaning with metaphors

Model 2
1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8
Congratulations!
When you are
finished, return to
page 11 and wait for
your facilitator to
start step 2 of the
challenge.

14 15
 Story making Story making

It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it
Do you see little Unless you are lucky, you have to be care- vehicle for speaking the truth without fear
Explain this
guidance as a
positive thing?
ful about “telling it like it is” to the powers
that be – especially in times of crisis. In
some organizations you could lose your
of retaliation. It’s the way it was done in
ancient courts by the court jester; it was
done in primitive cultures by the medicine
Challenge S2
job for speaking your mind. In some man; and it happens today in vital board- Find the 5 bricks from picture A or B.
countries you could lose your life. But rooms around the world. There is power in Then select an additional 10 bricks of
Has this sort of “out storytelling has always been a respected story making. Use it. your choice – bringing the total up to 15
of the blue” thing bricks.
happened to you
before? Build a model – any model – using only
An issue at work these bricks. Your model does not have to

How do you usually Challenge S1 Rules

look like anything from real life. In fact, it
is all up to you.
feel about being Build a simple model that represents some • You have about five minutes to build.
Your facilitator will guide you from here.
given only a few issue you are having at work, or how you Your facilitator will keep track of time.
feel about that issue. The issue could be • Whatever you build, build it with pas-
parameters? a person, an event, a “feeling”. The issue sion.
might impact others or you alone.
A B
When you have finished building, write five
words (not sentences) that capture the
essence of your model on a blank card.

Your facilitator will guide you from here.

16 17
 Story making Imagination

Making stories about a potential future Three kinds of imagination

Can you remember Story making lets you imagine and produce knowledge that could impact
describe what might happen before it future action. However well we think we
Humans have it. Animals don’t. It is the unique ability to think about what has not yet
the last time you told actually does. Making stories about your have prepared for the unexpected, we can been – but could be. Imagination is THE resource that allows us to explore and test new
a story? LEGO® model allows you to test what still only prepare for what we already know. possible realities.
could happen in real life, in real time, and

Are outdated stories Descriptive Imagination Creative Imagination is fantasy. Fantasy

still being told at Typically used to bring to mind (or describe) is the domain of the impossible, whereas
your place? A monstrous story the complex and confusing world “out imagination is about possible realities,

Have you ever used

Challenge S2 Rules
there”, this kind of imagination is used
all the time in business. A value chain,
2-by-2 matrices, flow-charts and similar
and even the making of reality.

Challenging Imagination
a story to tell the Make up a story about “The Manager from • You have about ten minutes to build. Your models that utilize repeating patterns, or It is with the Challenging Imagination
Hell”. Build a model to help you explain the facilitator will keep track of time. show similar things in different ways, are that we negate, defame, contradict and
truth? characteristics of this person. What traits • It is OK to exaggerate and to build with examples of Descriptive Imagination. even destroy the sense of progress that
do you think characterizes this monster humor. comes from descriptions and creativity.
and what does it look like? It might be a • Your facilitator will guide you from here. Creative Imagination Some methods include deconstruction
good idea NOT to have a specific person The Creative Imagination is about evoking and sarcasm. It might require throwing
in mind. truly new possibilities from the combination, away and starting all over. The inherent
recombination or transformation of things risk of the Challenging Imagination is to
or concepts. The inherent trap of the come up empty handed.

The perfect candidate

Challenge S4 Rules
Make up a story about the ideal employ- • You have about ten minutes to build. Your
ee. Build a model to help you explain the facilitator will keep track of time.
traits and abilities of this. What do you • It is OK to exaggerate and to build with
think characterizes the perfect candidate humor.
and how can you show it? • Your facilitator will guide you from here.
With which style of Imagination do you feel most comfortable?
Which companies would you guess use each of the three different
18 types of Imagination? 19
 Imagination

Jones’ Go-Carts Your inventory

You are an employee at the renowned soap box racers for kids since 1902! The
toy company Jones’ Go-Carts situated in company is headed by 3rd generation Mr.
Orlando, Florida. Jones’ Go-Carts have been Jones who has managed to keep the com-
manufacturing premium quality go-carts and pany in a market leading position – so far.

Inside the soap box Push the cart further Get out off your soapbox
Challenge i1 Challenge i2 Challenge i3
As a member of the product development Next year: The go-carts we manufactured Most of us feel very uncomfortable throw-
team you are co-responsible for coming last year still work just fine so we could ing out everything and starting all over
up with prototypes for next year’s prod- go on making them the same but a lit- again. Usually we’ve made a considerable
ucts. You and the rest of the team are just tle different. But there are so many other investment in getting where we are. Mr.
about to have the decisive meeting before directions to explore. Do we always want Jones feels that the current line of busi-
presenting your ideas to Mr. Jones. to make go-carts? Could there be more ness no longer takes the company where
Build a model of a go-cart for kids that exciting ways to move kids? Is there a it should and could go. Maybe it’s time to
you think will be next year’s big seller. The market for that? How far can we push it? rethink everything?
competition is closing in on Jones’ Go- Build a model of a product intended for Build a prototype of “any product that will
Carts so you better do well if the company the market of “fun movement for kids”. help the company stay on top”.
is to stay in the lead. Again, Mr. Jones will pay you a visit – At his familiar annual visit, Mr. Jones will
Mr. Jones will visit the team in a few in fact he’s already on his way – and he be expecting something totally out of the
minutes. He will decide which prototype will be looking for imaginative ideas of box. Are you up for the challenge?
to put into production so you better be pushing the product portfolio into this new
ready to deliver a short but engaged sales market segment. Be ready to explain why Rules
pitch explaining the features and benefits your idea is just the thing. • The same as every year.
of your model.

Rules Rules
• You can only use the elements in your • The same as last year. Collect these bricks from your own
Inventory. set and put the remaining bricks
• You have two minutes to build. back in the box.
20 • You have one minute to sell your idea to 21
Mr. Jones.
 Conclusions A strategic tool

Give your brain a hand How can you apply LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ to business?
Even when you can’t plan it, you can It is a fact that our brains contain approxi- LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ is a facilitated proc- – Real Time Strategy enables you to make the right
build it mately 10,000 billion neurons that can be ess delivered by a network of certified LEGO decisions in the face of intention and emergence.
When an idea gets stuck between the combined in more ways than there are SERIOUS PLAY partners.
head and the hand, it helps to play it out. atoms in the known universe. Yet we are Real Time Strategy for the TEAM and Real Time
Play can be a context in which risks can only capable of being conscious of about Through the Real Time Strategy program, you Identity for YOU enables you to heed whom you
be taken without risk, in which the un- seven things at any one time. Although construct your Identity, learn to heed your busi- are, as a team or as an individual, and become
imaginable can be imagined without fear, brain cells are highly specialized, they still ness Landscape, and uncover the few Simple more aware of how you operate in your job
and in which the unattainable can be rea- function according to the laws that govern Guiding Principles that reflect your organiza- Landscape. Through this experience you can
lized without hesitation. any other cells. tion’s mindset and core values. These principles better appreciate the value and the possibilities
become a strategic tool against which all actions, you bring to the team and the company.
When you make something using your The brain knows it must organize infor- big or small, can be continuously tested.
hands, an extremely complicated pro- mation in order for the organism to sur- A deep and shared awareness of yourself and
cess takes over that endows the experi- vive. When there is a dramatic change When a particularly challenging or critical issue your relationship to others enriches everyone’s
ence with a powerful emotional charge. in the organism’s environment, the brain appears on your business landscape — and a experience at work and generates an atmosphere
Research shows that people are changed recognizes that it must change or die. Beast like that is always just around the corner of increased insight, commitment and trust.
significantly and irreversibly when move-
ment, thought, and feeling fuse during The learning organism
the active, long-term pursuit of personal Business is also a living organism. It
goals. Human beings are just wired that
way.
exists in a living, changing environment.
Even though it is highly specialized, it too
Selected Readings
must function according to the laws that Fein, G. “Pretend Play: Creativity and Roos, J. and Bart Victor. “Towards a New
Learning goes much deeper when you govern other businesses. To cope with Consciousness.” In Görlitz, D. and J.F Model of Strategy-Making as Serious
have a hand in it. Building with your hands a volatile world market, today’s business Wohlwill. (eds.) Curiosity, Imagination and Play.” European Management Journal 17.4
is one of the best ways of stimulating “organism” must develop the capacity to Play. Hillside, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 1987. (August 1999): 348-355.
imagination. It allows you to bring your shift and change, as well as adopt new
intuition from all your experiences and skills and attitudes. In short, the business Harel, I. and Seymour Papert. (eds.) Pink, Daniel H. “A Whole New Mind”,
your analyses into something concrete organism must “learn”. The business that Constructionism. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Riverhead Books. 2005
– something you can play with. When you “learns” best wins. Too much instruction Publishing Corporation. 1991.
build in the world, you build in your mind. kills the desire to experiment. Research Gauntlett, David. “Creative Explorations: New
has shown that people learn the main Ortony. A. (ed.). Metaphor and Thought. Approaches to Identities and Audiences”,
Your brain has a mind of its own ideas more effectively from summaries of (2nd. Edition). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Routledge; New Ed edition. 2007.
Our minds have enormous untapped textbook chapters than from reading the University Press. 1993.

22 potential that we need to learn how to use. chapters themselves. 23

Reiber, L. “Seriously Considering Play.”
ETR & D 44.2 (1996): 43-58.