Far more than the basis for a hit TV show, Lego is now coming to a boardroom near you, explains RXP Group’s chief design officer Lee Tucknott (featured image).

It was always going to be a gamble, but it’s one that’s paid off for the Nine Network. A new genre of reality show and one that is untested in the Australian market, is enough to give any TV program director an attack of the nerves.

But with audiences consistently topping one million viewers and now a renewal for a second series, Lego Masters has struck a chord with young and young at heart Australians across the country.

I count myself as one of the million plus that tunes into Nine on Sunday to Tuesday for my fix of Lego love. Having been brought up with Lego, it feels part of my DNA, but there’s another reason why I’m acutely fascinated with the Danish designed bricks.

Lego is the ultimate demonstration of how to problem solve using human insights at every stage of the process. Being able to watch people express creativity and innovation through play and the thousands of bricks and minifigs (the Lego word used to describe the small plastic Lego people) is creativity at its most primal.

But Lego is now not confined to the playroom floor, dining room table or hit reality TV show. Lego is fast becoming a fixture at the boardroom tables of some of the country’s biggest companies including ANZ, Qantas,Coca-Cola Amatil and Lion.

Lego Serious Play (LSP) – it even has a registered trademark – was created by The Lego Group as a facilitation model to foster creative thinking, strategic planning, drive innovation and aid user experience design, by using imaginary scenarios and three-dimensional Lego constructions.

Working across digital transformation and CX innovation, RXP Group has recognised the importance of LSP in delivering outcomes for our clients. Two colleagues, Mario Quintana and Liliana Lettieri, are now certified LSP facilitators (yes, that’s a thing too) working across the business and holding client workshops where playing with bricks and minifigs is the order of the day.

Now, it might be hard to imagine a bunch of senior execs sitting around snapping together Lego bricks all in the name of business development, but the simple fact is they are, because LSP has proven to work.

Based on sound scientific principles, research has consistently shown that this type of hands on, interactive learning, can provide a more meaningful understanding of the world around us. Humans naturally like to get involved in tactile unplugged projects and Lego allows everyone to express themselves freely while encouraging creativity and inclusion.

Additionally, building something with your hands unlocks knowledge you didn’t know you had and our brain is much better at memorising 3D representations over verbal exchanges and communication barriers are quickly erased.

In the case of one of our large client partnerships, we found it extremely useful in breaking down silos between their existing teams. Tasked with implementing a significant digital transformation initiative that crossed a number of separate business units within the business, we held a LSP workshops which served as an icebreaker between the teams which in turn enabled us to deliver the project with greater speed and efficiency.

Using Lego bricks to express ideas through storytelling and metaphors means employees and decision makers can look at problems differently and be open to solutions that are non-traditional. That can only be a good antidote to the often formulaic decision making processes that transcends much of business and innovation decision making today.

So while watching people create with Lego is now a bonafide TV hit, watch out for the coloured bricks heading to a boardroom near you soon. Lego just got serious.

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