Using the Window Exploration Kit (Small Tin, Big Impact)
How it works: Participants are placed into groups of four (4) to share their stories with each other. We work through a set of four exercises where participants progress through a series of training exercises to become conversant with the Lego Serious Play technique for sharing ideas through Lego model building and sense-making. Each round, the participant creates a model to answer a challenge, question or reflective task. The participants are then given equal time to share their insight using their models with their group (30 seconds to speak plus question times). This creates an opportunity to listen and learn from peers, and creates environments conducive to reflective learning opportunity and experience sharing. Participants exit the sessions with handwritten notes that can be used for later workshop sessions, targeted towards strategic goals, and other outcomes.
What we provide to make it happen
- One Lego Window Kit tin per participant (returned to us)
- Instruction Booklet (retained by participant)
- Worksheet / Workbook (retained by participant)
Sample Workshop Schedule
| Exercise | |
| Permission 1: Permission to Build | |
| a warm up ice-breaking practice round to introduce or re-introduce participants with using Lego pieces, plus an opportunity to introduce themselves to their table mates | The Tower |
| Permission 2: Permission to Own | |
| Practice in using Lego for storytelling, including turning a pre-planned model into one that can be used to answer a question such as “What brings happiness to your day?” “What makes for a good day at work?” or “What does success look like for you?” | The Metaphor |
| Permission 3: Permission to Use | |
| An open build round to use as many or as few of the pieces to create a model to describe a difficult, or personally challenging event. Sample questions include “What has been the biggest challenge of this quarter?” “What was the hardest part of this semester?”, “What does success mean to you?” | Free Build |
| Applications: Call and Response Exercise | |
| An exercise in creating a model from a limited 15 brick inventory to build a model to explain the first half of a question such as “”What idea, experience or session at this conference challenged your understanding of yourself?” | Restricted |
| The response build allows the participants to use as many or as few pieces of their remaining inventory to create a follow up answer – for example, where the exercise asks “”What idea, experience or session at this conference challenged your understanding of yourself?” the follow answer can be “Where can you use this new understanding of yourself at work?” “How can you apply this new discovery in the next month?” “What steps can you take to build on this new insight in the next week?” | Response |
| Applications: Shared Experience / Communal Reflection | |
| Using a preset sequence of pieces, participants are asked to reflect on a shared or common experience – quite often this is used as an end of session reflection “Build a model to describe your experience in this workshop” to showcase how even with the same access to the same resources (workshop, lego pieces), people will take different things from the session. | Universal Build |
Disclaimer
This website is not approved, authorised or endorsed by the LEGO Group. LEGO®, is a trademark of the LEGO Group. We respect and align with the LEGO® Serious Play® trademark guidelines. We use the LEGO® Serious Play® method described in the LEGO Group Open Source Guide made available by LEGO under a Creative Commons license ‘Attribution Share Alike’.