Lego Serious Play

What Is Lego Serious Play?

Lego Serious Play (LSP) is a facilitated methodology that uses Lego bricks as a thinking tool. Participants build 3D models that represent their ideas, strategies, or challenges — then share and discuss them with the group. It's not a game. It's a structured problem-solving methodology used by companies including Google, NASA, and the European Central Bank.

At Get Out Events, our certified LSP facilitators run corporate workshops for 10 to 60 participants, focusing on strategy alignment, team identity, leadership development, and innovation. We've facilitated LSP sessions for C-suite leadership teams, newly formed cross-functional groups, and everything in between.

The methodology was developed by Lego in the late 1990s in collaboration with MIT and the IMD Business School in Switzerland. It has since been used in over 100 countries as a tool for strategic planning, innovation, and team development. In Singapore, Get Out Events is one of the few certified facilitators offering it as a corporate workshop.

How Lego Serious Play Works

1. Skills Building — Participants learn to "think with their hands" through warm-up builds. This levels the playing field — introverts and extroverts contribute equally when building.
2. Individual Models — Each person builds a model in response to a facilitated question (e.g., "Build a model of our team's biggest challenge"). Every person shares their model with the group.
3. Shared Models — Teams combine individual models into a shared landscape. This reveals connections, tensions, and alignments that verbal discussion alone often misses.
4. Scenarios & Strategy — The facilitator introduces "what if" scenarios. Teams modify their landscapes to explore how different strategies might play out.
5. Action Commitments — The session closes with concrete action items extracted from the models and discussions.

What to Expect: A Lego Serious Play Workshop Step by Step

Here's how a typical half-day LSP corporate workshop unfolds:

1. Welcome & Context Setting (15 min) — The facilitator frames the session objective — whether it's strategy alignment, team charter creation, or innovation planning. Participants understand why they're here and what the session will produce.
2. Skills Building Exercises (30 min) — Before any strategic content begins, everyone does warm-up builds. Simple prompts ("build a tower that represents how you work best") lower defences and get hands moving. The sceptics become believers.
3. Individual Build Rounds (45–60 min) — Facilitated questions are introduced one by one. Each participant builds in silence for 3–5 minutes, then shares their model with the group. No model goes unheard — this is a structural guarantee, not a social nicety.
4. Shared Landscape (45–60 min) — Individual models are combined onto a shared table. The facilitator guides teams in identifying connections, conflicts, and white space between models. This is where organisational blind spots surface.
5. Scenario Testing (30 min, full-day only) — "What if" scenarios are introduced. Teams adjust their shared landscape to show how they'd respond. This stress-tests assumptions in a low-stakes environment.
6. Documentation & Action Planning (20 min) — Key insights are photographed and documented. Commitments are extracted: what will each person do differently? What decisions have been made? What still needs resolution?

The facilitator provides a written workshop summary within 5 business days, capturing models, insights, and commitments in a shareable format for your team.

When to Use Lego Serious Play

• Strategy alignment — getting leadership teams on the same page about direction and priorities
• Team identity — defining team values, purpose, and ways of working
• Innovation workshops — generating and evaluating new ideas in a structured way
• Change management — making abstract changes tangible and discussable
• Leadership retreats — surfacing unspoken assumptions and building shared understanding
• New team formation — accelerating trust and alignment in newly formed teams
• Conflict resolution — creating neutral ground for teams with unspoken tensions to surface and discuss issues safely
• Mergers and acquisitions — aligning two teams from different cultures around a shared future

LSP is most valuable when verbal discussion has stalled — when the same conversations keep happening without resolution, when important voices aren't being heard, or when a team needs to visualise something complex that words alone can't capture.

Why Lego Serious Play Is Different

In a typical meeting, 20% of people do 80% of the talking. LSP inverts this — 100% participation is built into the methodology. Everyone builds. Everyone shares. The Lego model becomes an equaliser: a junior analyst's model gets the same floor time as the CEO's.

The physical act of building also accesses different cognitive pathways than verbal brainstorming. Research shows that hands-on modelling generates 3× more ideas and deeper emotional engagement than traditional workshop formats. The tactile constraint of building with bricks forces specificity — you can't build a vague brick tower. Every physical choice is a decision that can be questioned and explored.

Teams that have "done all the workshops" consistently report LSP as the most surprising and most generative session they've attended. The format disarms cynicism quickly — once your hands are moving, your brain is engaged in a way that slides and breakout groups simply don't achieve.

Venue and Format Options

Lego Serious Play workshops require a stable table surface and good lighting — beyond that, the format is highly flexible.

• Your Office / Boardroom — For groups of 10–20, a standard boardroom works well. We bring all Lego materials, table coverings, and documentation tools.
• Hotel Meeting Rooms — For groups of 20–60, a hotel meeting room with round or rectangular tables provides the right setup. We handle all logistics with the venue.
• Offsite Retreats — LSP pairs naturally with leadership retreats and strategic planning offsites. We've facilitated sessions at Sentosa resorts, Bintan retreats, and Batam conference venues.
• Virtual LSP — We offer a digital version using online Lego builders and screen-sharing facilitation for distributed teams. Effective, but best suited to groups already comfortable with virtual workshops.

All workshops include a facilitator site check to confirm table configuration, lighting, and logistics before the session. Lego materials are provided — participants bring nothing.

Group Size Guide

LSP works best in focused, intimate groups. Here's our recommendation by size:

• 6–15 pax — The sweet spot. Deep individual sharing, rich shared landscape discussions, high-quality action outcomes. Ideal for leadership teams and senior offsites.
• 15–30 pax — One facilitator, two simultaneous build groups. Individual sharing is done within groups; shared landscapes are then cross-compared. Slightly less individual floor time but still highly effective.
• 30–60 pax — Two or three facilitators required. We run parallel tracks that reconvene for a shared synthesis session. The quality of individual sharing is managed through structured timing. Best for departmental workshops where individual contribution matters but complete group synthesis isn't required.

We don't recommend LSP for groups larger than 60 — the methodology loses its structural advantage at scale. For larger groups, consider combining LSP (for a leadership cohort) with a complementary team activity for the broader group.

Lego Serious Play Pricing

All Lego materials, facilitation, and workshop documentation included. Our facilitators are certified in the Lego Serious Play methodology. Add-ons include extended scenario planning modules, executive coaching follow-up sessions, and team charter design services.

Most LSP workshops book 4–6 weeks in advance to allow for proper customisation of the facilitation questions and workshop design. Contact us to discuss your objectives and get a scoped proposal. Get a custom quote.

Lego Serious Play vs. Other Workshop Formats

Trying to decide between LSP and a more traditional team building format? Here's an honest comparison:

• vs. Strategy Facilitation (whiteboards/Post-its) — Traditional facilitation favours verbal dominants and produces outputs that look good but often don't survive the week. LSP produces physical models that hold meaning and generate deeper commitment.
• vs. Escape Rooms — Escape rooms are high-energy and observational; LSP is reflective and generative. They serve different purposes. Some clients combine both in a full-day programme. Learn more about Escape Room team building.
• vs. Design Thinking Workshops — Both use creative methods to solve problems. LSP is faster to deploy and has lower facilitation overhead. Design thinking goes deeper on prototype testing. Choose based on whether the primary need is alignment or ideation.
• vs. Standard Team Building Activities — Fun activities build rapport. LSP builds understanding. For teams that need to make decisions together, LSP delivers outcomes that recreational activities can't.

For more hands-on team activities, see our cooking team building or explore the full range on our team building Singapore page. Browse all activities.

Trusted by Leading Organisations

"Our C-suite spent half a day building Lego models of our company's future. It sounds absurd — until you see the CEO holding up a Lego helicopter and explaining exactly why our innovation pipeline needs to 'take flight.' The insights were deeper than any strategy deck I've seen."

— Chief Strategy Officer, Logistics Company

Frequently Asked Questions

Will executives actually take this seriously?

This is the most common concern — and the one that most consistently disappears in the first 15 minutes. The skills-building warm-up is designed specifically to lower defences. We've run LSP for C-suite groups who arrived sceptical and left calling it the best strategic session they'd had in years.

What do we walk away with?

Concrete, documented outcomes: shared mental models, team charters, strategic priorities maps, or innovation roadmaps — depending on your workshop objective. Our facilitators provide a written summary with photographs of all models and documented commitments.

How long in advance should we book?

We recommend 4–6 weeks. Good LSP facilitation requires thoughtful workshop design — the facilitation questions need to be calibrated to your team's specific challenges. Don't book a week out and expect maximum impact.

What if some team members are very introverted?

LSP was built for introverts. Building is individual, sharing is structured, and the Lego model carries the conversation so the person doesn't have to perform. We routinely find that the quietest people in the room produce the most insightful models.

Related Reading

• Complete Guide to Team Building in Singapore
• Team Building Ideas for Small Groups
• Team Building Singapore — Full Programme Options