Your Basket (0 items)Exploring the Future of Social Mobility in the UK: Using Systems Thinking and LEGO Serious Play
“A country with high social mobility is one where someone’s background – the place they were born, the school they went to or their parent’s income or occupation – has little influence on their own life chances.”
Sutton Trust, 2025
Last week was the UK’s Social Mobility week. As part of a mind-blowing schedule of events, I was invited by Nina Slingsby , from the Social Mobility Leaders’ Forum, to design and facilitate a full day workshop with industry experts, representatives from government, academics, charity leaders and so many more. The focus of the day was to explore the groups’ response to the the following question:
“How can systems thinking and purposeful play help to build a brighter future for social mobility in the UK?”
A Truly ‘Wicked Problem’: Why Systems Thinking for Social Mobility
“Whatever your background, you have a chance to climb to the top.”
Margaret Thatcher, 1983
“I want to see social mobility a dominant factor of British life”
Tony Blair, 2004
“Britain has the lowest social mobility in the developed world – we cannot accept that”
David Cameron, 2015
Three quotes, from three Prime Ministers, three decades apart. Despite social mobility being consistently at the forefront of British politics, surprisingly little has changed. In fact – statistically speaking – things seem to have gotten quite a bit worse. According to the government’s social mobility commission (2017), by pretty much whichever metric you choose – be it education, geography or intergenerational persistence – the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is widening.
The reason: Social Mobility is an incredibly complex problem; with an equally complex tangled web of root causes that can look very different from one person to the next. Solutions have typically been sweeping and reductive in nature; politicised moves that are as much about being seen to do something about the issue as they are about actually shifting the paradigm.
So, when I was asked to design a session for a room full of social mobility champions, the key challenge was helping this group to collectively better understand the complex adaptive system that is Social Mobility in the UK; using LEGO and Purposeful Play to make key aspects of this system visible – exploring interdependencies, observing emergent system behaviours and identifying opportunities for collaboration to foster and influence networked future thinking.
And this is how we did it…
LEGO Serious Play Systems Modelling
The View from the 33rd Floor!
Whilst the ‘main event’ took place at 22 Bishopsgate in London on a sunny Monday in June – with around 40 participants joining us at the glorious venue provided by McDermott Will & Emery, a small group of these attendees had already been engaged in an important priming activity for this project via an online workshop seven days prior; one where these selected few were tasked with co-creating a LEGO Serious Play shared model showing their aspirational vision for the future of Social Mobility in the UK – ten years from now.
Shared Model to show an aspirational ‘Future State’ for Social Mobility in the UK
This priming workshop not only solicited this group for their unique perspectives, but also drew on the data gathered from a comprehensive community survey; one where key stakeholders were canvassed for their ideas and opinions linked to the current reality – the barriers and opportunities that respectively block and enable social mobility across the UK today.
Barriers to social mobility in the UK today – the Current Reality
At the start of the ‘big event’ in Bishopsgate, the video recording of this model story was screened for the benefit of all workshop participants, who were then given the opportunity to share their immediate gut response – what they liked about this aspirational vision, along with how they felt it could be even better.
Comic Book of Shared Model to show Aspirational Future State
This opportunity to legitimise questions, concerns and reservations about this aspirational future state was important. Unsurprisingly – given the nature of complex adaptive systems – not everyone fully agreed with the vision for the future that was presented. Therefore it was important to capture why this was. To do this in a way that allowed us to capture the full spectrum of agreement (or not), participants were encouraged to scribe their thoughts on cards – cards that were colour coded to help represent the extent to which they felt an affinity with the aspirational future state presented to them.
Legitimising Concerns, Questions and Reservations
Participants were then challenged to make visible the key system elements that could influence this aspirational future state: first constructing system agents using a spheres of influence framework – identifying those agents over which they have degrees of control, along with those which they do not.
Groups then landscaped these agents into interrelated clusters, before then tangibly connecting them, choosing bricks and ‘connection types’ that best represented the nature of the relationship and interdependencies identified between agents and the shared model showing the aspirational future state for social mobility in the UK.
LEGO Serious Play Systems Model with Flagged Leverage Points
Individuals and groups then considered their collective capacity to positively influence this system’s behaviour; first identifying potential leverage points – the places within this complex system where a small change could potentially lead to significant and widespread effects – and then considering how through networked creativity, they could propose collaborative strategic actions that might positively influence system behaviour, and therefore social mobility across the UK.
It is worth saying at this point that, before beginning this systems modelling process, I was explicit in sharing with the group that the models they build were NOT the complete system influencing social mobility in the UK, but rather their collective representation of the parts of this complex adaptive system that resonate most with them based on their work and experiences.
In accepting that the ‘real system’ would be infinitely more complex, I explained that the purpose of this concrete representation was to help the group better understand how strategic actions they could take might have a positive influence on system behaviour. In other words, a deeper understanding of the system within which you operate can help you to make more informed – hopefully increasingly tactical – decisions.
Systems Model for future state of Social Mobility in the UK
Having built individual models to represent these proposed strategic actions, the groups then voted to identify those which they felt could have the biggest positive influence before then introducing these ideas and connecting them to the system; finally, animating these ‘agents of change’ to observe the ripple effects and unexpected consequences that they stimulated.
Animating System Model with Strategic Actions
As the systems were animated in this way, the groups recorded their observations, before adopting a ‘see, think, wonder’ framework to make meaning from these observed emergent system behaviours.
‘See, Think, Wonder’ reflection framework in action
A Systems Thinking Lens for Social Mobility: Key Learnings from this Experience
Part of the success of this event was the explicit recognition of the complexity of the issue being explored. In setting the tone as one of exploration, the group had permission to share, think, reflect and propose actions without fear of judgement – or the need to commit to actions in the moment. It was an authentic chance to seek out and find critical intersections; opportunities for individuals with different experiences, backgrounds and perspectives to connect and consider strategic actions that could potentially disrupt the current reality for social mobility in the UK.
Here are my three key ideas from this experience that I will take with me into future Systems modelling experiences:
- People connect more meaningfully with stories that they co-create: The aspirational vision for the future of social mobility shared in this workshop was a powerful one – but one that was created by just 6 of the 40+ attendees. Given another opportunity, I might consider challenging the group to build their own version of this story at the beginning of the event.
- Emphasise the concept of meaning making: During the entire day, people were encouraged to explore the meaning that could be made from every interaction with the model. The choice of brick, type of connection, observed movements within the model – participants were challenged to share what these could all mean based on their unique knowledge and experiences. In this way, we were able to collectively get a much richer understanding of the system – along with how it resonated differently with individuals.
- It is not about the model: This is so important. In LEGO Serious Play experiences, it is tempting to think that the model people build is the outcome. In my experience, this is absolutely not the case. The model is the mechanism through which people tell stories and make meaning. The conversations and insights that emerge from the model are the MOST important outputs.
