LEGO Serious Play Examples: What Happens in a Real Session

What You Actually Want to Know

If you are trying to understand whether LEGO® Serious Play® is right for your organisation, your team, or your own practice, the most useful thing is usually seeing what actually happens in the room.

There is already plenty written about the methodology itself. What is harder to find are grounded examples of real sessions. What was the challenge? How was the method used? What changed afterwards?

This article brings together a range of real LEGO Serious Play examples from different contexts, including leadership teams, education settings, coaching work, systems thinking, and organisational culture sessions.

Some are large-scale strategic workshops. Others are much smaller and more personal. What links them is the way the methodology helps people think more openly, contribute more equally, and work through conversations that often stay stuck in more traditional formats.

If you are completely new to the methodology, What is LEGO Serious Play: An Introduction to the Methodology is a useful starting point first.

What all LEGO Serious Play sessions have in common

Although the contexts vary quite a bit, most LEGO Serious Play sessions follow the same broad structure.

A facilitator introduces a question or challenge. Participants build a model in response. Each person shares the story behind what they have built. The group reflects on the models together. From there, ideas, patterns, tensions, and possible actions begin to emerge.

What changes between sessions is the depth of the work, the size of the group, and the nature of the challenge being explored.

A half-day team session and a multi-day systems workshop may look completely different on the surface, but underneath they are built on the same core process.

Example 1: Social mobility in the UK — London

Context: Policy work, systems thinking, large group facilitation

One of the more interesting recent examples from SERIOUSWORK took place during the UK’s Social Mobility Week at 22 Bishopsgate in London.

Around 40 participants attended, including government representatives, academics, business leaders, and people from the charity sector. The session was facilitated by SERIOUSWORK founder Sean Blair.

The challenge itself was complex from the outset. Social mobility is what systems thinkers often describe as a wicked problem. There are multiple interconnected causes, conflicting perspectives, and no simple solution.

Rather than trying to force consensus through panel discussion or presentations, the workshop focused on helping participants build a shared understanding of the wider system they were all operating within.

A smaller group had already met online before the event to build an aspirational model representing what social mobility in the UK could look like ten years into the future.

During the full-day session, participants expanded that system physically. They built agents of change, barriers, interdependencies, relationships between different actors, and potential leverage points for intervention.

Very quickly, the system became visible in a way that would have been difficult to achieve through conversation alone.

One of the more interesting observations afterwards was that disagreement surfaced more honestly than it usually would in a traditional policy environment. The models created enough distance for people to challenge ideas without conversations becoming defensive.

You can read the full session write-up here: Exploring the Future of Social Mobility in the UK.

Example 2: Education — United World College South East Asia

Context: School leadership, student workshops, curriculum work

LEGO Serious Play has been used widely within education settings, but one particularly well-documented example comes from United World College South East Asia (UWCSEA).

Following facilitator training with SERIOUSWORK, Head of Digital Learning Liam Isaac began using the methodology across several very different school contexts.

One area focused on departmental vision-building with educator teams. Staff built models representing where they wanted the department to move in the future. Interestingly, quieter members of the department contributed far more actively than they usually did during formal planning discussions.

The methodology was also used with middle school students exploring social media and online identity. Topics that are often difficult to discuss openly became noticeably easier once students were speaking through models rather than directly about themselves.

Teachers then started integrating LEGO Serious Play into broader classroom learning and curriculum design work.

Across all of these contexts, the school reported a few consistent patterns: more equal participation, stronger listening, safer discussion around sensitive topics, and deeper reflection from students and staff alike.

You can read Liam Isaac’s full account here: Back to School: LEGO Serious Play at United World College South East Asia.

Example 3: Diversity, equity and inclusion work

Context: Organisational culture, inclusion workshops, psychological safety

LEGO Serious Play has increasingly been used within DEI work because of the way it changes difficult conversations.

Discussions around inclusion, belonging, bias, and organisational culture are often the conversations teams struggle with most. People become cautious quickly. Conversations either stay surface-level or become emotionally loaded.

The models help soften that dynamic slightly. Instead of speaking directly about themselves, participants speak through what they have built. That subtle shift tends to create more honest reflection and less defensiveness.

Typical applications include exploring experiences of belonging, identifying barriers to inclusion, building models of healthy team culture, discussing values and behaviours, and surfacing tensions between aspiration and lived experience.

Importantly, the methodology does not remove discomfort entirely. Nor should it. But it often creates enough psychological safety for more meaningful dialogue to happen.

Example 4: Team strategy and leadership alignment

Context: Corporate teams, leadership development, strategic planning

This is probably one of the most common business uses of LEGO Serious Play.

A typical session might involve a leadership team working through organisational change, growth, culture challenges, strategic direction, communication breakdowns, role clarity, or future planning.

Early in the process, participants usually build individual models representing where they believe the organisation currently is and where they think it needs to go.

That stage alone often surfaces major differences in perception that had previously stayed hidden beneath day-to-day working relationships.

The session then moves into shared model building, where the team physically constructs a collective version of the future direction. What becomes interesting is not only the final model itself, but the negotiation process that happens whilst building it. Which ideas stay? Which disappear? What tensions emerge? What assumptions become visible?

Those conversations are often where the real work happens.

Unlike many strategy away days, the outputs also tend to remain memorable because the team has physically built them together rather than simply discussing slides or documents.

Example 5: Systems thinking

Context: Complex organisational challenges, advanced facilitation

LEGO Serious Play is particularly effective for systems thinking work.

At more advanced levels, participants move beyond individual and shared models into full systems models. They build representations of the wider systems they operate inside, including relationships, dependencies, feedback loops, influence, barriers, and unintended consequences.

This type of work is especially useful where complexity matters more than simple decision-making. Rather than trying to reduce problems into overly neat solutions, the methodology helps groups understand the wider dynamics shaping the situation in the first place.

These sessions tend to require experienced facilitation and are usually used within leadership, organisational development, policy, or large-scale change environments.

Example 6: Coaching and personal development

Context: One-to-one coaching, leadership coaching, reflection work

In coaching contexts, LEGO Serious Play works quite differently from team sessions.

The focus is usually individual model building rather than shared models. A coach may ask a client to build something representing their current situation, a challenge they are facing, or a future goal they are trying to move towards. The conversation then develops through questions around the model itself.

What many coaches notice is that clients often reveal thoughts and assumptions they would never have reached through direct questioning alone. The physical act of building changes the quality of reflection. People become less rehearsed and less analytical. The conversation often becomes more honest quite quickly.

This is one reason the methodology has become increasingly popular within leadership coaching and executive coaching contexts in the UK.

What these examples tend to have in common

Participation becomes more equal. Because everybody builds and everybody shares, the usual group dynamics shift quite quickly.

Difficult conversations become easier to have. The models create enough distance for people to discuss sensitive issues more openly and constructively.

The outputs feel tangible. Shared models, agreed priorities, photographs, reflections, and documented thinking remain after the session rather than disappearing once the meeting ends.

The conversations become less predictable. This is probably one of the most consistent observations facilitators make. LEGO Serious Play tends to surface perspectives and insights that would not usually emerge through more traditional workshop formats.

If you want to experience it yourself

The easiest way to understand LEGO Serious Play properly is usually to experience it directly rather than just read about it.

SERIOUSWORK runs facilitator training, coaching training, education-focused programmes, and in-house organisational sessions depending on the context you are working in.

For organisations exploring team or leadership work specifically, in-house delivery is also available.

FAQ

What are some examples of LEGO Serious Play in business?

Common business applications include leadership alignment, strategic planning, team development, organisational culture work, DEI sessions, and systems thinking workshops.

What actually happens in a LEGO Serious Play session?

Participants respond to questions by building models using LEGO bricks. They then explain the thinking behind the models whilst the facilitator guides reflection and discussion.

Can LEGO Serious Play be used for coaching?

Yes. Many coaches use the methodology within one-to-one coaching as a tool for reflection, leadership development, and personal insight.

Is LEGO Serious Play used in education?

Yes. Schools, universities, and educators use the methodology for leadership work, curriculum development, student reflection, and classroom learning.

How long does a LEGO Serious Play session last?

Sessions range from short two-hour workshops through to full-day or multi-day programmes depending on the objectives.

What outputs does a session produce?

Sessions usually generate shared models, documented insights, photographs, agreed actions, and reflections teams can revisit afterwards.

Do participants need previous experience with LEGO?

No. Warm-up exercises are designed to make participants comfortable with the process before deeper work begins.