Myriam Hadnes runs the Workshops Work Podcast, and in episode 136 she interviewed SeriousWork founder Sean Blair, in her LinkedIn post Myriam said:

“Three (soon to be four) books on the subject, decades of experience facilitating workshops, and experience of training facilitators in it… Sean Blair is a #LEGO #SeriousPlay oracle! I was hoping to uncover some new insights and ideas from our conversation, but I actually found a great deal more.

Sean is such a captivating person – open and reflective – that we ended up discussing the limits of LEGO Serious Play as much as its merits.

We disagreed, we provoked, we learned. It was one of my favourite interviews to date! There’s something for everyone in this episode, so I really hope you take the time to listen. You won’t regret it”

It was great to be interviewed by Myriam, she is a gifted questioner and brilliant interviewer!

Or watch the YouTube video of both parts here.

Timecodes

01:02 When did you start calling yourself a facilitator? 

02:11 How have you changed from being a “bossy” facilitator and what have you become instead? 

05:05 How do you train other facilitators – especially in the art of dialling up and down their presence in the room? 

09:50 What does it take to create a learning space that encourages and values mistakes? 

13:54 How does speaking with your own voice play out in facilitation? 

18:28 What makes a workshop fail? 

20:55 How would you start a workshop for a group in which you know there is conflict and politics? 

25:13 What is the power in using LEGO to help us talk about difficult topics? 

28:11 Do you use ‘minifigures’ (avatars or representations of people) in your LEGO Serious Play workshops? 

32:01 How do you negotiate the risks of a representation being misinterpreted between participants and creating misalignment?