For me, one fundamental part of working with LEGO® Serious Play® is learning. Always learning to do better workshops, getting stronger in the fundamentals and finding how to use it to teach, generate insights and help organizations to fix problems.
As part of my learning I came across with an interesting article from Bill Birchard’s called “8S’s of Strong Business Writing” (Birchard, 2021) and after studying it, I kept returning to one question: could these same principles help explain what makes LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) so engaging? As I reflected on each S, I recognized connections with the workshops: clear questions, meaningful models, unexpected discoveries, and stories that people build together. The article gave me a new lens for looking at the overall experience.
Suddenly, the idea that every time the participants build a model, they are also “writing with bricks”. In writing, we arrange letters and words to express meaning. In LSP, we arrange bricks and explain what they represent. A red ladder can mean promotion; a broken bridge can mean mistrust. The meaning is not built into the brick: it comes from the builder’s explanation and becomes something the group can explore. Every model works as a three-dimensional text.
The research on handwriting discussed in the article adds to another question. If using our hands to write can support cognitive engagement, might building symbolic models involve some comparable processes? I see this as a hypothesis worth investigating, not proof that handwriting and LSP produce the same neurological effects.
In any case I feel that Birchard’s framework offers me a practical way to reflect on workshop design and on what happens when people build, share, and discover together.
Here is how I connect the eight S’s with LSP. These are my reflections on the relationship, rather than a claim that Birchard’s article studied the method.
| 8S’s |
The Connections I see with LEGO® Serious Play® |
|
Simplicity |
The use of clear and powerful questions, short timeboxes, and explanations grounded in the model keep attention on what matters. Also, the “Simple Guiding Principles” help compress complexity. |
|
Specificity |
Asking what a particular brick, position, or connection means turns abstract ideas into concrete meanings the group can understand. |
|
Surprise |
Building and sharing can bring previously unspoken knowledge into view—even surprising the builder. Those discoveries have an impact on the conversations (High impact moments of the workshops!). |
|
Stirring language |
As the participants share, they bring feelings into their explanations. Spoken words, gestures, and meaningful models enrich the shared experience. |
|
Seductiveness |
The workshop structure becomes a journey of anticipation: people sense that a meaningful insight or shared vision is taking shape. |
|
Smart thinking |
Seeing their ideas represented and included lets participants recognize that their thinking matters. All the contributions replace passive attendance or normal meetings. |
|
Social content |
Respectful questions and shared models make knowledge something the group owns, while keeping participants’ real experiences at the center. |
|
Storytelling |
Models carry stories; shared models connect them. Participants build a collective narrative of challenges, discoveries, and possible resolutions. |
I see the eight S’s as a useful tool to check the plan of any workshop and, also as a tool to use for the reflection after its execution. Are we making meaning clear, inviting discovery, and giving everyone a voice? Meanwhile, “writing with bricks” gives me a way to describe what I see in the workshops: people making their thinking visible, explaining it, and building understanding together.
References
Birchard, B. (2021, July–August). The science of strong business writing. Harvard Business Review, 99(4), 139–143.
Very interesting indeed