Hand-knowledge
The hands know things the mouth does not.
Rule of thumb: most of what people know about their team and their work, they cannot say out loud. Until they build it.
What is LSP?
What is LEGO®
SERIOUS PLAY®?
LSP is a workshop method. People build small models out of bricks. Then they tell the room what each model means. You hear what your team really thinks — not just the safe answer. Five stages. In order. With care.
The thesis
Most of what your team knows about its work, they can’t put into words. Normal meetings only catch what people are willing to say on the spot. That is the safe part. LSP gets the rest out — because people build first and talk second.
The five stages
The order is the method.
You can run one stage. You can run a few. But out of order, or with no story step, you are just running a workshop with bricks. That is not LSP.
- 01default · 15 min
Skill-building
Hands learn before heads. Build a tower. Build a duck. Build a thing that means hope. Get past feeling shy with the bricks.
No deep meaning yet. Just get used to the bricks. Get used to thinking by building.
- 02default · 13 min
Individual model
Each person builds their own answer to one clear question. Alone. With no one talking.
The model is the answer. Not a draft. Not a picture of an answer. Then each person tells the room what each brick means.
- 03default · 30 min
Shared model
Each person’s model joins into one shared model. Bricks shift around. The meaning shifts too.
Don’t aim for agreement. Aim for one thing the group made together. Something they can keep pointing at and arguing with later.
- 04default · 25 min
System model
Add the links. Add the outside players. Add the forces at play. It stops being a list. It starts being a shape.
Lines, arrows, friends, rivals. The model shows what feeds what. And what depends on what.
- 05default · 20 min
Guiding principles
Pull out clear rules. Each one points to bricks that back it up. Take the rules home. Leave the bricks behind.
A rule that can’t point back to a brick does not make the final cut.
Tenets
Four rules that keep it real.
Drop one of these and it stops working.
100% participation
Everyone builds. Everyone shares.
No watchers. No leaning on the loudest voice. If someone will not build, they are in the wrong room. You can say that out loud.
The model owns the meaning
You point at bricks, not at people.
Arguments happen through the model. Move a brick. Cut a line. Stop a metaphor. No one argues with a colleague’s words.
Time-boxed by design
The clock is the point.
Each stage has a timer. The pressure stops people over-thinking. It forces them to pick an answer and live with it.
When to reach for it
Use it when words stop working.
If the team agrees, skip this. If they keep having the same polite talk, you need it.
- 01
Strategy: turn a fuzzy goal into a system the team can defend.
- 02
Team forming: get the real expectations on the table early.
- 03
Retros: get past the safe answers and into what people really noticed.
- 04
Working agreements: write down the unwritten rules. Then change them.
- 05
Big change: after a merger. After a re-org. After a new boss.
On the trademark
The LSP method is open under CC BY-SA 3.0. Anyone can teach it. Anyone can build on it. The names LEGO®, SERIOUS PLAY®, IMAGINOPEDIA, the Minifigure, and the Brick and Knob shapes belong to the LEGO Group.
BrickThink uses the method under the open licence. We do not use the LEGO® names, brick designs, or figures. Our 52 tiles are our own — different names, different look.
The LEGO Group does not sponsor, authorize, or endorse this product.
Run it remotely
Run the five stages online.
BrickThink gives you the five stages, the story, the shared canvas, and the record. Made for teams in different cities.