Lego Play

The entire Lego line of toys and games has been entertaining kids for generations. So it's not so surprising, then, to discover some kids love Lego play even after they're adults, maybe even after they're adults with kids of their own.

The Lego product line has never been about simple fun and games although it is, quite simply, fun. It's based on education that comes through play and creativity. And we continue to learn throughout our lives, regardless of our age.

The company has tapped into the adult Lego play concept by developing a line of products, Lego Serious Play, with business professionals in mind. After all, if playing together means staying together when considering families, couldn't that same concept work in the business world, too?

The Lego play for the corporate arena is more a business consultancy designed to enhance creative and cohesive thinking within a department or company than simply play for playing's sake. The goal is to give business colleagues a unique opportunity, in a fun and nonthreatening setting, to work through problems or difficulties using the Lego bricks and other building tools in a manner that promotes teamwork. And what could possibly be more nonthreatening than a table full of the same toys everyone knew and enjoyed as children?

The concept of Lego play for business professionals got its start at the Lego company itself. The company chairman, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, in Lausanne, Switzerland, understood that it was important to his company and to his employees when they were challenged to continuously evolve and adapt their work strategies to their evolving corporate environment. And who had better tools for learning through playful evolution than Lego itself?

The Lego play for better business concept is based on three fundamental themes - play, constructionism, and imagination. All three elements are represented in Lego products for people of all ages and in all settings.

Lego play means a voluntary activity conducted in a limited, structured situation. There are rules and limits of space and time involved but these constraints just add to the creative imagination and fantasy that makes the Lego Serious Play concept work best.

Lego constructionism says people work together best when they are involved with external projects, projects outside their own personal images or roles, such as when constructing something, be it a machine, a computer program, or perhaps even a sand castle.

Lego imagination as part of the entire Lego playscape requires describing, creating, and then challenging something in order for strategic development to generate the most cohesive means of interplay within a group, be it third-graders, siblings, or your department at work.