Bricks in the Boardroom: How Playing With LEGOs Saves Companies

As the wheels of growing up keep turning, there is usually that sinking feeling that creeps up on us accompanied by a mourning for a childlike curiousity and creativitiy that the cynical adults in us see as long gone.

What if we told you that the five-year-old in you never died and that everyone has that inner "play mode" on standby?

Myke Santos transitioned out of the corporate world to champion the offbeat philosophy called LEGO Serious Play, which is exactly what it sounds like.

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With origins from the LEGO group itself, LSP aims to use these plastic bricks to help organizations, ranging from multinational companies to small and medium enterprises —navigate change, team alignment, and strategic planning.

Santos says there isn't an industry where this method cannot work because "everybody in the coprorate world has been five-years-old at a certain point."

Think of it as an antidote to the overly-serious tone of the corporate world.

Give a skeptical CEO a bunch of LEGO bricks and within 20 minutes, his inner child will do the work.

The LSP method isn't new age mumbo jumbo, it's fusion of the creative and logical sections of your brain in a space that is safe for people to share perspectives that challenge assumptions, without making it personal.

A LEGO Serious Play Method workshop

Immediate reactions of even top business executives who are first briefed on the method range from excitement to cynicism. Most of them haven't played with LEGOs since they were wee little boys and are understandably skeptical when their operations are on the line.

It usually only takes less than 30 minutes for the LSP method to take shape and break through initial resistance.

"The child wins over. And they realize that telling a story, using metaphor, you just really need to trust your hands when you build," Santos, who heads Brick Management Consulting Inc., told Esquire Philippines in an interview.

He partnered with one of the pioneers and master trainers of the LSP method from Denmark, Per Kristiansen, and to brought home official certification for the methodology to the Philippines. Since jumpstarting this movement, they have certified over 70 facilitators of the method.

So why does he intend to rebuild effective management strategies "Brick by Brick" with Legos that you have stepped on as a kid than actually played with?

Myke says his philosophy rests on the belief that the world is in a constant state of complex disruption, and that the innate human ability and longing to play could solve corporate woes.

These bricks allow people to build meaning with their hands, much like a concept in psychology called constructionism.

Simply put, the theory is centered around actively building one's own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiences rather than passively receiving information.

Myke Santos

"If we are in a world that is changing, and that change is getting more complex and faster... the perfect way to deal with that kind of change is a mindset of play," he said.

It just makes sense. A world of unprecented change with fluctuating trade policies and business environments doesn't demand for more of the same.

These times call for simpler solutions that tap into your deep-seated beliefs via your limbic system.

So, it's all about letting your hands tell truths that your words can't accomplish.

"You just really need to trust your hands when you build. Because when you use your hands, you use a different part of your brain.”

It's easy to fall back into tunnel vision when you're in a corporate setting, resulting in a myopic way of thinking that may feel like being stuck in the mud.

"If I can get team members in a team or in an executive team to tell me a story by building with Lego what success looks like for them, then that's a more powerful way of showing you a more visual, tactile, and powerful metaphorical way of showing you what story do we want to have rather than simply showing you numbers," according to Santos.

This unorthodox avenue for conflict resolution also attributes its effectivements to an elimination of egos among peers and underlings within a company.

Santos argues that using Legos as metaphors and visual representations of ideas encourages a safe environment for a cathartic expression of sentiments.

“It's hard for me to take something personally. If I'm talking about a model, so suddenly it's not personal," he said.

"Just because you’re more senior than me, doesn’t mean that you can build Legos and tell stories better than me."

“When you put it on a table, literally, all your bricks... then you realize that your perspective may be limited and that you do benefit from a bigger perspective.”

Compared to something like sculpting things out of clay, which often requires an inordinate amount of skill to create something of quality, Lego evens the playing field.

Playing brings people together and helps unlock a layer of empathy, a human side to the otherwise black and white relationship betwene employer and employee.

"You can see really what I'm talking about. So you know the expression, 'I see what you're talking about.' Literally, you can see what we're talking about."

Breakthroughs often happen during these Lego workshops, without a shortage of tears shed and familial rifts mended.

Santos talked about family business that had two sublings —CEO and department head—who hadn't spoken in months. One closed door talk on the backdrop of a bunch of plastic bricks later, resentment was water under the bridge.

Myke himself has a 17-year-old son, so he knows why it's crucial give executives permission to be a little kid again. It's about being curious.

"One of the things that you get out of the workshop is clarity of your own thoughts. Because when I build using my hands, tapping into the creative and logical parts of my brain, I build something that means something to me," according to Santos.

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