A local government agency.
Being a new internal service, the manager identified the team was still building an identity for themselves. It had been a few months into delivering the new service, but they had yet to spend time to create a common goal, a defined purpose that brought the team together and this was holding them back from maximising their impact. The manager knew this had to be dealt with before they could maximise their potential.
That’s when the manager turned to Lego Serious Play.
Having a few new team members can sometimes be a challenge for an organisation, but a whole new team is a next level challenge. So when a local government body decided to create a new internal service to support their staff, they had to think differently to achieve success. Blended from existing staff from different parts of the organisation and new members from the ‘outside’, the manager established a formidable group with an awesome range of skills and knowledge.
LEGO® Serious Play® was used to help them discover and create clarity around a common understanding of their purpose.
The workshop was an eye-opener for the team. Within three hours they had learned so much about the potential, interests, and skills of their colleagues that they hadn’t realised until then.
Each team member was able to share their story and their perspective on the team's purpose. The result was an in-depth understanding and respect of each other's grasp on success. They combined all of these insights into a collective 3D model that represented the overall team purpose. Then the magic happened. They automatically began to talk about the gaps, what was needed, what was already happening, what were tomorrow’s priorities. The best outcome of the session was that they had created a story that each team member could talk to with a shared understanding of the various elements that defined their purpose.
Clarity was visually in front of them represented by a crazy looking LEGO model!
Could you end it here?
But they didn’t stop there. It was time to explore the strengths of the team. This time they knew what to expect and quickly created individual models that represented the strengths they brought to the team. Individual strengths were shared and aligned to team purpose. The team immediately could see how they all contributed to achieving and supporting the team's purpose. It also allowed the team to identify areas to develop.
The Outcome:
The team are now able to describe with clarity, the purpose of their recently formed service. The whole team now understands and respects how each team member brings complimentary skills that enable them to deliver on the team’s that purpose. The confidence and ability to work more effectively, collaboratively has increased since the workshop.
