Even Lego is tapping into the design brouhaha. Lego Serious Play encourages businesses to use Lego as a way to make meetings, feedback sessions, brainstorms, etc. more interactive, playful and productive. They encourage team members to get physical and use Legos to communicate ideas. I find this interesting on so many levels:
- You know “Design Thinking” type activities are in vogue when even toy companies are talking about it - the marketing wheels are clearly in high gear.
- Working with your hands to communicate ideas physically has been proven to work, and so embracing this in a low investment, easy way is nice.
- It also removes a lot of the trepidation people may have in communicating ideas visually or physically - for example, you hear consistently, “I’m not good at drawing,” but I doubt you’d hear, “I’m bad at Lego.” The playful nature is sure to help with this.
- Moving meetings into a state of play is a good idea. Play encourages a “flow”-like state by removing pressures and focusing on process.