Case Study
When LEGO® Serious Play® moves from the training room into the real world, something special happens.
This case study explores how Matt Evans, Agile Consultant and co-organiser of Not Another Agile Conference, has taken the principles and practices from the Certified Facilitator LEGO® Serious Play® training and applied them in his own work.
As a member of our very first cohort in July 2025, Matt’s journey offers a practical glimpse into how thoughtful facilitation, curiosity, and a handful of bricks can unlock deeper conversations, shared understanding, and meaningful change.
Using LEGO® Serious Play® to Shape a Leadership Alignment Agenda
Matt Evans doesn’t often get the opportunity to use LEGO® Serious Play® with his current customer, which made this session stand out. It formed part of a two-day leadership alignment event, with twelve leaders coming together to establish focus, alignment, and a way of working that would allow for honest conversation.
The event opened with a LEGO® Serious Play® session. The intention wasn’t to ‘do something different for the sake of it‘, but to create the conditions for meaningful dialogue and to surface what really mattered to people in their roles.
The Challenge
The leadership group needed to:-
• Build trust and psychological safety quickly
• Ensure every voice was heard, not just the loudest
• Surface shared issues affecting people in their roles
• Create a clear focus for the remainder of the two-days
There was an awareness that a traditional discussion-based approach might leave important topics unspoken or politely avoided.
The Session
Matt began with a simple warm-up, asking participants to build a tower. This helped everyone become familiar with the bricks and eased them into the idea of thinking and expressing ideas through building.
Each participant then created a model representing themselves in their current role. One by one, individuals shared their models with the rest of their group, explaining what each element represented and why it mattered. These personal stories quickly shifted the conversation from abstract roles to lived experience.
Next came a series of fast, instinctive builds. Participants were asked to speed build models representing what was helping or hurting them in their role. They built up to four of these additional models and placed them alongside their original representation of themselves.
When they shared again, the picture became richer and more nuanced. Each model now told a story not just of who they were in their role, but of the forces shaping their day-to-day reality.
Making Sense of What Emerged
Participants worked in two groups of six, uncovering common themes across their models and stories. They visualised and shared these insights, building a collective view that informed the next steps.
What emerged was a collective view of the challenges facing the leadership team as a whole, rather than a collection of individual complaints or perspectives.
Importantly, this shared list of issues became the backlog for the remainder of the two-day event. This list guided what the group chose to explore and address, alongside any new topics that surfaced during discussions.
The Impact
The session had a visible effect on both the energy and direction of the event. It created an early sense of trust and openness, giving participants permission to engage honestly and contribute beyond surface-level responses. Themes that emerged during the build continued to influence conversations throughout the two-days, acting as reference points rather than one-off insights.
Instead of serving as a standalone icebreaker, the session established a shared language and mindset that shaped how people interacted, explored ideas, and challenged assumptions across the rest of the event.
Where LEGO® Serious Play®
Added the Most Value
In this case, LEGO® Serious Play® proved particularly valuable at the start of the leadership alignment event, helping to surface shared issues when it mattered most. It ensured equal participation, creating space for every voice to be heard. Most importantly, it allowed the session to be guided by real concerns rather than assumptions, shaping the agenda in a way that reflected what truly mattered to the group.
Facilitator Reflection
For Matt, the session was as much a learning experience as it was a success. Going in, there was a degree of nervousness. The group included strong personalities, sensitive topics, and an open question about how LEGO® Serious Play® would be received.
Before the session I was a little nervous. I knew there were some tough cookies to crack, and there were some tough subjects to cover. I thought there may be a negative connotation towards using LEGO®. Although I’d dry-run the session beforehand, that was very much with friendly forces.
As the session unfolded, different challenges emerged. The conversations were rich and engaging, sometimes pushing beyond the planned timeboxes. Rather than feeling disruptive, this became a clear signal that something meaningful was happening.
The biggest learning for me was the time needed. There were so many instances of where my planned time box had run out but the level of conversation was too good to stop. I would always want to plan for longer than I think necessary going forward.
What stood out most was not just how openly people spoke, but how deeply they listened. Talking to the models, rather than directly to each other, shifted the dynamic and created a level of attention and presence that Matt hadn’t seen before.
The active listening that happened as people talked to the model, not the person, really took things to a new level.
The change in mindset was noticeable, even among those who had been doubtful at the start.
A couple of folk admitted they were sceptical at first, but really liked how rich the conversation was and how many topics were surfaced that might not have been with other approaches.
By the end of the session, any initial doubts had disappeared. Feedback from participants, including those Matt had been most concerned about, reinforced the value of the approach and its ability to unlock conversations that may otherwise have remained unspoken.
After the session I was buzzing. A couple of people I was worried about told me straight away how much they’d enjoyed it. One even said the depth of conversation simply wouldn’t have happened without the LEGO® and the models.
These reflections underline how LEGO® Serious Play®, when thoughtfully facilitated, creates the conditions for deeper dialogue, shared understanding, and meaningful progress, even in challenging contexts.
Curious what this could unlock for you?
Whether you’re looking to deepen your facilitation skills, bring richer conversations into your events, or explore LEGO® Serious Play® as a serious tool for change, there’s a next step waiting.
Find out more about how we could facilitate your next LEGO® Serious Play® session. Let’s discuss how it can be woven into your workshops, training, conferences, and organisational to hold conversations that truly matter.
If you would like to start your own LSP journey, why not take a look at our Certified Practitioner and Certified Facilitator training.
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