Everything you wanted to know about the LEGO® Serious Play® method, but were afraid to ask..

Why are employee learning and development important?

Employee learning and development are crucial for any company as they lead to numerous benefits, including:

• Increased productivity and efficiency: When employees are given the opportunity to acquire new skills and knowledge, they can perform their tasks more effectively and efficiently. These skills are something they gain for themselves.
• Greater job satisfaction and engagement: Employees who recognize that their employer invests in their growth and development will be more satisfied with their jobs and more engaged at work.
• Employee retention: Companies that invest in employee learning and development are more likely to retain their employees, which generally reduces operational costs, including recruitment, onboarding, and knowledge drain.
• Better adaptation to change: Employees who regularly learn and develop are better prepared to adapt to changes in their (new) roles, companies, customers, and different business segments within their industry.
• Competitive advantage: Companies that invest in employee learning and development can better attract and retain key employees, ultimately giving them a competitive advantage in the market.

Employee learning and development should ideally be divided into two categories:

• Professional development
• Development of in-demand soft skills:
• Negotiation
• Learning Strategies
• Judgment and Decision Making
• Critical Thinking
• Active Learning and Listening…

Methods of employee learning and development

Today, there are many different methods that companies can use to support their employees' learning and development. Some common methods include:

• On-the-job training: This method involves employees learning new skills and knowledge while performing their regular job duties. This can include mentoring programs, shadowing, and job rotations.
• Traditional training: This method involves employees attending (more or less) formal training sessions, which can be led by an internal trainer or an external provider. Training can be held live, online, or hybrid.
• E-learning: This method involves employees completing online training courses.
• Conferences and workshops: This method involves employees gaining professional development by attending various conferences, seminars, and workshops.
• Coaching and mentoring: This method involves employees receiving guidance and feedback from more experienced employees/colleagues (a very valuable and important way for employee development).
• Self-paced training: This method involves employees taking responsibility for their own learning and development. This can be a good approach, but unlike e-learning where content is designed and organized in a logical sequence, employees may struggle to structure their own learning effectively here.

And finally, we have:

• Gamification, simulation, and project-based learning: These methods engage employees in simulated scenarios and game-based and real-life project activities relevant to their job or industry.

Previously, we always combined "traditional training" with simulated scenarios relevant to a specific company. However, it's time to take a step forward.

Gamification, or what is LEGO® Serious Play®

We will focus on gamification. One widely accepted gamification method is Lego® Serious Play®. All of us have had the opportunity to play with Lego® bricks at least once, and now we will see that we should never put Lego® bricks down. Neither us, nor our employees, and especially not our children.

Lego® Serious Play® helps develop organizations, build high-performing teams, improve recruitment processes, and resolve conflicts. LSP is a scientifically developed method that has helped companies and organizations cope with complexity, increase dialogue, unlock employee potential, manage change, and much more since 1999.

Given that LSP is learning through building play, it promotes problem-solving and spatial reasoning/judgment skills. LSP also requires planning and visualization, just like playing with Lego® bricks itself, which aids employees in their cognitive development.

Spatial Reasoning Skills

Spatial reasoning skills refer to the ability to understand and manipulate objects and their relationships in space. These skills are important for a wide range of tasks, including navigation, spatial visualization, and problem-solving. Brain areas associated with spatial reasoning skills include the parietal cortex, premotor cortex, and superior temporal sulcus.

Creativity

Today, the business situation places increasing demands on employee creativity. A structured way of life has "killed the child within us"; however, spatial reasoning skills and creativity are closely linked, as both involve the ability to think about and manipulate objects in new and innovative ways, "outside the box." Lego® and LSP are excellent tools for developing creativity, as the "open-ended nature" of the Lego® method and well-designed LSP scenarios allow for countless possibilities.

What does LSP do to our brain?

In addition to developing spatial reasoning and related creativity, LSP activates several brain areas associated with various cognitive functions. "Playing" primarily activates the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobe. These brain regions are responsible for problem-solving, spatial reasoning, and working memory. As you build more complex structures, you must consider the relationships between different parts of the structure and how they all fit together to form a cohesive whole.

Playing with LEGO® bricks, or LSP, also activates the limbic system, which is associated with emotions, motivation, and pleasure. The act of building and creating with LEGO® bricks is an enjoyable and gratifying experience, which will stimulate the release of dopamine, contributing to feelings of satisfaction and well-being. Needless to say, LSP will also encourage the social component, activating brain areas associated with social interaction, such as the mirror neuron system, which can help in understanding and empathizing with others.

In short, LSP will activate several brain areas, including those related to problem-solving, spatial reasoning, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, emotions, and social interaction.

LSP and Soft Skills

LSP will have a positive impact on developing soft skills. The foundation of Lego and LSP is building something that is moderated by the facilitator as a collaborative and interactive process. This will help in developing soft skills such as communication, collaboration, and teamwork. LSP and Lego® ensure that employees must communicate effectively, listen to the ideas of others, and find ways to collaborate to achieve a common goal. This will help improve communication skills and teach how to compromise and resolve problems (and potential conflicts).

LSP and critical thinking

LSP will also have a positive effect on critical thinking as it requires planning, problem-solving, and spatial reasoning. Building with LEGO® bricks demands visualization and manipulation of parts to fit together in a stable and coherent way. This process will help us develop critical thinking skills. Planning, problem-solving, and spatial reasoning, along with the need to consider how parts will fit together, how to assemble them to remain stable, and reflecting on the relationships between different parts of the structure while solving a specific problem, will help us develop and improve our critical thinking skills.

The open-ended nature of LEGO® allows for endless possibilities in terms of building and creation. Both children and adults can let their imaginations run wild while building with LEGO® bricks, devising new and unique designs, and experimenting with different shapes and colors. This can help foster creativity and encourage the exploration of new ideas. Also, by combining LEGO® with other materials such as paper, fabrics, etc., children and adults can explore more possibilities and use their creativity and critical thinking to advance their building skills.

Of course, all of this will contribute to better judgment and decision-making.

In conclusion, LSP and LEGO® can be a fun and engaging way to develop critical thinking skills, such as planning, problem-solving, and spatial reasoning. It can be beneficial for both children and adults, as people of all ages can enjoy it, and it can help foster creativity and encourage the exploration of new ideas.

Prefrontal cortex, parietal lobes of the brain, mirror neurons

To better understand how our brain functions during play, especially with Lego® bricks, we will explain the three most important "components" of our brain involved in playing:

• Prefrontal cortex
• Parietal lobe, and
• Mirror neurons

Prefrontal cortex

The prefrontal cortex and parietal lobe are two brain areas believed to play an important role in games. The prefrontal cortex, located at the front of the brain, is responsible for a range of cognitive functions including planning, decision-making, working memory, and attention. The parietal (parietal) lobe, located near the top and back of the brain, is responsible for processing spatial information and integrating sensory information from different parts of the body.

During play, both the prefrontal cortex and the parietal lobe are thought to be highly engaged. Lego® play often requires employees to plan ahead, make quick decisions, and use working memory to track game elements. These tasks activate the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for these cognitive functions. Additionally, Lego® bricks involve spatial navigation and require players (employees) to manipulate objects in a three-dimensional environment. This activates the parietal lobe, which is responsible for processing spatial information and integrating sensory information.

The prefrontal cortex is responsible for the following range of functions:

• Executive functions: include planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and working memory. The prefrontal cortex plays a key role in these functions by helping to direct attention, organize thoughts and actions, and retain relevant information in mind.

• Regulation of emotions and behavior: The prefrontal cortex is thought to play a role in regulating emotions, impulses, and social behavior. It helps inhibit inappropriate actions and thoughts and can modulate the activity of the limbic system, which is associated with emotions and motivation.

• Attention and working memory: The prefrontal cortex is involved in directing attention and maintaining focus. It also plays a role in working memory, allowing us to retain information in active memory and manipulate it to solve problems.

• Social cognition: The prefrontal cortex is also thought to play a role in social cognition, which includes understanding and interpreting the thoughts and emotions of others. We become more emotionally intelligent.

• Self-awareness: The prefrontal cortex is believed to be involved in self-awareness, the ability to understand oneself and to reflect on one's own thoughts and emotions.

Parietal lobe

In addition to the prefrontal cortex, the parietal lobe plays the next important role, as we mentioned. The parietal lobe is located near the top and back of the brain. It is responsible for various functions, including:

• Sensory processing: The parietal lobe receives information from the senses, including touch, temperature, pressure, and pain. It also plays a role in integrating this information from different parts of the body to create a coherent perception of the world.

• Spatial awareness: The parietal lobe is also responsible for spatial awareness, which allows us to understand and navigate our environment. It helps us perceive the position and movements of our bodies, as well as the position and movement of objects around us.

• Motor control: It is also involved in controlling movement, including planning and coordinating hand and arm movements.

• Mathematical and numerical processing: The parietal lobe is thought to play a role in mathematical and numerical processing, including understanding numbers and mathematical concepts.

• Language processing: It is also thought to play a role in language processing, particularly in understanding written and spoken language.

Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons are a type of neuron in the brain that activate when an individual performs a specific action and when they observe another person performing that same action. They were first discovered in the 1990s in the premotor cortex of monkeys, but have since been found in other brain areas, including the inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus in humans. These neurons are thought to play a role in a wide range of behaviors, including social cognition, empathy, and language. Neuroscientists believe that the mirror neuron system could be a key component of the neural basis of human social behavior. Professor Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, an American neuroscientist from San Diego, attributes an important role to them in our understanding of humanity – empathy, language, and generally in the emergence of human culture. A group of Italian researchers from the University of Parma, Giacomo Rizzolatti, Vittorio Gallese, Luciano Fadiga, and Leonardo Fogassi, published their research results on monkeys in 1996. Using an electrode placed in a part of the brain, they found that a group of nerve cells (neurons) activates when a monkey performs a specific action (e.g., takes a peanut), but that this same group of neurons becomes active when the monkey merely observes a researcher performing the same action.

Before the discovery of mirror neurons, scientists generally believed that the human brain used logical reasoning to interpret and predict the actions of others. Now, however, many believe that we understand other people not by thinking, but by feeling.

It seems that mirror neurons allow us to predict not only another person's action but to understand the intention and feelings underlying those actions. If, for example, we see someone laughing, our mirror neurons for smiling will also activate, creating a feeling in our mind associated with a smile. Immediately and effortlessly, we will have a similar experience. Research on mirror neurons helps neuroscientists find the basis of social interactions. This research leads to new insights into how, when, and why we develop empathy for other people. Generally, through the study of mirror neurons, scientists gain valuable information about certain diseases characterized by poorer or weaker social interaction (autism, schizophrenia…).

End

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” We would add: and touch, build, enjoy, discuss.

Today we have many ways of learning at our disposal, however, LSP allows for the development of our cognitive abilities, but also valuable human skills such as empathy, and consequently emotional intelligence, etc.

Of course, with LSP, we will also solve all the "standard" issues that are or can be problems in our companies.

LSP, through an innovative and different approach that encourages the engagement of all participants, helps us with:

• Developing teams, team leaders, and employees
• Improving mutual team understanding
• Defining team values
• Aligning views and approaches on a topic or problem
• Developing new knowledge and ideas
• Fostering new ways of thinking and perspectives on a situation to arrive at innovative solutions
• Managing change
• Group decision-making
• Problem-solving and conflict resolution…