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workshop debriefs

Family Workshops at the Discovery Center of Idaho

Russell · May 28, 2019 ·

Last week I had an opportunity to participate in Discovery Center of Idaho’s Bricks exhibit. I offered a two hour LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop for families with kids 10 years old and up. The big question we explored was “What challenges must we solve before our ten year olds have ten year olds?” This proved to be a perfect context, and several key insights were uncovered.

Before I jump into the debrief though, I must plug the awesome work that went into the Bricks exhibit. It is really well thought out, and goes way beyond what I anticipated. It is great for kids and adults, and if you haven’t been yet, make it a priority. Find out more about Bricks.

Skill Building

As with any LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshop, the first hour is skill building; guiding participants through why and how LEGO SERIOUS PLAY works, exploring the core process, and demonstrating the difference between building from instructions versus building from your imagination. It was a little bit slow to start, but we eventually “got of the ground”, and by the time we built the final model in skill building we had all sorts of towers that generated energy, ranging from solar to wind to nuclear power.

Identifying challenges faced by ten year olds today

The first individual models that I asked participants to build were to represent one challenge that ten year olds face currently. This was where the power of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY really shone through, as the answers were very big problems indeed. We had some models that you might expect; global warming, gun violence and lack of access to quality education. There were a few models that spoke to the gravity of the situation that ten year olds face today; bullying due to appearance, anxiety from crowds, and lack of social skills.

The second round of individual model building resulted in another round of challenges, including: sexism and racism, food health and security, bad educational foundations, lack of clean water, inability to acquire wealth, pollution from fossil fuels, and parental incarceration. Keep in mind that most of these answers came from kids ages 10 – 12.

The challenge landscape

Once we had individual models on the table, we created a landscape model, where each participant negotiated the placement of their model on the table, relative to others. The closer the two things were to one another in space, the closer they were related. The fact that all of these models had some relationship with other models on the table was obvious, and the realization was a somewhat stark moment. The sharing and reflection that happened in response to the landscape was a very intense moment. Within less than 90 minutes, we had got to the realization of just how serious these challenges were. I almost felt the mood of the room turning to a pretty dark place, so I quickly got to the final prompt, which was intended to leave everyone on a positive note, and feeling empowered.

What can I do about it?

Feeling the weight of these challenges, I asked participants to build a model that represented one thing that they could do right now, to address one or more of these problems. Some of the solutions were incredible. One model for example, was that they could work with their school to help identify and prevent bullying. Another, was to help fundraise for organizations that provide scholarships for under privileged youth. Another was to support companies that are innovating in the green energy space.

At the end of the day, participants left with a clear understanding of the challenges that are facing ten year olds today, and actionable steps that they could take to improve the situation. We didn’t solve all of the worlds problems, but I feel like we made a dent.


LEGO, SERIOUS PLAY, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this website.
© 2021 The LEGO Group

Hackfort LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Workshop Debrief

Russell · Apr 6, 2019 ·

Last month, I participated in an event here in Boise called Hackfort, part of a festival know as Treefort. The whole experience was great, and I enjoyed meeting so many talented people in my community. I was also honored to be accepted to do a LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshop as part of the Hackfort experience.

Along with my co-facilitator, Christian Kilpatrick, we planned a great two-hour workshop where participants would explore trends in the “tech industry” and identify skills that they can develop to better their chances of success in a STEM career. I had my LEGO bricks neatly sorted, my slides prepared, a fresh haircut, plenty of charged batteries for both my DSLR and GoPros. With 24 hours until my workshop, I was excited, and well prepared. Or so I thought.

The stop-motion workshop

One of the workshops that I was most looking forward to, as a participant, was one on how to shoot stop-motion video using LEGO bricks. Jared Jacobs (@goldyeller), a seemingly famous animator, was setting up his workshop, so I dropped in early to see if he needed help. We chatted for a bit, and I let him know that over the past two days, the room that we were both presenting in had drawn an average of 30 people per session. Like me, he had no idea how many people to anticipate.

Well, it is a good thing that the fire martial wasn’t there, because I’m pretty sure the room was over the maximum capacity. Every chair was full, some kids were sitting in their parents’ laps, and there were another 30 plus people sitting criss-cross, apple-sauce, on the floor. There were at least 80 people in the room, and probably half (or more) were kids. Jared was pleasantly surprised and humbled by the participation, and he delivered an awesome workshop. If you haven’t seen his work, absolutely take a moment and check out the rest of his videos on his youtube channel. The time and attention to detail he puts in is astounding.

Then panic set in

I was mentally prepared for 30 to 40 people to attend my workshop. What I hadn’t factored into the participant equation, was that in addition to Hackfort, there was also a Kidfort. And since we were both playing with LEGO bricks, naturally, we pulled from both forts. I realized that there would be no way that the workshop I was planning would scale to 70 or 80 people, in fact 40 was already pushing it. I went straight home that night (about 18 hours before my workshop started), and decided to go back to the drawing board, and find something that wouldn’t require as much input from the facilitators. And something, that hopefully, would be more appropriate to the younger audience.

Thankfully, I found a great plan-b idea from LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® facilitator, Mike Bowler, from Gargoyle Software. He had a couple of great resources on his website, including a one page inventory of the Window Exploration Bag, and a simple model to use while building from instructions. What was really nice, was that he had published several workshops that were geared towards software development. I realized that I could use his Simplicity, and Test Driven Development (TDD) workshops, and that they would be much easier to scale up to a group as large as the one I feared might show up.

Skill Building was ROUGH

What I hadn’t seen the day before, and simply wasn’t prepared to deal with, was the age of some of the participants. Unfortunately, the workshop description wasn’t exactly clear that the workshop would be Hard Fun. There were a number of very young kids (as in 3 or 4 years old), who heard LEGO and thought they would just get to play and build whatever they wanted. Making them build specific things, and especially building from instructions led to a few mini-meltdowns. To top the whole experience off, there was also a jam session going on outside my room, which consisted of probably 50+ drummers and guitar players, so I also had to talk over a rock concert.

After what seemed like the longest hour of my life, I decided that a single-function break was absolutely necessary, and actually hoped that presenting an opportunity for some of the already melted-down participants to leave without feeling guilty. I also decided, that even the TDD part of my presentation was going to be too much, and once again, I would need to audible from my game-plan.

Hour two was magical

Unsurprisingly, most of the under ten years old crowd, had had enough, and decided not to return for the second hour. Normally, participants leaving half-way through a session, would be depressing, but in this case, it was a relief. The remaining audience was mostly older than twelve years old, and was much better suited for what I was hoping to do. I did a quick poll of the roughly 20 remaining participants, who were happy to go into the software related portion that I had initially planned. We quickly went through the simplicity exercise, which yielded some amazing minimalist models, and into part one (the pair programming) part of the TDD exercise. For the first time, I felt like things were finally going well. And the rock concert got rained out, which meant I could stop using the microphone.

In the end, there were about six models built using TDD, and one final shared model that the entire group built using TDD. It was an amazing experience, and I think that everyone who stuck through the entire two and a half hours, got a lot out of it.

What I learned

The importance of controlling the audience and the room. If you’re not in control these factors, you may have surprises that can totally derail the entire workshop. I’m convinced, that if I do any workshop where kids might be present, that I’ll be very clear about which workshop is for kids, and which is for adults.

All said, Hackfort was a ton of fun, and I’m so glad that I presented, and learned a lot from the experience.


LEGO, SERIOUS PLAY, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this website.
© 2021 The LEGO Group

Happy Family LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Workshop Debrief

Russell · Apr 6, 2019 ·

My first real “professional” LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshop was with a company here in Boise called Happy Family Organics. My colleague, one of the Food Scientists in the the Research & Development team, asked me to work with his team, for a two hour session. The goal of the workshop was to better understand how the team responds to challenges. We used a combination of Application Technique 1 (AT1) Building Individual Models, and Application Technique 2 (AT2) Building Shared Models, to represent challenges that the team has faced in the past, and how they responded to those challenges. At the end of the workshop, we had a shared model on the table representing the most important things to do when facing a challenge.

I had a great time working with this group, and it was great to see the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY model working in action. I feel like all of the participants left having unlocked new knowledge, and a better understanding of how they can overcome obstacles.

 


LEGO, SERIOUS PLAY, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this website.
© 2021 The LEGO Group

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Workshop at Up Makerspace Recap

Russell · Apr 6, 2019 · Leave a Comment

After becoming certified in the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method, I was encouraged by my trainer, Kristen to “DSS” or “Do Something Soon.” The idea being that the sooner I practice facilitating a workshop using the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method, the better I would retain what I learned during the four-day training workshop. And, DSS I did. I immediately scheduled a workshop at my go-to makerspace (Up Makerspace), and invited members to participate in a free, two-hour workshop.

For my first workshop, I’d say it went about as well as I could have hoped. I invited my friend and colleague, Christian Kilpatrick of Brick Six Creative to join me as a co-facilitator. There were a total of eight attendees, of which half were kids, and half were adults.

What went well

First of all, everyone had fun, and for a workshop with kids that in and of itself is a huge success. Even the youngest participant gave it her full 100% attention, and was more than happy to participate in the sharing parts of the workshop. Second, everyone got excited about the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method, and I got great feedback about why it is important to make things (fitting for a makerspace). Third, I got great experience, and learned some important things to do when planning a workshop, and some things to avoid.

What could have been better

The biggest flaw in the workshop plan was that it was not intended for kids, and some of the younger participants had a hard time. A couple of the questions didn’t make sense, and one participant in particular had a hard time remaining in the flow state. The building from instructions portion of the skill building was quite difficult for him, and took more tech support than I anticipated.

What I learned

Overall, we had a great time, and we all learned from the experience. If I had to do it again, I would probably do something just for kids, and something else just for adults. I would also build a little bit more flexibility into my questions, so that I could simplify the questions if need be.


LEGO, SERIOUS PLAY, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this website.
© 2021 The LEGO Group

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