Lego Serious Play for Team-based Problem Solving and Collaboration

Lego Serious Play is a strategy for facilitating brainstorming, communication and problem solving in teams. Providing an assortment of Legos to individuals engaged in team building and problem solving allows individuals to communicate their thoughts and ideas in a more tangible way, thus allowing for greater participation and diversity of ideas. Our team recently used Lego Serious Play as part of an orientation session for pre-licensure interprofessional students enrolled in a foundational teamwork and collaborative care course. We found that this strategy was successful in facilitating discussion around roles and responsibilities of various learners and how each discipline contributes to the overall patient experience. We also found that students were able to connect on shared vision and goals for improving the healthcare system through greater collaboration. We would like to share this strategy with our colleagues by facilitating a mini-workshop using Serious Play Lego as a mechanism for identifying opportunities for improved team-based problem solving in their own professional environments.Session outline with active learning strategies: 15 min Introduction to Lego Serious Play- Background, Overall Concept, and Ground Rules of Strategy

5 min Warm-Up Build- “Build a tower”

8 min Prompt #1- Build your team’s greatest strength

8 min Prompt #2- Build a problem that your team has been working on at your home institution

8 min Prompt #3- Build your idea for a solution to that problem

15 min- Wrap up and Debriefing: What is one way you could use Lego Serious Play in your work?