Ever sat in a faculty meeting where the only thing being built was frustration? Yeah, me too.
Turns out, there's a weirdly effective fix that started with plastic bricks. Shared leadership lessons adapting Lego Serious Play higher education isn't just a mouthful of buzzwords — it's a real shift in how campuses can stop talking past each other and start building something together That's the whole idea..
And if you're picturing kindergarten vibes, hold that thought. This goes deeper than playtime Not complicated — just consistent..
What Is Shared Leadership Lessons Adapting Lego Serious Play Higher Education
Here's the thing — most people hear "Lego" and mentally check out. But Lego Serious Play (often shortened to LSP) is a facilitated method where people use bricks to model their thoughts. Not decorate. That said, not prototype a product. Model their thinking.
So when we talk about shared leadership lessons adapting Lego Serious Play higher education, we mean taking that hands-on, everyone-builds approach and using it to teach and practice leadership across a university or college. Not top-down. Shared.
In practice, it looks like this: a cohort of students, lecturers, and maybe admin staff sit down. Everyone gets the same brick set. Now, " — and everyone builds an answer silently. A question gets asked — "What does good collaboration look like in our department?Then they tell the story of their model.
Real talk — this step gets skipped all the time.
Not Just a Workshop Toy
The core idea is that hands-on building accesses parts of your brain that slides and spreadsheets don't. You're not performing an answer. You're constructing one. That matters in higher ed, where so much "leadership development" is someone reading a framework at you.
Shared, Not Distributed
Quick distinction. Here's the thing — "Distributed leadership" often means tasks get spread around. Consider this: adapting LSP to higher education pushes toward the second one. Still, everyone in the room has a model. Shared leadership means influence, voice, and meaning-making are genuinely collective. Everyone's model counts Small thing, real impact..
Why It Matters / Why People Care
Why does this matter? Because most universities are drowning in hierarchy and starved for trust Simple, but easy to overlook..
Real talk: students rarely feel like leaders. Still, junior lecturers feel even less so. When a campus tries to "develop leaders," it usually means sending a few people to a course. And senior staff are often too buried in strategy docs to notice. The rest absorb nothing Easy to understand, harder to ignore..
Shared leadership lessons adapting Lego Serious Play higher education flips that. On top of that, it makes leadership a group muscle, not a title. Plus, a first-year student's brick tower about "feeling heard" can reshape how a program director thinks about office hours. Here's the thing — that's not soft. That's structural.
And here's what most people miss — the method surfaces quiet voices. In a normal meeting, the loudest person wins. In an LSP session, the person who struggles to speak in meetings builds a model and suddenly has a clear story. The room listens differently.
How It Works (or How to Do It)
The short version is: you don't just hand out bricks and hope. You design the session.
Start With a Safe Question
Don't open with "How do we fix the department?Consider this: " Too big. That said, too loaded. Day to day, start smaller. In real terms, "Build a model of a time you felt part of a team. That said, " Or "Show me what gets in the way of your learning. " People ease in through metaphor.
Build Individually, Then Share
This is non-negotiable. In practice, then each person presents their model in under two minutes. Consider this: " Not "Why did you do that? Silent building first. No whispering, no copying. So the facilitator asks one follow-up: "What's the strongest part of your model? " — that puts people on defense.
Connect the Models
After everyone shares, the group looks for links. Day to day, "Three of us built walls. Two built bridges.On top of that, " That's data. Not survey data — lived data. In shared leadership lessons adapting Lego Serious Play higher education, this moment is where the "shared" part actually happens. But you're not agreeing on a answer. You're seeing the system Turns out it matters..
Move to a Shared Build
Now the room builds one model together. A "vision of shared leadership in our course" or "our ideal research group." They negotiate with bricks. Someone wants a tall tower; someone else wants a wide base. They talk it out. Practically speaking, that argument? That's the lesson.
Debrief Like Adults
Close by naming what shifted. "I didn't know you felt that way about group work." "I see now why the timetable stresses people." The bricks are gone, but the insight sticks.
Common Mistakes / What Most People Get Wrong
Honestly, this is the part most guides get wrong. Because of that, they treat LSP like a fun icebreaker. It isn't.
One mistake: letting the senior person present first. That sets the tone and everyone else aligns to it. Facilitators should mix the order or go random.
Another: too many bricks or too few. In real terms, if you give a bin of 5,000 pieces, they freeze. A standard LSP set has range. If you give people a tiny box, they can't express. Get the right kit.
And look — some lecturers think this is beneath their students. Now, using bricks removes the pressure of saying the "right" academic thing. "They're adults, not children." But the method isn't childish. On the flip side, it's cognitive. That's why it works in higher ed specifically.
Also, don't skip the debrief. In practice, pointless. I've seen sessions where people build, share, and leave. The reflection is where leadership gets rehearsed.
Practical Tips / What Actually Works
Here's what actually works if you're trying this on a campus.
Run it in a neutral space. Not the seminar room with the terrible chairs. Consider this: book a common room or library studio. Environment shapes honesty.
Train a student facilitator. Plus, a trained peer with an LSP kit gets different answers. Seriously. A lecturer-led session can feel assessed. Shared leadership lessons adapting Lego Serious Play higher education works best when the power imbalance shrinks And that's really what it comes down to..
Use it for real decisions. Don't just "explore values.Now, " Use it before a new module launch. "Build how this course should feel at week six." Then actually read those models when you design the schedule.
Keep groups small. Four to six people. Any bigger and the shared build turns into a spectator sport.
And one more — document the models. In practice, photo them. Now, not for grading. For memory. A brick model of "our research culture" pinned on the virtual board keeps the conversation alive next term That's the whole idea..
FAQ
Can Lego Serious Play work with postgrads and staff together? Yes. That's where it's strongest. The bricks level the room. A PhD student and a dean both look slightly silly — and that's the point. They meet as builders, not ranks Simple, but easy to overlook..
Do we need certified Lego Serious Play facilitators? Not strictly. The method has a license, but many educators adapt it unofficially. Learn the core rules (silent build, equal voice, metaphor first) and you'll be fine. Certification helps for big institutional work.
Isn't this just arts and crafts? No. It's structured sense-making. The difference is the questioning and the debrief. Cut those and yes, it's crafts. Keep them and it's leadership practice The details matter here..
How long should a session be? Ninety minutes is the floor. Two hours is better. Anything under an hour becomes a gimmick.
What if someone refuses to engage? Don't force it. Usually they watch, then build something small by session two. The method wins quiet skeptics through peers, not pressure.
The weird thing about shared leadership lessons adapting Lego Serious Play higher education is how fast the room changes. Think about it: that's not nothing on a campus that runs on misunderstanding. People walk in expecting a gimmick and walk out with a clearer picture of each other. Grab some bricks, ask a real question, and let the quiet people build Turns out it matters..
