Durham University’s summer Innovation Fellowship is an intensive eight‑week summer school themed around the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a shared framework for addressing some of the world’s most complex challenges from poverty and inequality to climate change, education and sustainable communities.

The challenge was to create a more engaging and participatory way to explore the SDGs, enabling participants to move beyond discussion and develop a deeper understanding of the relationships between global challenges.

The Approach

Using LEGO® Serious Play®, participants were invited to explore the SDGs through a series of individual and shared building challenges. Rather than simply talking about sustainability, participants were asked to make their ideas tangible. They built models representing challenges, opportunities, relationships and possible futures connected to the Sustainable Development Goals.

The process encouraged participants to:

• Explore their own perspectives
• Make abstract ideas visible
• Share and explain their thinking
• Reframe the core issues
• Listen to alternative viewpoints
• Identify connections between different SDGs
• Explore tensions, dependencies and unintended consequences
• Develop a shared understanding of complex challenges

The physical models became a starting point for deeper conversations and reflection.

Making Complexity Visible

One of the most powerful aspects of the workshops was the ability to visualise the interconnected nature of the SDGs. For example participants could build relationships between issues such as:

• Climate change and sustainable communities
• Education and inequality
• Health and economic opportunity
• Responsible consumption and environmental protection
• Partnerships and systemic change
• Gender inequality and clean water

By bringing individual models together into a shared landscape, participants were able to see how one challenge could influence another and how solutions in one area could create new opportunities or unintended consequences elsewhere.

The Workshop Experience

Participants first built their own responses to questions related to the SDGs. Each person then shared the story behind their model, creating space for different perspectives and experiences to be heard. The group then moved towards collaboration, connecting models and exploring the wider system landscape.

Reflection questions encouraged participants to consider:

What is missing from the system?

Where are the greatest opportunities for change?

Who needs to be involved?

What happens if one part of the system changes?

What action could create the greatest impact?

This created a shift from simply understanding the SDGs to considering how people, organisations and communities might contribute to meaningful change.

The Impact

The workshops created a more accessible and engaging way to explore complex sustainability challenges.

Participants were able to:

• Make complex issues tangible
• Explore multiple perspectives
• Recognise the interconnections between the SDGs
• Identify barriers and opportunities
• Develop shared understanding
• Consider potential actions and partnerships
• Reflect on their own role within wider systems

The use of LEGO® Serious Play® also created an environment where everyone had the opportunity to contribute. Instead of relying on the most confident voices in the room, the process gave participants a physical and visual way to express ideas, perspectives and possibilities.

Why LEGO® Serious Play®?

The SDGs are complex, interconnected and often difficult to explore through traditional discussion alone. LEGO® Serious Play® helped transform abstract ideas into something visible, tangible and discussable.

Building provided a different way to think. Participants could use metaphor, symbolism and physical models to explore issues that can otherwise be difficult to articulate. Most importantly, the process created a shared language for discussing complex challenges. The models were not the final outcome, they were tools for thinking, questioning and creating better conversations.

The Outcome / key insights

The workshops demonstrated how creative, participatory approaches can help people engage more deeply with the Sustainable Development Goals. By building together, participants were able to explore not only what a sustainable future might look like, but also the systems, relationships and actions needed to help create it.

The experience reinforced a simple idea: Sometimes, the best way to explore a complex challenge is to make it tangible, build it, and look at it from a different perspective.

In addition: sustainability challenges are rarely isolated. The SDGs are connected by people, systems, decisions and relationships. LEGO® Serious Play® provided a way to make those connections visible, helping participants move from abstract goals to shared understanding, meaningful conversation and possibilities for action.

Attendee testimonials:

“The experience was fun, thought-provoking and genuinely different from a traditional workshop.”

“The workshop created a safe space to explore complex issues, challenge our assumptions and think about possible solutions.”

“The experience is demanding but incredibly eye-opening, we loved it!”