The Business School is a prestigious, triple-accredited institution within the Russell Group Newcastle University. Located on the landmark Newcastle Helix site in the North East of England, it offers research-led business education with a strong emphasis on responsible leadership, sustainability, and real-world industry collaboration.

Overview: A half-day workshop designed and delivered to introduce the methodology using a “real-time strategy for the team” format to explore new directions within the University.

The session was designed to help unlock existing knowledge within the team, and to highlight potential ways forward and opportunities.  The intention being to enhance the overall effectiveness of organisation and to introduce the method on an experiential level.

Why the method worked:

People at a senior level often discuss issues at a highly abstract level. Building models forces participants to make their assumptions visible and concrete. Allowing thinking that usually remains hidden to become visible.

Senior leadership challenges are rarely solved through analysis alone. Strategy, culture, innovation, and transformation require imagination as well as logic. Engaging both analytical and creative thinking.

Building with LEGO activates:

• Metaphorical thinking

• Systems thinking

• Pattern recognition

• Scenario exploration

This often leads to insights that wouldn’t emerge from PowerPoint presentations or spreadsheets.

It supports systems thinking

Senior management problems are usually interconnected:

• Strategy affects Culture

• Culture affects execution

• Execution affects customer outcomes

LSP allows teams to connect models into larger systems, helping leaders see relationships, dependencies, and unintended consequences that might otherwise be missed.

Outcome: “The LEGO® Serious Play session facilitated by Phil enabled us to explore a particularly challenging topic in an engaging and constructive way. Bringing the senior leadership team together through a playful and creative process allowed us to uncover themes, trends, and patterns that existed across our different perspectives and understandings.

Building models together helped us develop a shared understanding and reach consensus on the key challenges, opportunities, and potential ways forward. The process enabled us to condense complex issues into a clear and simplified set of priorities and next steps.

The session was facilitated exceptionally well, creating an environment in which open and honest discussion could take place. It successfully achieved its purpose by helping us identify and agree our strategic priorities moving forward.”