The client: The University of Sunderland has been providing higher education in the city since 1901 and proud to be an innovative, accessible, and inspirational university.
Overview: A series of tutorials and lectures that use innovative methods in order to approach learning from a completely different angle.
Brief: To create a learning environment that encourages the use of play to explore complex subjects.
The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method was used to great effect when exploring themes such as, risk analysis, product planning, project scoping and pre-mortem brainstorming. In each case the question, build, share and reflect model is used to create and embed knowledge.
Case Study: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® was used to explore the concept of Total Quality Management [TQM]. Participants characterised the key areas of TQM and then placed the elements into a landscape and linked them. Emergence playing was then used to explore how a organisation would respond to it’s commercial environment in real time.
Key TQM principles weer translated into tangible workshop challenges, such as:
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Customer focus
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Process ownership
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Continuous improvement (Kaizen mindset)
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Root cause awareness
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Cross-functional interdependence
Participants then built physical system models representing:
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The “current state” of quality in the organization
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Bottlenecks and hidden failure points
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The ideal “future-state” quality culture through shared “simple guiding principles”
Outcomes:
Behavioral Impact
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Increased psychological safety in discussions
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Greater shared ownership of process gaps
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Reduction in blame-oriented conversations
Operational Impact
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Clear identification of 4 systemic bottlenecks
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Creation of cross-functional improvement pods
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Agreed quality metrics tied to customer value
Cultural Impact
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Shift from “Quality is QA’s job” → “Quality is everyone’s job”
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Improved language alignment around continuous improvement
The sessions resulted in extremely positive feedback around the use of the method with requests for more sessions in the future.
“I love it when we use the lego pieces in the session, the ideas just stick to my brain and I remember everything in so much detail!”
Related post: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and Academia
