Part of the Magic is Joy
The LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method is global. It transcends across all countries, cultures and languages. It does its magic equally well for remote Indian villages, Fortune 500s, government, education and everything in between. The magic is facilitated by a global community of trained facilitators that gather on a regular basis to learn from each other and ensure consistent global quality and delivery. One of the topics for the latest community conference in Singapore was ‘Joy-FULL LEGO SERIOUS PLAY’. I asked Dr. BeeLeng Seow, one of the facilitators attending, to share her knowledge and insights about the power of JOY!
Joy is a Language
Joy is part of a universal language of emotions that all of us recognize. The laughter is enjoyable and contagious in a ‘serious’ learning space. Research findings indicate joy stimulates learning and emerges when learners ‘own’ their learning process. In a LEGO SERIOUS PLAY learning space of colourful LEGO bricks, the joy of participation includes being highly engaged in the task of model building, evoking curiosity as they build the answers with their hands, and replacing fear and anxiety with a sense of wonder and possibilities. In the participants’ story-telling about their models, the conversations build relationships. It is comfortable to be vulnerable in making mistakes and the joy of imperfection naturally builds a sense of togetherness. Participants let down their defences and are more open to explore.
Laughter is Social Communication
At the physiological level, joy and laughter decrease levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine, and activate the brain’s dopamine reward system. When we play with the bricks, and build the 3D models responding to questions, the light-hearted moments can ease tension of the discussion and raise our spirits for the ideas of possibilities. Laughter provides an antidote to emotions, for example, the feelings of frustration, disappointment, bitterness and helplessness. If we are able to laugh during the building of the ‘nightmare’ LEGO model of a challenging customer experience, we can put some psychological distance between ourselves and the stress experienced in the past encounters. When participants are engaged and feel minimal stress, information flows freely through the filter in the amygdala; and they achieve higher levels of cognition, making links and experience the ‘joy-full aHa’!
The Need for More Serious Joy
It is possible to laugh alone, but research shows that normally people laugh 18 times a day and 97% of the time we’re laughing with others. After being isolated through all the Covid-related work-from-home protocols, we have become socially disconnected and laughter-deprived. We all know intuitively that laughter reduces stress and brings people together, but in many cultures, especially workplaces, laughter is still culturally “inappropriate”. The magic of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is that you can have SERIOUS JOY!
Best Regards.
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Rasmussen Consulting specializes in using LEGO SERIOUS PLAY to effectively harvest an organization's collective intelligence to build a better business. We are also the leading organization for training and certifying facilitators in the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method. You can view our training schedule at www.rasmussenconsulting.dk.