Facilitated Learning: Empowering Teams with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
In today’s fast-evolving business environment, continuous learning is critical for teams to stay adaptable, innovative, and aligned. While traditional training methods often rely on lectures or static materials, facilitated learning takes a more dynamic and interactive approach, encouraging active participation and reflection. At Elevate Your Talent (EYT), we use LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) to deliver highly effective facilitated learning experiences that engage teams, unlock creativity, and lead to deeper understanding.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept of facilitated learning, how it differs from traditional training, and how LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® enhances this learning process by turning abstract concepts into hands-on activities that stimulate thinking and collaboration.
What is Facilitated Learning?
Facilitated learning is an approach where the learning process is guided by a facilitator rather than delivered through direct instruction. The facilitator’s role is to create an environment where participants actively engage with the material, explore ideas, and contribute their knowledge. This method is collaborative and participant-driven, as opposed to traditional learning methods, which are often passive and one-way.
Key features of facilitated learning include:
- Active Participation: Learners are encouraged to engage, share, and reflect on their experiences.
- Collaborative Learning: Facilitated learning involves group interaction, where participants learn from each other’s perspectives.
- Self-Directed Discovery: Participants are guided by the facilitator to explore their own ideas and apply learning to real-world contexts.
This learner-centered approach results in a deeper level of understanding, higher retention of knowledge, and greater ownership of the learning outcomes.
How LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Enhances Facilitated Learning
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a perfect match for facilitated learning. By involving participants in a hands-on process where they physically build models to represent their thoughts, challenges, or ideas, LSP fosters active learning and encourages participants to take ownership of the learning process. Here’s how LSP enhances facilitated learning:
1. Active Engagement Through Building
In LSP, participants are actively engaged from the start. Rather than sitting passively and absorbing information, participants are asked to build models using LEGO® bricks to represent their thoughts or answers to challenges posed by the facilitator.
- Building to Express Ideas: The act of building models helps externalize participants’ thoughts, making abstract concepts more concrete. This hands-on process stimulates deeper thinking and allows participants to express ideas in a way that words alone may not capture.
- Learning Through Doing: As participants build their models, they are physically and mentally involved in the learning process. This active engagement leads to higher retention of the material being explored and allows for more meaningful insights to emerge.
2. Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment
One of the key benefits of facilitated learning is that it encourages collaboration. LSP builds on this by creating a shared experience where participants not only build their own models but also listen to and learn from each other’s explanations.
- Shared Understanding: After each building phase, participants explain the meaning behind their models. This process fosters a deeper level of dialogue and understanding within the group, as participants share their unique perspectives and listen to others’ interpretations.
- Co-Creation of Knowledge: In an LSP session, participants often build individual models and then combine them into a shared model that represents the group’s collective understanding. This collaborative exercise helps teams develop a shared vision and align their thinking.
3. Encouraging Reflection and Critical Thinking
A fundamental part of facilitated learning is reflection—pausing to think critically about what has been learned and how it applies to real-world situations. In LSP, reflection is built into the process at every step.
- Storytelling and Reflection: As participants explain their models, the facilitator asks open-ended questions that encourage deeper reflection. For example, “What does this part of your model represent?” or “How does this model relate to our team’s goals?” This questioning helps participants explore their ideas more fully and connect them to broader business objectives.
- Linking Learning to Action: By reflecting on their models and discussing them with the group, participants are able to identify practical applications of their learning. This ensures that insights gained during the workshop are not just theoretical but are linked to tangible actions and outcomes.
4. Facilitating Deeper Learning Through Iteration
In facilitated learning, learners are encouraged to explore and iterate on their ideas, rather than settle on the first solution. LSP enables this through its iterative model-building process.
- Iterative Problem-Solving: Participants may build multiple models during a session, each one exploring a different aspect of the problem or solution. This iterative process helps teams refine their thinking, uncover new insights, and test different approaches to challenges.
- Adapting and Experimenting: With each iteration, participants can modify or expand on their models, allowing them to experiment with different ideas and see how changes impact the overall solution. This experimentation fosters creativity and encourages a more flexible approach to problem-solving.
5. Empowering Self-Directed Learning
Facilitated learning is about empowering participants to take charge of their own learning. In an LSP session, participants are given the freedom to explore their ideas and take ownership of their learning outcomes.
- Self-Discovery: Instead of being told what to think or how to solve a problem, participants are encouraged to discover solutions for themselves by building models and sharing their insights. This self-directed discovery leads to deeper engagement and stronger ownership of the outcomes.
- Learning at Their Own Pace: Because LSP is a flexible, participant-driven process, learners can explore ideas at their own pace and in their own way. This makes the learning experience more personalized and ensures that everyone can contribute in a way that feels natural to them.
Benefits of Facilitated Learning with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
By combining facilitated learning with the hands-on, creative approach of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, organizations can unlock several key benefits:
1. Increased Engagement and Motivation
Participants are more likely to stay engaged and motivated when they are actively involved in the learning process. LSP provides a fun, interactive way to learn, which keeps participants focused and enthusiastic throughout the session.
2. Deeper Understanding and Retention
Learning through building helps participants internalize concepts more deeply. The physical act of building a model, combined with the opportunity to explain and reflect on it, leads to greater retention of the material and a deeper understanding of the concepts explored.
3. Collaboration and Team Alignment
LSP encourages collaboration by involving participants in a shared learning experience. The process of building individual models and then combining them into a shared model helps teams align around common goals and fosters a sense of unity.
4. Practical, Actionable Outcomes
Facilitated learning with LSP is not just about gaining theoretical knowledge—it’s about applying what has been learned to real-world situations. The models built during the session can serve as visual representations of the team’s plans and strategies, helping to translate insights into actionable steps.
Practical Applications of Facilitated Learning with LSP
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® can be used to facilitate learning in a variety of contexts, including:
- Leadership Development: Help leaders explore their leadership style, identify areas for growth, and develop strategies for leading their teams more effectively.
- Team Building: Facilitate learning around team dynamics, collaboration, and communication to strengthen team performance and alignment.
- Strategy Development: Use LSP to facilitate discussions around organizational strategy, allowing teams to co-create a shared vision and plan for achieving strategic goals.
- Innovation Workshops: Facilitate creative problem-solving sessions where teams can explore new ideas, experiment with different solutions, and develop innovative products or processes.
Conclusion: Facilitating Learning with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
Facilitated learning is a powerful approach to unlocking deeper understanding, collaboration, and creativity in teams. By combining this learner-centered method with the hands-on, engaging process of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, organizations can create dynamic learning experiences that lead to real, actionable outcomes.
At Elevate Your Talent, we believe that facilitated learning through LSP empowers teams to take control of their learning, explore new ideas, and apply their insights to real-world challenges. Whether you’re looking to develop leadership skills, align your team, or spark innovation, LSP provides the perfect platform for unlocking your team’s full potential through facilitated learning.