LEAT with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a guided process-based method that fosters the internalization of a new skill set. It facilitates holistic thinking and promotes internal communication to solve complex problems. LEAT® is used by teams, groups and organizations to solve complex problems or to get experience with new ways of working and achieve faster and better results.
LEAT® is a process-based, guided method. Prior to the workshop, a qualified facilitator prepares content, usually user stories that simulate the ‘new’ AWoW (Agile Way of Working). In the workshop, the participants build solutions for these user stories using LEGO® bricks. When presenting and discussing their models, there will be aspects of AWoW disclosed that would never have been brought up using traditional training methods. Formal or abstract ideas suddenly become concrete and tangible and more understandable. Thought processes associated with physical experience allow a deeper and more sustainable understanding of thoughts and theory than by just listing to a presentation.
LEAT® uses the acronym AWoW instead of just Agile for several reasons.
LEAT® uses the actual AWoW chosen by the organization, not a hypothetical ideal agile setup brought by consultants. It has far more engagement because we really try to achieve an actual challenging goal. LEAT® simulates the content but stays as close as possible to actual organisational structures, events and artefacts.
LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) was officially launched in 2002.
LEAT® was developed in 2020 by Martijn and Martijn, 2 agile coaches that were working together during a big bang transformation in an organization of more than 100 Scrum teams.
With LEAT® and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, organizations generate more experience in doing their new AWoW, which will result in more ideas, opinions and knowledge in far less time. The employees are more involved and committed, they stand behind the jointly developed solutions and therefore are more engaged.
Many participants in LEAT® with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop report that for the first time they were able to experience and better express their view of things on very complex matters. In this way, all participants understand what their colleagues thought, what their motives were and what they find important. This specific knowledge gained in the workshop enables participants to develop step by step understanding and solutions to complex problems that often appear while introducing a new AWoW.
Each group of participants receive their own LEGO® set and, in response to a user story, builds models that are the starting point for collaboration and further communication on exchange and engagement with the problem or AWoW. Imagination and inspiration are promoted when visualizing topics.
For the design of the workshop, a trained facilitator divides the problem into smaller events with user stories that build on one another and are worked on step by step during the workshop. The facilitator uses the core process of the new AWoW and various application techniques. The facilitator accompanies the AWoW process and encourages the participants to exchange ideas, to discuss and to take decisions. He offers a protected space in which perspectives can be exchanged with equal rights and across hierarchies. This creates a unified understanding of even complex problems and promising solutions are found reliably.
The core process consists of the following four steps:
In addition to the core process, there are other application techniques. With the help of these techniques, united models are built, solutions are clustered, highly complex systems are created, simulations are created, and simple principles of action are derived.
From 1 hour to 4 days. We have even done LEAT® Scrum introduction sessions in 50 minutes for over 70 participants. As a rule, 2-3 days are estimated for complex new AWoW.
Simulation exercises on the new AWoW are usually dealt with a 1-2 day strategic session, done by a master facilitator and followed up by several half a day empirical improvements until the AWoW results in Your AWoW. Different perspectives on topics can already be seen after approx. 2 hours sessions.
Each workshop is designed for a specific AWoW within the organisational context with the Transformation. Costs depend on the complexity of the task and the duration of the simulation preparation and the workshops themselves. We worked with groups of up to 100 participants and the cost per person was therefore relatively low. LEAT® is facilitated by certified LEAT® master building on our experience and framework with existing building blocks further reducing costs.
LEAT® is a method that works with Scrum teams or groups. This means that you can start with two people. There are no upper limits to the number of participants, even workshops with more than 100 participants have already been carried out.
For true engagement, participants are best directly affected by the new AWoW.
No.
When participants are in the LEAT® workshop they exchange their views and share their own points of view on the AWoW. This can only happen in a protected and safe room. Any viewers, stakeholders can block the openness and are therefore not allowed. Just like in a retrospective. Of course, after the workshop, the results can be presented outside the group. In our workshop, we even promote that, so that the new way of working is supported and propagated even more in the organization.
LEAT® is particularly powerful when it comes to dealing with a complex transformation or a new AWoW. When implementation requires that employees are on board in the new AWoW and therefore are heard on issues that are important and necessary. LEAT® will get the opinions and views of all employees on the table so you can start aligning.
If the new WoW is clear and not complex and doesn’t need the approval of the workforce, LEAT is not a good option.
The original idea of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® was invented by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen in 1995, the owner of LEGO®, Johan Roos and Bart Victor (then both at IMD Lausanne). The method was then developed by Robert Rasmussen (then LEGO® employee) between 1999 and 2001.
In 2020 Martijn Oost and Martijn Nas combined their experience as transformation coaches and build upon the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® knowledge and created LEAT®.
LEAT® is LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® for Scaling Agile. LEAT® uses LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to address typical problems when implementing a new AWoW at scale. So in itself it is not different its a specific implementation of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
LEAT® is really next level compared to the old LEGO® City Scaling workshops. It combines real working models with real working robots to make the challenge far more engaging and the simulation closer to real-life circumstances. Too often have we seen that people check out in the old city exercise and learnings are minimal. Whereas we have seen the opposite happen in LEAT® workshops. People are fully engaged, discussions arise, the right questions are asked and issues are addressed directly. Not only do we learn but we really practise, inspect and adapt.
We have also incorporated true SERIOUS PLAY elements to avoid one-way communication from facilitator to participants. Meaningful interaction and learning among participants is a multitude of that from the trainer. We set the scene and deliver bite-size theory and the workshops run themselves with converging and diverging moments between centralized and decentralized guided learning