We are delighted to welcome Deborah Chandler as a contributor to our Direct Work Resource Database. Deborah has kindly written a guest post exploring how LEGO® can be used as a direct work tool, drawing on her experience as a LEGO® Serious Play® practitioner.
In this post, Deborah focuses on the wider benefits of LEGO play and its potential to support meaningful engagement and communication. She will also be contributing a future post exploring how LEGO Serious Play® can be used within Triple Planning, so be sure to watch this space for more insights.
Yes, really. And before you scroll past — stick with me. Because this is not about dumping a box of bricks on a table and hoping for the best. LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) is a powerful enhanced communication tool.
This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Here I will introduce you to what LSP is and how it works. In Part 2, I will show you exactly how the tool can be used as an innovative Triple Planning tool.
So… what actually is it?
LSP is a facilitated methodology that uses LEGO bricks as a thinking tool. Not as a toy, and not as a craft activity, but as a serious medium for reflection, communication and insight. It was developed in the 1990s and has since been used in boardrooms, schools, mental health settings and increasingly in social care. The question is not whether it works. The question is what it could unlock for the people you work with?
The science bit
Professor Johan Roos, co-inventor of the method, puts it better than I ever could:
“What we think or understand is shaped by, made possible by, and limited by our bodies and our embodied interactions in the world. The very act of constructing things with our hands, and doing this together, is particularly beneficial for our imagination.”
In short: we think better when our hands are involved. Building something physical unlocks thoughts and feelings that words alone often cannot reach and in social care, that matters enormously.
Three skills, one conversation
What makes LSP distinct is that it works across three modes of communication at once.
Technical Skills: The act of physically handling and connecting bricks, getting the hands moving and the brain engaged.
Metaphor: In LSP, we can give bricks any meaning we want. A single red brick might represent anger, safety, a parent, or a dream. There are no wrong answers, only your answers.
Storytelling & Listening: Using three modes of communication: hearing, seeing and doing.
Three simple skills. One completely different kind of conversation.
How does a session work?
Every session follows a core rhythm. A carefully chosen prompt, time and space to build without interruption, an invitation to share the story of the model, and a moment of reflection. Crucially, the facilitator never interprets the model for the participant. The meaning always belongs to the builder. That is what makes it feel so different from a standard conversation. The participant leads, and the facilitator holds the space.
And it always starts with a warm-up. Something low stakes that gets the hands moving and signals that there are no wrong answers here. For people who spend a lot of time being assessed and judged, that moment of just playing is more powerful than it sounds.
A few simple principles guide every session:
The three build levels
LEGO® Serious Play® uses three distinct build levels: Individual, Shared, and Systems, to move from personal insights to collective understanding.
Where can it be used in social care?
LEGO® Serious Play® can be a powerful tool in social care settings, particularly because it fosters storytelling, reflection, emotional expression and solution-focused thinking. Here are several meaningful ways it can be used across different levels of the social care system, with children and young people, service users, staff teams and multi-agency partners:
To bring this to life, here is an example from a recent session I facilitated with a senior leadership team in a children and young people’s organisation. Their combined shared build captured the essence of values-led leadership. At its heart, the model placed the people they support firmly at the centre, a clear reflection of the team’s commitment to person-centred practice. Figures were seated around a circular table, symbolising the strength and diversity of experience each leader brings and the way they work in cohesion toward a shared mission.
Inspired by Jim Collins’ “Good to Great”, the team reflected on the importance of having the right people in the right seats, and the courage required to make difficult decisions when alignment is not possible. And in a moment that said everything about their collective ambition, the team decided to expand beyond the original three baseplates by adding a fourth. A powerful metaphor for growth, and for the active role each leader sees themselves playing in building a bold, purposeful future.
One model. One conversation. Insights that no meeting agenda would ever have surfaced.
Why does it work so well?
The sessions that have stayed with me are the ones where something that could never have been said out loud, about fear, about hope, about who someone really is, found its way out through a handful of coloured bricks. That is what this method does. And once you have seen it, you will not forget it.
Sounds interesting — what next?
Next month I will be exploring how LSP could be used as an innovative tool for Triple Planning, the statutory process that prepares unaccompanied and trafficked young people for three potential immigration outcomes. An exploration of the art of the possible.
Ready to explore what LEGO® Serious Play® could do for your team? I would love to chat. You can:
About the author
Hi, I am Deborah Chandler. I am the Interim COO at 4Cs Care Ltd, founder of North Star Transformative Coaching, and a freelance coach with The Staff College. I have spent over 25 years working across the private, public and voluntary sectors, from EY to supported accommodation to coaching young offenders at HMP Isis. Oh yeah, I am also a certified LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator.
