PLAY YOUR STRENGTHS® WITH LEGO®

2010 SCIENTIFIC WHITE PAPER

This white paper covers the background and theoretical grounding of the Play Your Strengths® tool as

well as introducing the method of Play Your Strengths®

Play Your Strengths® with LEGO®

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CONTENT

CONTENT ............................................................................................................................. 1

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... 3

BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL GROUNDING ............................................................. 3

Narratives and metaphors ...................................................................................................................... 3

Benefits of the Strengths Based Approach .......................................................................................... 4

Building Things – Building Strengths ...................................................................................................... 5

THE PLAY YOUR STRENGTHS® METHOD ............................................................................ 5

Appreciative Inquiry ................................................................................................................................ 6

LEGO® Serious Play® ............................................................................................................................ 6

The VIA Classification of Character Strengths .................................................................................... 7

MORE INFORMATION ......................................................................................................... 9

REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 10

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INTRODUCTION

People are generally modest and reluctant to talk about their strengths and when asked “What is Your

Strength” in an interview most people feel slightly awkward and tend to rely on formulaic answers

designed to create a positive impression and improve their prospects of interview success.

This reluctance to talk about one’s strengths is reflected in many areas from management to psychology,

where strengths have been the subject of very little systematic empirical research and more or less left

for grasp by anyone who wanted to speak about human potential. (A. Linley, 2008)

However with a method like appreciative inquiry and advent of positive psychology, this is has now

changed. Not that those individuals suddenly enjoy speaking about strengths, but that the idea of a more

focused approach to strengths is beneficial.

Over the last 10 years a growing number of peer reviewed journals have explored the benefits of living

a life more aligned with your personal strengths and numerous research findings indicate benefits from

general well-being, lower stress, more resilience and better performance at work. (Govindji & Linley,

2007)

Focus from many key researcher including the referenced Alex Linley to notables in positive psychology

like Martin E.P. Seligman and from business Marcus Buckingham, focus has very much been on creating a

catalogue of strengths and a method to assess these strengths. This has been good and the psychometrics

of these assessment tools are generally very high (P. Linley & Joseph, 2004)

However little focus has been directed towards methods of strengths exploration that includes the

complexity of everyday life considering that most people live and work and thus play and experience

life in co-operation with others – be it their family, friends or co-workers. Furthermore little effort has

been put into creating method for strengths exploration that rely less on assessment and more on

personal experience.

In Play Your Strengths™ LEGO® bricks are combined with a theoretical foundation from strengths

psychology, appreciative inquiry, play and elements of narrative psychology. Participants build LEGO®

models of their strengths, and share stories through interacting with the models.

Play Your Strengths™ is based on the notion that lasting and usable knowledge of one’s strengths is

likely to happen through a thorough construction process not a quick labelling process. Through this

construction process one builds a strong scaffold of knowledge regarding, using Linley’s (2009),

definition, pre-existing capacities for a particular way of behaving, thinking or feeling that is authentic

and energizing.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The idea to create a strengths workshop based on appreciative inquiry and LEGO® Serious Play® was

formed by Mads Bab, partner in the Scandinavian consultancy intenz A/S. Being an experienced

consultant and executive coach, Mads is a practitioner holding a MSc in Applied Positive Psychology.

Mads wanted to create a fun, highly engaging and repeatable workshop concept to ensure an effective

and memorable strengths discovery workshop.

After the initial idea was formed a group of individuals developed the first version of the Play Your

Strengths® workshop. Without the insights and expertise from this group the process would not have

been as strong as it is. The group consisted of the following individuals:

• Nic Malcomson, Consultant, London, United Kingdom

• Prof. Dr. Marina Fiedler, Prof. of management, People and Information, Passau, Germany

• Prof. Dr. Lars Fend, Professor of Business Management, Munich, Germany

• Louise Møller Nielsen, Master in HR and Learning, Copenhagen, Denmark

• Charlotte Wienmann, HR Specialist, Copenhagen, Denmark

• Angelica Mueller, Investor Relations, London, United Kingdom

Besides the individuals above, acknowledgements are also due to Mr. Robert Rasmussen of Robert

Rasmussen and Associates for valuable sparring. Robert Rasmussen is the co-creator of the LEGO®

Serious Play® process and today a popular facilitator of LEGO® Serious Play®.

BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL GROUNDING

Narratives and metaphors

The fundamental idea behind the strengths approach

is that we get more of what we focus on and that

cultivation of our best selves creates the foundation

for a life of well-being. (M. Seligman, 2002).

In recent years social constructionists have argued

that we make sense of our lives, strong sides and

weaker sides, in terms of stories. (Bauer, McAdams, &

Pals, 2008; Gauntlett, 2002; McAdams, 1996) and as part of these stories we use metaphors as

meaning makers (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980).

According to this narrative approach understanding our identity demands that we understand our life

stories.

“If you want to know me, then you must know my story, for my story

defines who I am. And if I want to know myself, to gain insight into the

meaning of my own life, then I, too, must come to know my own story. I

must come to see in all its particulars the narrative of the self – the

personal myth – that I have tacitly, even unconsciously, composed over

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the course of my life. It is a story I continue to revise, and tell to myself

(and sometimes to other) as I go on living.” (McAdams, 1996)

It can be argued that in order to understand our strengths we need to understand the strength-stories and

strengths-metaphors that we have consciously and unconsciously composed over our lives. This will allow

us using, Lakhoff’s and Johnson’s (1980) words, “to more thoroughly understand how we draw inferences,

set goals, make commitments, and execute plans”, but in this case on the basis of our strengths.

Character strengths

The idea of character strengths, being about “the good life” falls into the domain of eudaimonic well-

being (M. Seligman, 2002). Seen in relation to narratives, (Bauer, et al., 2008) found that people at

high levels of eudaimonic well-being tend to emphasize personal growth in their life stories, with different

kinds of personal growth corresponding to different facets of eudaimonic well-being.

A focus on strengths is in its core a positive approach to understanding personality. When your attention

is directed to your own strengths or the strengths of another person, you are almost sure to be positive in

your approach. Because focusing on your strengths requires that you pay attention to your most positive

characteristics. (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

Benefits of the Strengths Based Approach

It is found that people with a higher usage of their strengths report higher subjective well-being and

fulfilment in life. (Govindji & Linley, 2007; Proctor, Maltby, & Linley, 2009). People who use their

strengths in a new and different way every day also report higher levels of subjective well-being as well

as lower levels of depression. (M. E. P. Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005). Seligman et al. (2005)

also show that these findings last over time.

Using strengths more also results in higher levels of self-efficacy, self-esteem, positive energy and vitality.

(Govindji & Linley, 2007; Proctor, et al., 2009). Furthermore it is shown that when people align their

strengths with goals they are much more likely to achieve their goals. And when achieved they tended to

be happier and more fulfilled with the result. (P. Linley, Nielsen, Wood, Gillett, & Biswas-Diener)

It is not only in the private domains of life where it seems relevant to use strengths more – the same

counts for work. The Corporate Leadership Council (2002)

analysed organizations in 29 countries and found that in

teams where managers emphasised performance

strengths, performance was 36% higher and when

personality strengths were emphasized performance was

21% higher. Using strengths at work is measured by the

Gallup organization worldwide through the employee

engagement item “At work, you have the opportunity to

do what you do best every day”. In their analysis this

single item is the strongest predictor of customer

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satisfaction, profit, productivity, turn over and employee safety. (Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002)

The reason for this increased business performance may lie in the findings that show that people who use

their strengths are more effective at developing themselves and growing as individuals. Most likely

because they focus more on their strong sides than on their weak sides (Sheldon, Kasser, Smith, & Share,

2002).

Even though these approaches to strengths differ in scope and purpose they all share one common

denominator – the belief that playing to strengths is beneficial for psychological well-being. On this

presumption a range of research has been carried on the benefits of playing more to your strengths.

Summing up this research (P. Linley & S. Harrington, 2006) argue that a major reason for organisations

to apply a strength approach is because strengths can now easily be defined and measured and, what is

more important, they give the individual an opportunity for optimal functioning and performance through

ones natural capacity.

Building Things – Building Strengths

Seymour Papert explores how we construct knowledge in theories of learning and knowledge

construction. Papert argues that learning happens especially fast when the learner is consciously

engaged in constructing a tangible object external of one self – for example with clay or LEGO® bricks.

In other words “learning by making” or “thinking with your hands” (Papert & Harel, 1991). Papert further

noticed that when people are creating tangible objects, they are in a more engaged state of mind

similar to that of Flow. (Papert, 1994)

The notion of “learning by making” or “thinking with your hands” draws on the use of play and

expressive arts in therapy bringing out insights and learning that pure intellectual reasoning might not

have (Ishii & Raffle, 2008; Oliver & Roos, 2007). This appliance of play in a “serious” setting is termed

“Serious Play” (J Roos & Victor, 1999). “Serious Play” is, however, not only an idea of applying the

theory of play to a “serious” setting but also a method that combines three-dimensional media (LEGO®)

with the mode of play to create the context in which informants build models of organizational identity

with their hands. Roos’ and Victor’s intention was to help generate, observe and record, rich data about

sense making processes surrounding organizational identity. (Oliver & Roos, 2007; Johan Roos, Victor, &

Statler, 2004)

THE PLAY YOUR STRENGTHS® METHOD

The Play Your Strengths® workshop concept is based on 3 existing and well tested methods.

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Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a development process that engages individuals towards renewal, change

and focused performance. (Cooperrider, Sorensen, Whitney, & Yaeger, 2000)

The basic idea of AI which is also the fundamental behind the Play Your Strengths® workshop is to build

development around what works, i.e. strengths, rather than trying to fix what does not. It is the opposite

of problem solving. Instead of focusing on gaps and inadequacies to remediate skills or practices, AI

focuses on how to create more of the exceptional performance that is occurring when a core of strengths

is aligned. It opens the door to a universe of possibilities, since the work does not stop when a particular

problem is solved but rather focuses on "What is the best we can be?" The approach acknowledges the

contribution of individuals, in order to increase trust and group alignment. The method aims to create

meaning by drawing from stories of concrete successes and lends itself to cross-industrial social activities

(Cooperrider, et al., 2000).

Appreciative Inquiry is a particular way of asking questions and envisioning the future that fosters

positive relationships and builds on the basic goodness in a person, a situation, or an organization. In so

doing, it enhances a system's capacity for collaboration and change. The Play Your Strengths® workshop

is based on the 4 steps in the AI process, Discover, Dream, Design and Destiny (Deploy in this case).

LEGO® Serious Play®

Even though LEGO® is a toy it is also a structured, concrete and systematic construction material. And

while play is usually fun, it is seldom, if ever, frivolous. Play can be defined as a limited, structured, and

voluntary activity that involves the imaginary. That is, it is an activity limited in time and space, structured

by rules, conventions, or agreements among the players, unforced by authority figures, and drawing on

elements of fantasy and creative imagination. (Gauntlett, 2007)

LEGO® Serious Play®

The VIA Classification of character strengths

Appreciative Inquiry

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LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) is an adult, group oriented facilitation tool developed by the Lego

Company in 1999 with assistance by two professors from IMD business school in Lausanne, Johan Roos

and Bart Victor who were researching the poor results from traditional strategy development techniques.

(J Roos & Victor, 1999; Johan Roos, et al., 2004). LSP combines the use of LEGO® bricks with storytelling

to create individual and common understanding of abstract issues like strategy, corporate values, team

identity and future business challenges.

One of the themes that emerged from the work with LSP over the years is that it helps groups see the

entire system they are a part of in order to better prepare for the future. Having a complete picture of

the current system, including team roles, relationships, and culture, and by testing the system with specific

scenarios, team members gain more confidence, insight, and commitment in dealing with future events.

When we humans speak or write about complex issues we inevitably simplify and reduce the amount of

information in order to make sense ourselves and bring this learning out into the open. The method is

based on science and research that shows that hands-on, minds-on learning produces a deeper, more

meaningful understanding of the world and its possibilities - much more so than listening or reading.

The VIA Classification of Character Strengths

The VIA Classification identifies 24 character strengths that have been found to be universal –

characteristics that define what is best about people. The Classification resulted from a three-year

dedicated effort involving 55 noted social scientists.

Each of the 24 strengths either meet all or most of the criteria listed below.

Is ubiquitous, found across cultures and time

Is fulfilling

Is morally valued in its own right

Does not diminish other

Has an undesirable opposite

Is trait-like, manifesting itself in thoughts, feelings and actions

Is measurable

Has consensual paragons

One of the strong aspects of the VIA Classification, is that it provides us with a language for strengths.

Considering how few people that clearly can articulate their strength and how few organisations have a

structured dialogue about strengths a common language is highly needed.

The VIA Classification is used as a way of labelling the strengths models built by the participants, so the

group more easier can see similarities in strengths even though the stories they tell are very different.

The process of labelling goes through 2 rounds. First participants flag their strengths with their own label

and share these label to the team. The goal of this step is to boil the longer narratives down to a more

clear metaphor or a 1-3 word title. After their own labelling, participants receive a printed set of cards

describing each of the VIA strengths. One by one the models are flagged where after a VIA strength is

attached to it.

Outline of The LEGO® Serious Play® process

The Play Your Strength® process is based on the four steps of appreciative inquiry. These are:

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In this first step of the workshop participants build LEGO® models of their strengths identified in situations

when thoughts, feelings or actions are most energizing and authentic. Participants:

Build LEGO® models and amplify accounts of good experiences

Affirm good things (by paying attention and appreciating own strengths

Create metaphors and stories of strengths and how they are experienced and applied

Receive insights and acknowledgements from team members on own strengths

Label strengths and align these with the 24 strengths of the VIA classification

In the second step of the workshop participants relate their LEGO® strength models to what they see as

the goal of the team. Participants:

Imagine and build a LEGO® model visualizing a goal the team faces at the moment

Interact with and combine LEGO® strength models to examine how own and others strengths

relate to the goal

Imagine the outcome of enhancing strengths

Create an individual and common understanding of goals

Create more self-concurrent goals

In the third step of the workshop participants play out a range of likely scenarios using strength models

and their relation to the goal of the team. Participants:

Identify strength patterns and pathways to personal success

Examine strength combinations by combing own LEGO® strength models and the LEGO®

strength models of others

Identify and design new ways to apply strengths

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The forth and last step of the workshop is about bringing learning point out of the workshop and into real

life by identifying and prioritising concrete actions to be taken immediately. Particpants:

Create personal strengths strategies

Create and build a LEGO® model of new strength habit

Agree on to-do’s

MORE INFORMATION

It would be our greatest pleasure to establish co-operation on the further use of Play Your Strengths®.

The options below are only meant as inspiration, so please contact us in order to discuss the possibilities

you might see in using the Play Your Strengths® concept.

1. Request a session of Play Your Strengths® within your organisation

2. Become a certified and licensed user of Play Your Strength thus being able to deliver the process

on your own

3. Co-operate on modifying the concept to tailor your specific needs

4. Discuss possibilities for general co-operation or research

Mads Bab

Mob. +45 22 12 22 42

Email. mads@playyourstrengths.com

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