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. [email protected]
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