Building Brave Conversations: How LEGO® Serious Play Transforms Group Coaching for Women in Business

Imagine, 20 female business owners in a fabulous London location where you could feel the magic in the room. Last week’s introduction to LEGO Serious Play was powerful, emotionally charged and involved some deep transformation.

I was the ‘surprise’ line item on the agenda for a business coaching away day.  Initially when guessing the surprise, someone shared ‘stripper’!  I smiled, knowing they were in for something far more revealing, but in a very different way!

From Scepticism to Curiosity

Having assured everyone that the clothes were staying firmly on, out came the LEGO bricks.  There is something timeless about opening your own bag of LEGO, it triggers memories, piques curiosity and often people want to get stuck in.  The other reaction can be one that’s along the lines of someone saying ‘you’ve got me here to play with LEGO’, usually with a somewhat dismissive tone, while sharing they have plenty of these at home for their kids and are fed up with picking them up, stepping on them or they didn’t enjoy using LEGO as a child.  One participant openly said ‘I hate LEGO’.  My response, ‘no problem, some do’ and I asked her if she could keep an open mind.

I started us off gently with an exercise that everyone could do, to get used to putting the bricks together.  With Lego serious play, everyone shares their model and the story behind it.  While the first ask was a simple instruction, the magic started instantly, with some participants giving deep meaning to their build in the context of their business. 

This was unprompted, and made for an interesting share where everyone learned something about every person in the room.  You could see the looks of surprise in the room, along with nods of understanding, support and laughter.

Facing Fear Through Building

The next piece I wanted to share with you is the main event itself.  The task here was carefully curated to overcome a fear or barrier in their own business which would later feed into looking at how to overcome these barriers.  The context was to build a model to tell us what you fear when it comes to your (business) offer or how you are showing up.  This was something that was holding each participant back from moving forward.

What happened next was nothing short of amazing and writing this gives me goosebumps.  Silence fell on the lively room while everyone went to work building a model that is meaningful for them.   You could feel the energy in the room, it was electric and the emotion was high.  Everyone was engrossed, thinking about the task and what it meant for them.

Then came the paradigm shift – we started to share.  Each person held up their model.  As the space that had been created was safe and supportive, the results were nothing short of phenomenal.

One participant spoke about business being build on shaky foundations and the model represented a business which couldn’t stand up and broke easily.  The visual, coupled with the words was so powerful and thought provoking.  The participant was sharing how a systems crash, such as AWS in recent days can mean independent businesses can grind to a halt and the area of focus becomes a disaster plan and passive income.  She was frightened and the task had helped her see that she needed alternative channels to ensure her income doesn’t grind to a halt due to events outside of her control.

Another spoke about feeling boxed in and putting a ceiling on her ability.  We explored what might happen if a wall to the box were removed and it became a shelter.  Safe facilitation helps unlock the magic at the pace of the participant, taking them from fear to exploring the art of the possible.  This was really interesting as we found the middle ground of a platform to peek out of to see the wider world and unlock visibility.

When Stories Meet Structures

For other participants it was deeply personal when it came to stories of visibility and being held by back by personal life changing events, that have caused fear and limiting beliefs, these included stalking, health conditions and bereavement. 

I don’t think any of the participants could have ever imagined what would come up for each person and this is where the power of using your hands to unlock transformational change comes in.  Nothing is off limits and you can build the walls, and build how things look once they’ve been broken down.  Nothing is off limits.

This LEGO Serious Play session embodied respect, appreciation and support.  It helped the participants face their fears, to later build out commitments to overcome them.  In the room silence, laughter and tears co-existed.  The atmosphere was electric and I feel truly blessed to have facilitated something so powerful for some phenomenal women.   

The space became sacred, supportive, and alive with understanding. Each model was unique, but every story spoke to courage and transformation. This is the essence of transformational group coaching where insights don’t just land intellectually but are embodied, felt, and built.

From Resistance to Revelation

For me the participation and facilitating the transformation was a huge win, but nothing made me smile more than the person who professed to hate LEGO at the very beginning, coming up to me to advise that they have realised they don’t hate LEGO, they just didn’t know how to use it!   That is the power of LEGO Serious Play, it helps turn resistance into revelation.

Unlocking Transformation Through Play

Facilitating this session was an honour.  Twenty unique stories and twenty transformations.  Each participant faced a personal barrier, found through the insight of serious play and left with renewed energy to move their business forward. 

LEGO Serious Play isn’t just a team-building tool; it’s a powerful method for coaching, reflection, and transformation. It helps individuals and groups access insights that words alone can’t reach.

If you’d like to explore how LEGO Serious Play can help your team overcome obstacles or unlock new ways of thinking, let’s talk.  Whether in 1:1 coaching or group workshops, the power of play can transform the way you work, lead, and connect.