Sure, everyone knows Lego and that the craziest things can be built with the small colorful bricks is still a vivid memory. I found it so exciting how Lego with the “Serious Play Method” can be used in a business context to find or develop new ideas that I immediately signed up for a trip to Hanover with our training manager, Eileen Zimbal.
Together with 96 trainees and trainers from various companies in the Hanover/Hildesheim IHK area, we spent a morning learning about the Lego Method in Hanover and developing ideas for pre- and onboarding in our own company.
Step-by-step description
Step 1 – Clairvoyance and being able to fly
The trainees got together in groups of 6. The instructors formed their own groups. After unpacking our “design material”, we got started right away with the first task: “Create an alien with super strength”. After a short creation session, we showed each other the aliens we had created and their superpowers. These included, for example, being clairvoyant or able to fly and having green fingers for particularly fast plant growth.
Step 2 – Aliens find training mega cool
The second task was a bit trickier because now we had to describe why our alien would want to do an apprenticeship at all. It’s really quite obvious; my alien was bored in space.
Step 3 – etcetcetcetcetcetcetc
The tasks became more and more complex: first, we should create an action that can take place in our birthday month and then create a dream vacation. As previously, we presented our “creations” to each other.
Last but not least: this is what perfect onboarding looks like
We were now used to the short creation time and so we quickly put together results. Each person then set up the most important two aspects on a board for the whole group and explained each one.
Learning for onboarding
We took a lot with us and are looking at what we can use meaningfully in our company: among the things that are important to trainees today is that
- they find a properly equipped workplace when they start
- they are accompanied during the training and there is always someone to answer questions
- team events take place, both with the trainees and in the departments
Conclusion
Eileen also agrees that the trip was definitely worth it. We learned a new method to quickly come up with new ideas for complex issues and what we can improve in our onboarding.
And then, on the train journey back home, we had a super discussion with the trainer and a Göttingen Werkstätten trainee, who were also at the workshop. Best wishes to you both.
