facilitator

There is a Facilitator Behind the Method,
when It Meets the People in the Room

The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method is a facilitated process. The models are built by the participants, and the thinking is theirs — but the journey from where a group starts to where it needs to arrive is shaped by the facilitator. That is why the quality of the facilitation and the quality of the result are so closely linked.

Good facilitation looks effortless. That is precisely the point: participants should be free to build, think and speak without noticing the structure holding the room together. Behind that ease is a craft — and it can be learned.

An eco-system, mastered

A facilitator who has completed the Foundation Training works with three interlocking bodies of knowledge:

  • A systematic set of group dynamic principles — for creating the conditions in which everyone contributes, every voice carries equal weight, and the room stays with the question that matters.
  • A systematic set of principles for the use of the LEGO® brick — so that a model is not mere decoration but a piece of thinking a participant can point at, explain, defend and change.
  • Systematic use of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® techniques — the Core Process and seven Application Techniques, sequenced deliberately to carry a group from individual insights to shared understanding, decision and commitment.

Together, these three make it possible to take any group, on almost any challenge, to a result the group genuinely owns.

    Trained, not simply accumulated

    A pilot takes passengers from A to B. A facilitator of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method takes participants from the group’s starting point to their goals. Both rely on a deep body of knowledge and skills — and both earn it through training. Flying often makes you a seasoned traveler; it is the training that makes the pilot.

    It works the same way here. The composure to hold a room of senior people, to change course mid-workshop and still land on the goal, comes from a structured education in the method — and it is available to anyone willing to do the training.

    The facilitator is also a designer

    The method is customized as well as facilitated. Every workshop is tailored to the specific goals of a specific client; there are no off-the-shelf workshops. So, the facilitator is also a designer — someone who listens closely to the challenge or the opportunity, understands what is genuinely at stake, and then designs a workshop journey that will get this group, with these people, to that goal.

    It is the part of the craft that clients notice last and value most.

    What you will learn as a certified facilitator

    The Foundation Training offered by the Association of Master Trainers is designed to give you the whole craft, not a script for one workshop. You will learn to:

    • Read a group and establish the safety that lets everyone think out loud, including the people who normally stay quiet
    • Ask building questions that open up real thinking instead of collecting obvious answers
    • Use the brick systematically, and to help participants give meaning to their models
    • Run the Core Process fluently, and to choose confidently between the seven Application Techniques
    • Design a customized workshop end to end, from a client’s real challenge to an outcome that they can act on
    • Stay steady and adapt when a group takes an unexpected turn
    • Translate what a group builds into decisions and commitments that outlast the day

    You leave with a diploma, a comprehensive facilitator manual, ongoing post-training support, and a place in a global community of facilitators who keep developing the practice together.

      How to recognize a great facilitator

      If you are looking for someone to facilitate a workshop for your team or organization, these are the signs worth looking for:

      • They ask about you first. A great facilitator wants to understand your goal, your people and your context before talking about bricks at all.
      • They design rather than deliver. They will propose a workshop built around your challenge — not a standard agenda with your logo on it.
      • They can explain the why. A trained facilitator can tell you why a particular question comes at a particular moment, with a clear answer grounded in the method.
      • They make room for everyone. In their workshops, the quietest person in the room contributes as fully as the most senior one.
      • They know when to step back. The insight belongs to your team. The facilitator’s job is to make it possible, not to supply it.
      • They are certified — and can show it. Look for completion of the Foundation Training offered by the Association of Master Trainers in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method. They will have a diploma to prove it.
      • The best facilitators stay close to the community they trained in and keep sharpening their practice long after certification.

      The people behind the Foundation Training

      Behind every certified facilitator stands the training — and the people who deliver it. Meet the Master Trainers and Trainers of the Association.