Team Game – Build a Lego® Structure

• Time: 30 – 40 minutes
• Group Size: 6 – 10 participants per group
• Materials: a set of Lego bricks and printed-out individual assignments per group (see below)

Do you have a team that can benefit from exploring team dynamics and enhancing problem solving skills? In this game, the groups must work together to build a structure out of Lego, but each individual has their own secret task which makes the collaboration challenging.

I like to use this short, but powerful exercise early in the team coaching process to create awareness in the team how important it is to have an inspiring common purpose and a clear understanding for the different roles in the team. Right after this game, I typically work with the team to define their common purpose.

This exercise is also great for revealing the system to itself. Different team dynamics become very obvious:

• How does the team collaborate?
• How does leadership show up in the team?
• How does the team deal with conflicts?
• How does the team deal with frustration?
• How creative is the team when it comes to problem solving?
• …

Based on these insights, the team can then work on how they want to do things differently in daily business. It is a great way for team members to learn how their actions can affect the team as a whole.

This exercise can also be used in larger groups. Just split up the team into several groups of 6 – 10 participants and give each group an identical set of Lego® bricks. Note that it is more difficult for larger groups to reach their common goal.

Preparation

Prepare box or bag of Lego for each group. Make sure that each box or bag contains plenty bricks in different colors. It is important that the participants have enough Lego to complete their common tasks and more as they will add more bricks to the structure than is necessary to complete their assignments.

Print out the different assignments for each group and cut the different assignments apart. It is a good idea to print the assignments on thick paper so that the other participants cannot read the text through the paper. I actually laminate the different assignments so that I can use them over and over again.

Step 1

Split the team into groups of 6 – 10 participants.

Set up the room so that each group sits around a table and has a box of Lego. Ask participants not to touch the Lego until the game begins.

Step 2

Tell the groups that it is their task as a group to build a structure with these Lego bricks. They have 20 minutes to build the structure. They must continue building until the time is up.
Let them know that each of them will receive a piece of paper with their individual assignment. They cannot show the piece of paper to anyone during the game.

The participants may not speak to each other during the entire building process. They can use nonverbal communication, but I do not point that out to them. Many groups will make the assumption that nonverbal is also not allowed. This and other assumptions are a great topic for the debrief.

I like to put a Time Timer in the front of the room and set it to 20 minutes. That way each group can keep track of time. Nevertheless, I give them a signal when they only have 5 minutes left and let them know when time is up.

Step 3

Hand out an assignment to each participant. Remind participants that they must not show their assignment to anyone else and not speak to each other.

Step 4

Once everyone has received an individual assignment, begin the time and let participants start.
As needed, remind participants that they are not allowed to speak during the building process. Groups tend to forget or ignore this important rule. Do not say anything if they engage in nonverbal communication.

If the participants ask questions during the exercise, just repeat the instructions from the beginning.

Step 5

After 20 minutes, tell participants to stop building. Invite them to guess the assignments of the other members of their group. Explain that they may now share their secret individual assignments with each other.

Step 6

As a final step, debrief the activity with the group(s):

• What happened in your group?
• How did the experience make you feel?
• Are there any similarities between this game and daily business? If so, what are they?
• How did you collaborate as a group?
• How did you communicate as a group?
• What worked well? What did not work?
• What is key to success in this activity?
• What assumptions may have gotten in the way of your success as a group?
• How did you as a group deal with conflict?
• How did leadership show up in the group?
• What are you learning about team collaboration?
• How did you behave or react?
• What was the impact of your actions on the group?
• What are your learning about yourself?
• What could you have done differently?
• How will you apply the insights from this activity in your daily business?

Assignments

• Ensure that only red bricks are used in layers 2 and 5 of the structure.
• Ensure that only yellow bricks are used in layers 1 and 4 of the structure.
• Ensure that bricks that are next to each other in layers 3, 6 and 8 of the structure have different colors.
• Ensure that layers 3 and 5 of the structure consist of exactly 8 bricks.
• Ensure that layers 1 and 6 of the structure consists of a maximum of 9 bricks.
• Ensure that only you and at most two other persons add bricks to layers 1 and 8 of the structure.
• Ensure that only you add bricks to layers 3 and 6.
• Ensure that only you and at most two other persons add bricks to layers 2 and 7.
• Ensure that the whole structure consists of no more than 8 layers of bricks. If people stop building when they have reached the eighth layer, ensure that they continue building in the layers below.
• You are the leader of the group.