Building blocks.
Just before the holidays, I sat down to sketch out the work I’d contracted for in 2020. I’m grateful, always, for every single organization, every executive director, and every board that puts their trust in me to help lead their work, but as I looked at what was ahead I did have a little twinge of “Can I do this again this year?”.
I love the work - watching organizations learn and grow and set new directions for their work is singularly satisfying - but the techniques, the way I approached the work was getting, well, just a little boring.
So I spent the holidays researching what I might add to my toolkit to help me do the work better and, in no small way, to help me build more energy and excitement for my partners/clients, but also for myself. If I’m not enthusiastic about helping a board understand their obligations, or walking with a development department while they build a major gifts program, or mentoring a young development professional in their first job, why would I expect energetic responses or successful engagements?
Enthusiasm counts for so much.
So I started looking at all kinds of training and facilitation techniques and tools and asked the following questions about each:
Is this a truly different approach than what I’ve been doing?
Is this highly interactive?
Would this method or tool help ensure that EVERYBODY in training was an active participant?
Would this technique encourage a level playing field and more comfortable interaction when the board/leadership team/staff are all involved?
Does this technique encourage deeper, more creative thinking?
Now, I’m more cynical than most when it comes to bells and whistles or gimmicks in our work, but my imagination was captured by the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology. Building models with those little bricks (memories of stepping on those things in the night . . . yeah) that can help us talk about what’s working and what’s not or where we want to go as an organization just clicked with me. I did some serious investigation and started taking training so that I can add the methodology to the list of things I can use when I work with organizations. Not for every organization, not for all kinds of work, but sometimes.
And just reminding myself that there are lots of ways to work with people, all kinds of tools we can put into play, so many different ways of tackling the hard stuff of growth and change, brought positive energy to the beginning of this new year.
As part of the training, I’ve now built a LEGO tower that represents the value I think I bring to my engagements, a model that represents the path of my own career, and spent a good deal of time plotting out how the methodology might work with my current clients. It’s been challenging and has, in truth, encouraged me to think differently.
And I’ve built a duck at least 10 ways with 6 bricks. (One of the introductory sessions in many SERIOUS PLAY® workshops is “What the Duck!”)
The point isn’t so much the LEGO® stuff — it’s the idea that we need to keep learning, stretching, growing, challenging our way of doing thing. It’s a full-strength energy boost.
(But for now, the LEGO® training is kind of the point. If you and your organization would like to be a bit of a guinea pig, I’d love to hear from you!)