University of Westminster Study Adds to Academic Underpinnings of the LEGO SERIOUS PLAY Methodology

In a study of how people view their own identities and the influences on their identities, David Gauntlett, Professor of Media and Communications at the University of Westminster in London, had 79 people, between the ages of 19 and 72, participate in four-hour LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ methodology based workshops.

Gauntlett is an advocate for the power of building in metaphors (instead of the more traditional word-based interviews and questionnaires) in social research. In ‘Creative Explorations’, Gauntlett’s latest book, he outlines that metaphors enable people to capture complex ideas - often with a number of facets - in a simple visual form. The visual form of the metaphor allows people to assign language to ideas and feelings that they might not be able to put into words.

Gauntlett’s research using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ methodology based workshops led him to conclude that using the visual and creative processes embedded in LEGO SERIOUS PLAY’S methodology helped conscious or previously-not-quite conscious ideas emerge in the form of LEGO element shapes, figures and animals. He suggested that it was a colourful, appealing and straightforward research medium that almost all the participants loved.

Participants found that the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY™ process enabled them to communicate complex ideas about their identities.

Gauntlett goes on to say "many people are inexperienced in transferring their thoughts about personal or social matters into the kind of talk that you would share. It can also be difficult to talk instantly about abstract concepts such as identity or emotion. If participants are invited to spend time in the reflective process of making something, however, they have the opportunity to consider what is particularly important to them before they are asked to generate speech."

In this research the identity models built with LEGO bricks were "complex and often rather beautiful". Each person saw him or herself as the hero(ine) of their own story, moving away from historical ties toward greater stability, fulfilment and engagement with the world.

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