working paper: july 2016 - play prelude€¦ · working paper: july 2016 ... both lego serious...

WORKING PAPER: JULY 2016

Heliotrope Imaginal Education System Inc. www.playprelude.com Copyright 2016 2

FROM PLASTIC TO PIXELS: HAND KNOWLEDGE TO HIGH TOUCH A Comparative Study of LEGO Serious Play™ & The Prelude Suite™

OUTLINE OVERVIEW 3 • Comparative Examples • Background • Feedback • Invitation to Experiment COMPARITIVE TABLE 5 I. Summary 6 • Essential Purpose • Versions • Characteristics II. “Leaning Forward” 7 • Distributed Teams • Co-Located Teams III. Market Need 9 • The WHY

IV. Applications 9 • Distributed Leadership • B2B • B2ED V. Beneficiaries 12 • Enterprise • Team • Personal VI. Team Types 13 • Co-Located • Distributed VII. Features 13 • Multimodular • Scaffolding • Media & Plasticity

VIII. Faculties 17 • Neuroscience • Cognition • Imagination • Play & Creativity • Visual Thinking & Expression • Metaphor, Dialogue, Stories • Reflection • Psychological Safety • Flow State IX. Constructivism 24 • Diversity • LSP Model • Prelude Model • Big Picture X. Training 27 AUTHOR 27



FROM PLASTIC TO PIXELS: HAND KNOWLEDGE TO HIGH TOUCH

A Comparative Study of LEGO Serious Play™ & The Prelude Suite™

OVERVIEW

This Working Paper examines intriguing parallels

between two complementary methodologies,

LEGO Serious Play™ (LSP) and the Prelude

Suite™ (Prelude). The former is employed with

teams in traditional co-located environments. The

latter is employed with remote distributed teams

and/or hybrid teams.

Both resources are compared in several areas. In

most there is clear alignment in concepts and

practice. The reason is that the Prelude Suite™,

like LSP, also employs a constructivist model of

experiential team learning.

Comparative Examples

Consider, for example, the concept of ‘hand

knowledge’. This is a core LSP principle. It’s

defined by the idea of human hands manipulating

colored 3D plastic bricks to co-construct

meaningful 3D models.

Working with the Prelude Suite™ illustrates that

hand knowledge today encompasses much more

experiential bandwidth due to enabling technology.

As such, Prelude participants use digital pixels like

“bricks”. Like 3D bricks, pixels are also colored

geometric units used to co-construct strategic

meaning and models. Similarly, a Prelude team’s

workshop table is an interactive whiteboard.



Here is where remote teams co-construct

symbolic artifacts and shared meaning

simultaneously. These remote teammates, like

another LSP core concept, also “Lean In’ virtually

as they see their own creative thinking and

actions unfold together synchronously via multiple

audio video windows. Hand knowledge leads to

high touch in a high tech cyber space.

Ultimately, these two highly complementary,

innovative methodologies share an unstated Meta

goal. That is to inspire humans to construct better

futures together using all building blocks of

imagination available including: LEGO bricks,

pixels, atoms, cells, qubits, or whatever may be

at hand.

BACKGROUND

Both LEGO Serious Play™ and the Prelude Suite™

have a similar genesis but separate roots. This

goes back to 2000 when both respective creators

of these methodologies, unknown to the other,

began conducting separate original research on

imagination.

READER FEEDBACK

Your feedback is welcome and needed. It will

contribute to further iterations of this Working

Paper. Please contact us at [email protected].

INVITATION TO EXPERIMENT ONLINE

LSP Certified Agile Coaches and other

professionals seeking an equivalent resource for

use with distributed teams are invited to

experiment with the Prelude Suite™. Please

contact us at [email protected].



COMPARATIVE TABLE

The Table below compares LEGO Serious Play™

and the Prelude Suite™ in several key areas.

Content featured in the left hand column are

direct quotations from the “Building a Better

Business: Using The LEGO® Serious Play®

Method” (2014) or other specifically referenced

material. Content featured in the right hand

column is drawn from Prelude Suite™ case studies,

testimonials, original research, etc.

LEGO SERIOUS PLAY™ PRELUDE SUITE™



I. SUMMARY Essential Purpose

The LEGO Serious Play Method® is a

technique which improves group problem

solving. By utilizing visual, auditory and

kinesthetic skills, the Method requires

participants to learn and listen, and it

provides all participants with a voice. The

Method serves as a shared language

regardless of culture or position. It is also

a method that requires a trained facilitator.

http://www.lego.com/en-

us/seriousplay/the-method

1. Creating Leaning In

2. Unlocking New Knowledge

3. Breaking Habitual Thinking

At the core of the LEGO Serious Play are

the theoretical elements of

constructionism, play, imagination, and

Essential Purpose

The Prelude Suite™ consists of a 3-step

online experience that helps transform

“virtual strangers” into effective virtual

team performers.

http://www.playprelude.com/about/

• Step 1. Team Tune-in & Up

• Step 2.Team Practice Soft Skills

• Step 3. Bridge Lessons to Team Charter

& Project

Versions

1. Virtual Hands On Exercises

2. Physical Hands On Exercises

Characteristics

• Prelude fosters soft skills development

and related competencies using symbols,

metaphors, and sharing stories



identify.

http://www.strategicplay.ca/upload/docum

ents/the-science-of-lego-serious-play.pdf

Versions

1. Physical Hands On Exercise

Characteristics

• Build competencies with the bricks

and in the use of metaphors and

stories

• Better learning...giving the learner

better opportunities to construct

• Open-ended within a system that

makes constructing fast and

forgiving

• Variety, speed, forgiveness, and

accessibility for all

• Prelude fosters experiential learning

through co-creation and co-dialogue

• Prelude provides a replicable

methodology that generates consistent

results specifically relevant for those

teams involved..

• In the process, these activities also like

LSP

• Create Leaning In

• Unlock New Knowledge

• Breaks Habitual Thinking



II.

LEANING

FORWARD

DISTRIBUTED

TEAMS

Prelude offers a virtual equivalent of the

LEGO Serious Play™ philosophy and

methodology. In other words it offers a high

touch meeting in a virtual high tech space.

Twenty emerging virtual team best

practices have been identified through

original in-house research. They share

common themes and approaches about

engaging the whole person and team

emotionally at the very start of a project.

These all have also been integrated



uniquely within Prelude’s overall design and

user experience.

CO-LOCATED

TEAMS

A traditional LEGO Serious Play co-located

team workshop.

For co-located teams and/or hybrid teams

that want to ensure a traditional tactile

kinesthetic learning experience, Prelude can

be used accordingly with laptops as well as

paper and colored pencils.



III.

MARKET NEED

• A growing needs to balance two

different but possibly complementary

forces: high tech and high touch. We

are entering an age where both forces

are simultaneously at play. High tech

offers a range of virtual solutions to

human interaction, from relative simple

time/place independent idea generation

to virtual reality.

• Demand for the quality of the high

touch meeting.

• Parallel to this, many individuals and

organizations are deliberately choosing

to focus on the concrete in-person

experience of an interaction, aiming to

strengthen that interaction’s attention

density

• To support remote teams in overcoming

the shortcomings of physical proximity,

as felt (and needed) by human beings

for high bandwidth relationships,

resulting in high quality knowledge and

creative work.

• In the U.S.A. employees in conflict spend

$359 billion in paid hours. That’s about 3

hours weekly per employee. The main

cause is lack of team soft skills practice

prior to the Storming Stage. This is not

just an intra-team challenge.

Disharmony amplifies.

THE WHY • Goal – More Insight, More Confidence,

More Commitment P 136

• 80% of remote teams receive no training

and perform poorly going over schedule



• Deceptively simple

• The key elements in the organization’s

aspirational identity -- Actions

improving strengthening P 138

and budget as well as resulting in poor

morale. Prelude addresses this gap with

an effective proven solution. In the

process remote teams overall capacity

for communication and collaboration is

strengthened.

IV.

APPLICATIONS

• Building Individual Models & Stories

• Building Shared Models & Stories

• Creating A Landscape

• Making Connections

• Building A System

• Playing Emergence & Decisions

• Extracting Simple Guiding Principles

• During the Prelude guided experience

teammates co-create a series of digital

artifacts that ultimately lead to a ‘big

picture’. This provides a powerful visual

‘snapshot’ of the team’s mental model

of excellence and success. This

strengthens the team’s capacity to

address any issue or problem by

stepping back and taking an elevated

view, or perspective, and to see it’s

various parts all together in context.

DISTRIBUTED • LSP always requires at least two people • Prelude requires at least a two person



LEADERSHIP P 71

• Get 100 per cent participation from

everyone in the group P 52

• Get all participants to step up to the

plate and be part of the discussion and

decision making

• Give all participants time to think before

they speak

• Hear and be able to appreciate every

person’s unique insight on the issue

being discussed

team to benefit. There are few

guidelines but one is this is a ‘hands-

on’ activity.

• The entire process is a practical

exercise in distributed leadership.

Every team member contributes

equally. Consensus is needed to

progress from one activity to the next.

• Artifacts are shared online in virtual

team galleries. Prelude helps make the

invisible visible for virtual teams.

B2B • Companies, GO’s, NGO’s

• Tribes 150- 200 members

• Prelude is best utilized with B2B teams’

of 10 participants or less. If a tribe or

an entire organization is involved,

Prelude’s modular design allows it to

scale incrementally.

B2ED • Elementary, Middle, Secondary

• Undergraduate & Graduate / Business

School

• Prelude has been effectively used in

each of these areas:

o Elementary, Middle, Secondary



• Group Therapy

• Family Team Building

• Life Coaching for Individuals & Teams

• Youth Summer Camps

• Senior Encore Planning

o Undergraduate & Graduate /

Business School

o Group Therapy

o Family Team Building

o Life Coaching for Individuals &

Teams

o Youth Summer Camps

o Senior Encore Planning

•

V.

BENEFICIARIES

• There is always some level of both team

and personal development p 62

• The Prelude Suite helps teams better

understand themselves, better

appreciate their diverse assets, and

better see how to harness these in

support of their project goals. Prelude

could also be an ideal exercise prior to

LSP. If LSP primarily helps teams solve

problems, Prelude can tune up that

team to solve those problems with

even more emotional intelligence and



insight.

Enterprise • Yes • Yes

Team • Yes • Yes

Personal • Yes • Yes

VI. TEAM TYPES

Co-Located • Yes • Yes

Distributed • No • Yes

•

VII. FEATURES

MULTIMODULAR • Multimodular way of working may also

stimulate several networks in the

prefrontal cortex and lead to strong

memory formation P 102

• LSP incorporates more types of

observations per unit of time: we work

with the auditory through the story, the

visual through the model, and the

• Prelude uses Universal Design for

Learning

o Multiple means of representation

to give learners various ways of

acquiring information and

knowledge

o Multiple means of expression to

provide learners alternatives for



kinesthetic through the physical

touching P 98

• Provides equal support for a variety of

communication styles (auditory, visual,

and kinesthetic) P 53

demonstrating what they know

o Multiple means of engagement to

tap into learners' interests,

challenge them appropriately, and

motivate them to learn (CAST,

2008)

• Prelude helps cultivate multidimensional

thinking and foster interdisciplinary

teamwork.

• It designed to develop holistic perception

and global perspectives.

• Prelude’s design and process

accommodates all learning styles.

• Participants learn about each other’s

‘learning and communication styles’.

• They are able to better appreciate their

rich diversity of skills, assets, and

capacities and how they can harness

these individually and a group.



SCAFFOLDING Distributing the learning over time P 104 Prelude encapsulates the three-domain

structure of Bloom’s Taxonomy including

cognition, affect, and psychomotor skills in

a highly concentrated scaffolded learning

game experience. This is made visible in

the artifacts created by participants as

they move to higher order thinking about

themselves and each other.

MEDIA &

PLASTICITY

• Colored Plastic Bricks

• Profound interdependence of the hand

and mind P 89

• Hand knowledge

• Distributed Teams: Use Connected

Devices & Aps

• Co-Located Teams: Use Crayons & Paper

VIII.

FACULTIES &

DYNAMICS

NEUROSCIENCE • Building new insights and connections

in their minds P 52

• Strengthen new synaptic connection 99

Play is a crucial component of learning and

neuroplasticity. Participants playing Prelude

use multiple means in tandem to express



themselves creatively and positively using,

multiple symbol systems i.e. words,

images, and colors together. This provides

a vital psychic ‘workout’.

COGNITION • Draw out unconscious knowledge P 99

• LPS method offers a number of

opportunities for deep processing P 101

• Prelude fosters the integrated use of 21st

Century Skills including:

• Critical thinking / problem solving

• Creativity & innovation

• Collaboration & teamwork

• Cross cultural understanding

• Communication & media fluency

IMAGINATION • Intentional gathering to apply the

imagination P 40, 134

• Desire to use our imaginations to first

visualize and then reach a state that is

different from the current state P 53

• Creative imagination allows us to see

that isn't there P 121

• Humans have a unique capacity to

• Participants use Imagination throughout

the four modules. They actively imagine

more positive ways of seeing themselves

and each other. This creates a new level

of awareness at the team level, which

actualizes in several ways including

trust, respect, and collaboration.

• Prelude provides a concentrated



conceive of what is not – ability that’s

central to the LSP method. It’s part of

our goal to make people lean forward,

unlock new knowledge, and break

habitual thinking

• This helps create context-dependent

memory retrieval

• Seeing the model frequently has the

power to imagine themselves back in

the workshop - retrieve memories and

act on decisions made

experiential framework within which

participants essentially address the

learning challenge – who am I, who are

you, who are we? In the process, they

practice a set of scaffolded skills

PLAY &

CREATIVITY

• Play is a creative liberation from what

is constrained by our real or ordinary

lives P 133

• Play exists somewhere between reality

and unreality P 133

• Participants use graphic skills and visual

expression. More specifically they

combine words, symbols, colours in an

overall design called a ‘Tag’. Creating

pictures can reveal connections and

emotions that words alone may not.

During these activities, participants are

literally and metaphorically drawing



together to create ever-larger frames of

understanding ending in their ‘big

picture’ allTag. This helps them to see

how they and their different strengths fit

together in a very positive light.

VISUAL

THINKING &

EXPRESSION

• You could ask people to draw

metaphors and stories instead.

However, it would likely be more

difficult with adults since we have been

conditioned into clear expectations

about what things should look like

• For most adults the proverbial blank

sheet is not liberating; it is

limiting…The results vary so much from

individual to individual that the

communicative value is highly limited

• Prelude makes no distinction between

brick, crayon, or pixel. Visual thinking

and expression is a basic 21st Century

Skill. Creating online is even more

liberating in terms of expressive

potential then pencils.

• Prelude has inspired thousands of highly

personal symbolic co-created drawings

by adults and youth alike around the

world.

• Most have had limited art or design

training after Middle School. While some

Tags may be rudimentary in design, they

are none-the-less powerful positive



expressions of learning, collaboration,

and growth. These artefacts also become

helpful post game reference for further

group learning

METAPHOR

DIALOGUE

STORIES

• The link between metaphors and

learning has been widely researched P

34

• Metaphors can actually generate

radically new ways of understanding

things

• Powerful visual metaphors P 98

• The use of metaphors and stories

creates strong feelings in participants P

103

• A language that can help unlock human

potential

• A language for systematic creativity P

29

• Distributed dialogue P 52

• The Prelude Suite™ offers a compact

way for teammates to actually practice

as an online team with a Certified

Facilitator Coach.

• This involves using Self-Assessment,

Self-Expression, Co-Creation, and

Dialogue.

• As teammates become attuned to each

other, cognitively and emotionally, their

trust quotient goes up and Forming into

Performing is naturally accelerated



• When I am asked to build you must

listen to my story P 72

REFLECTION • Reflection phase P 102

• Reflecting P 52

• Developing insight P 105

• Prelude provides a concentrated process

within which experiential learning is

facilitated following the four stages of

Kolb’s model.

• This includes an innovative StarSmart

Journal, which provides reflective and

practical exercises.

• Journaling for professional development

is proving very effecticve.

“Prelude provides tremendous opportunities for personal reflection and lessons on how to best

interact with others” ~ Consultant, Leadership Training ~



SAFETY • This language helps create the space in

which it is safe to imagine and

challenge P 42

• Play is a context in which we feel safe

to take risks without worry P132

• The Prelude experience is a safe

supportive process for teammates to

share thoughts and feelings therefore

accelerating understanding and trust.

• It has been used effectively with high

risk populations including youth in

detention precisely because it is so safe

for participants to be themselves.

FLOW STATE

• The flow sciences is fully integrated

into the LSP method as the key learner

• Ancient philosophers thought when the

four elements – Air, Fire, Water, and



driver both for the individual as well as

for the group. It is impossible to

imagine that the LSP method would

work without the bricks – or without

integrating the flow concept. P 111

Earth –were harmonized, a fifth element

called Quintessence appears.

• This element epitomizes the absolute

best something can be. Another word for

Quintessence is Excellence.

• They chose a star as its symbol. This is

the true meaning of Star Performance.

• Today we’d say a star is a symbol of

psychological integrity and growth.

• When our inner elements are

harmonized and harnessed, we are in a

natural state of flow.

• In this state, learning, work, and living

are optimized and we are much more

likely to achieve our goals

(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).

• The Prelude Suite™ builds upon and

works with this ancient wisdom.

• Through the guidance of a Certified



Facilitator Coach, teammates are able to

better picture their shared elemental

strengths and how to harness these in

harmony to achieve project success and

excellence together.

IX. CONSTRUCTIVISM

• We can create knowledge faster and

better (learning) when we are engaged

in constructing a product or something

external to ourselves…When you build in

the world you build in your mind P 81

• Unlocking and constructing new

knowledge P 70

• During Prelude participants create and

co-create striking artifacts that help

them to understand themselves and

each other. The co-creation of the iTag,

weTag, and allTag is directly tied to the

co-creation of identity and meaning.

• “According to social constructivists, the

process of sharing individual

perspectives-called collaborative

elaboration…results in learners

constructing understanding together

that wouldn't be possible alone”

(http://bit.ly/1PybIZ8).



DIVERSITY • LSP bridge diversity

• Often, the differences among people –

due to factors like position, age,

language, culture, education,

competencies, and background – can

become obstacles for the group’s ability

to work together effectively to develop

their business. Experience shows that

the method not only transcends these

differences or boundaries; the method

also has the ability to turn this diversity

into a benefit for the group

• Prelude helps enhances self-awareness,

empathy, collaboration, creative

expression, and appreciation for

diversity.

• Prelude helps sensitize participants’ to

individual learning styles – visual,

auditory, kinesthetic - in a simple,

intuitive process using natural

metaphor and symbol.

LSP MODEL



PRELUDE MODEL

BIG PICTURE • The position of each of the models in

relation to each other has a meaning and

forms a bigger narrative

• During the Prelude guided experience

teammates co-create a series of digital

artifacts that ultimately lead to

producing their own ‘big picture’ as a

metaphor for the contributory work

they do as team.

X. TRAINING • Facilitator training is 4 intensive days

with a combination of hands-on

experiences theory and practice P 66

• We’re seeking high caliber, forward

thinking professionals to introduce the

Prelude Suite™ within their work.



• The Training Package is streamlined

and concentrated for time constrained

professionals already consummate in

their practice. This consists of:

o Online Self-Directed Module o One-on-One Review o Certification Designation o Sandbox for Pilot Practice o Team Starter Kit with Prelude

Licenses o Profile on Facilitator Page o Ongoing Support & Promotion

AUTHOR

Dr. Howard B. Esbin is the founder of playprelude.com and creator of the Prelude Suite™. Its design and

purpose is informed by his academic research and extensive senior management experience in

international development, philanthropy, and the private sector. The International Labour Organization,

Education Canada, and UNESCO have published his writing. Howard’s latest publication is “Virtual

Strangers No More: Serious Games & Creativity for Effective Remote Teams” in “Strategic Management &

Leadership for Systems Development in Virtual Spaces”. http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/virtual-

strangers-no-more/143522

working paper: july 2016 - play prelude€¦ · working paper: july 2016 ... both lego serious...

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