Lego play defended after Walsall councillors' workshop
A controversial workshop which resulted in Walsall councillors “playing with Lego” have been defended by a training expert.
Baffled members took to social media last week to pour scorn on a training session they attended which required them to use building blocks to create their idea of what a strong community is.
But facilitator Jonathan Bannister of Make Happy Ltd – who did not host the session in Walsall – said the method of ‘Lego Serious Play’ was a powerful tool to build ideas and foster better team work.
And he slammed critical councillors who “threw grenades” at the session they were in instead of embracing new ideas.
Labour councillor Matt Ward, one of the critics of the workshop, defended his conclusion the session was a waste of taxpayers’ money and challenged Mr Bannister to learn more about the work they are already doing in their communities.
Mr Bannister said: “The complaints Councillor Matt Ward made actually reinforces why Lego Serious Play is such a powerful tool in situations like this.
“It fosters better conversations where everyone has the opportunity to contribute equally.
“In terms of how it works, the sessions run with the facilitator asking a question, and participants’ building’ their responses in Lego – the process of building gives participants a period of quiet contemplation as they create their response which often leads to better, more considered responses.
“The participants then share the stories behind their models in turn (ideally in groups of 6 – 8).
“This activity can be around a particular theme or to address a specific problem or challenge, and we would typically have several rounds of questions, building and storytelling.
“There is a body of academic work that demonstrates that people learn better when they see something in three dimensions and that an artefact or model can express more than mere words.
“The example of a shark eating a person was used by someone in a recent workshop to explain how they were feeling about a project they were leading.
“The visceral image helped his manager understand the depth of his concern, something she had not appreciated to that point.
“Once the group has built a number of models which represent their ideas or response to the posed question, we moved to a building a shared model.
“The shared model has to incorporate all the individuals’ models. The group needs to, therefore, consider and agree, how their models interact with each other.
“This forces the group to consider all viewpoints but doesn’t mean that every idea has to be given equal weight.
“Councillor Ward is quoted as saying, ‘We’ve been doing this for years’.
“He apparently believes there is nothing new to be learned; no way of doing things differently; no opportunity to look for new ideas.
“Furthermore, it would appear that Councillor Ward has little interest in working together, as part of a team, to help the constituents of Walsall.
“So rather than listening to colleagues and building on their views, he throws grenades at the process. I would imagine this must make for a somewhat toxic working environment!”
He added: “I would qualify all of this by adding that an experienced facilitator is a key to a successful.
“I do not know who facilitated the session, so cannot comment on whether that impacted how Councillor Ward experienced the process.”
Matt Ward: “It is my belief that the taxpayer money could have been used in a more productive way to empower our community groups, rather than being spent on a very basic training session.
“It might have been nice if the facilitator had looked to see what we do already, strengthen the good practice that exists and share it, before making assumptions that we know nothing about how communities work.
“Our residents expect and deserve more from councillors than playing with Lego in a training session.
“Many of us in that session already work with local residents to form community groups and to bring in external funding to improve our communities.
“The money that was wasted on this particular training session would have been better spent on bringing together our community groups to enable them to share best practice.
“Before making assumptions about toxic working I would invite the facilitator to come and see the great work that we are doing in Blakenall.”
