Does LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® really work?

A few quick answers up front:

---

"Building blocks for adults." That reaction comes up in almost every workshop at some point, usually from the person sitting there with their arms crossed. Strictly speaking, they are not wrong. But that does not answer the real question: Does it actually achieve something, or is it ultimately just entertaining?

Anyone who works professionally with training, change processes or workshops has learned to ask that question before investing time and money. And rightly so. The market is full of methods that promise a lot and deliver little. So here is the kind of straightforward look I would want myself if I had to evaluate a method for the first time: what the criticism says, what the research shows, and what a real-world case demonstrates.

The criticism worth taking seriously

When reflection is missing

The most candid criticism of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY rarely comes from people who have never experienced the method. It comes from experienced Facilitators themselves: A technically sound Core Process, as I described in LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® explained briefly, is the foundation for everything else. If that is missing, the worst-case outcome is an expensive icebreaker with colourful photos at the end. But colourful photos are not an outcome, they are a souvenir.

A familiar picture illustrates this well: A team spends an hour building, everyone laughs, everyone relaxes, and in the end there is a group photo with colourful models in the foreground. Three weeks later, nobody can remember what the models were actually supposed to mean. That is exactly what happens when the reflection is missing, the part that gives the building its meaning in the first place.

Poor facilitation is the real risk

If the Skills Building phase is skipped because time is tight, the psychological safety on which the rest of the workshop depends is missing. The models remain superficial instead of honest, and that is exactly where the accusation that LEGO SERIOUS PLAY is merely expensive toys for adults actually begins to become true.

That criticism is justified, and above all it says one thing: Poor facilitation is the real risk, not the method. Anyone who takes that seriously does not ask "Does the method work?" when choosing a training programme or provider. The real question is: "With whom, and how well is it facilitated?"

What the research actually shows

268 publications in ten years

The academic literature on LEGO SERIOUS PLAY has grown significantly over the past ten years, from isolated case studies into a small research field of its own. The bibliometric analysis already mentioned counts 268 academic publications between 2015 and 2025 in the Web of Science and Scopus databases.

What two studies show

What this research finds aligns strikingly often with what I observe in my own workshops: Positive effects on team dynamics, individual shifts in perspective and psychological safety. A study published in 2020 in the Journal of Work-Applied Management by Wheeler, Passmore and Gold examined exactly that: Six weeks after an LSP workshop, team members described a noticeable and lasting change in collaboration and psychological safety, not a short-term sense of euphoria immediately after the event.

Closer to business decision-making is a study on LSP in organisational decision-making processes by Javidroozi, Maguire, Feldman and Ibrahim (2024, International Journal of Management and Decision Making). Using interviews, a case study, a focus group and a facilitated workshop, they examined what LSP actually changes in organisational decision-making processes. Their finding: The process becomes more visible, more creative, and noticeably more people genuinely participate, not just on paper.

The limits of the current evidence

Being candid also means saying this: A large part of the research so far comes from educational contexts, nursing education, higher education, early-career research, and less often from purely corporate settings. The field is young, and the study just cited was based on only six respondents from two teams, a small and carefully analysed sample, but not a broad evidence base. Anyone looking for a fully conclusive causal study for their own strategy workshop will not find one at present, and I would not promise otherwise. What does exist is a growing and consistent body of evidence, plus my own experience from more than ten years of practice.

If You would rather read about this from a corporate perspective, Brickolution® describes the method in detail with a focus on companies.

A real case instead of another study

Numbers and studies are one thing. What convinces me most are individual, concrete cases where you can clearly see what came before and what came afterwards.

Judith Weber heads the Department for Marriage, Family and Diversity at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Office in Freiburg, right in the middle of one of the largest change processes the diocese has undergone in recent years. Before her team did a workshop with me, there were critical questions within the team: "Judith, are You sure this is the right thing for us?" Probably a question everyone asks themselves before bringing an unfamiliar method into their own team.

How that scepticism dissolved and what came out of it in the end is described in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Case Study: Clarity in the Middle of Change. What matters most here is this: It was not a sales appointment. It was a real, ongoing change process in an organisation that does not make its decisions lightly.

What this means for Your decision

So the candid answer to "Does LEGO SERIOUS PLAY really work?" has two parts. Yes, with a growing body of scientific evidence and with real, verifiable cases from very different organisations. And only if the person at the wheel knows what they are doing. Anyone who does not bring that capability will, at best, deliver a pleasant afternoon with colourful photos.

That is why a training programme that teaches the Application Techniques and Skills Building just as thoroughly as the process itself offers more than simply knowing that the method exists. "No buzzwords, but skills that last." And if You are also interested in why companies and Facilitators are willing to pay for it in the first place, Why do people buy LEGO SERIOUS PLAY? explores exactly that question.

How can You tell, without already being a Facilitator Yourself? By asking three questions before any money changes hands. How long is the training behind the person, and does it cover the complete process or only parts of it? Who trained them, and with what certification? And if You ask, can they show You real, verifiable cases, not just a generic promise of success?

If You want to find out for Yourself what this feels like live before committing to anything: You can find dates for the next Meetups and training programmes at matthias-renner-trainer.com.

By Matthias Renner, AI-assisted research.