Good Comms | Inclusive leadership & communication

bridging

- co-creation with LEGO® Serious Play®

I help teams get the brilliant ideas out of people’s heads and onto the table using LEGO® bricks. It sounds unexpected and works every time.

LEGO® Serious Play® is a structured facilitation method that flattens hierarchy, makes every voice equal, and creates the conditions where teams can tackle the hard stuff together. Because the best solutions don’t come from the top. They come from everyone, at all levels.

When hierarchy flattens for a moment and the person closest to the problem gets to help design the answer, magic happens. When difference, instead of creating friction, creates something better than any single perspective could have built alone, sustainable solutions are co-created.

That’s what bridging makes possible. And it’s what most organisations leave on the table every day, not out of bad intention, but because the conditions for it rarely exist naturally. You have to create them.

I create them. Through facilitation that opens people up, makes abstract problems tangible, and a coaching depth that works with what’s happening in the room, not just the agenda on the page.

How this looks in practice:

  • Co-creating solutions
  • Team culture building
  • Guiding difficult conversations
  • Problem-solving
  • Strategy and visioning
  • Team alignment

Why co-creation matters: the data

When organisations involve people in solving problems, the outcomes are measurably better:

6x more

likely to succeed when employees are involved in designing change initiatives (Prosci, 2023)

2x higher

innovation rates in organizations that practice participatory decision-making (MIT Sloan, 2022)

71% increase

in employee engagement if leadership asked for their input before making decisions (Gallup, 2023)

40% faster

implementation when solutions are co-created rather than mandated (McKinsey, 2024)

But here’s what the numbers can’t capture: the shift that happens when someone who’s never been asked for their opinion finally gets heard. The breakthrough that emerges when people with different perspectives actually listen to each other. The ownership people feel when they’ve helped build the solution, not just been told to follow it.

What I offer

Facilitated problem-solving

Some problems are too complex to solve in a traditional meeting. I use LEGO® Serious Play® methodology to help teams tackle challenges that require fresh thinking, difficult trade-offs, or alignment across different perspectives.

Through hands-on building and structured dialogue, teams surface insights they didn’t know they had and find solutions that actually work. Because everyone contributed to building them.

Guiding difficult conversations

How do you talk about identity, privilege, inclusion, or other polarising topics without people shutting down or getting defensive? I create brave spaces using LEGO® Serious Play® where teams can explore complex, sensitive issues through building rather than just talking.

The methodology levels the playing field, makes abstract concepts tangible, and allows people to share perspectives they might not otherwise voice. Real dialogue becomes possible.

Strategy and visioning

Your strategy shouldn’t be written in a boardroom and rolled out to everyone else. I facilitate sessions where employees across levels and functions shape organisational direction together—from vision to priorities to action plans.

Using LEGO® Serious Play®, I create conditions where hierarchy disappears and every voice carries equal weight. The result? Strategy that people actually believe in because they helped create it.

Team alignment and culture building

I facilitate team alignment and culture-building sessions where teams discover their individual strengths, build shared vision, and define how they want to work together.

Through LEGO® Serious Play®, abstract concepts like “team culture” or “our ideal future” become tangible, discussable, and actionable. Teams leave with clarity, connection, and concrete next steps.

 

“Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.”

– Diane Ackerman

Case examples

Strategy workshops

I facilitated a vision and strategy session for the IABC EMENA board using LEGO® Serious Play®. The methodology allowed the board to play and strategize simultaneously, building individual models that revealed each member’s vision before collectively creating a shared future. Using the COCD box (How-Now-Wow matrix), they translated abstract vision into concrete priorities: growth and membership engagement, strategy development, and protecting the foundation. One participant noted: “It was interesting to see how this exercise brought focus and clarity to what we should prioritize.”

Team alignment and visioning

For a government team, I facilitated a session where team members discovered their individual strengths and how these come together in an ideal team composition. LEGO® Serious Play® gave the team direction, clear focus points, and directly actionable steps. A participant who initially finished quickly found herself completely in flow, letting her creativity run free, demonstrating how the methodology unlocks unexpected insights.

Depolarising difficult conversations

When a municipality wanted to address identity, privilege, and inclusion—topics that aren’t easy to discuss—I used LEGO® Serious Play® to create a space where complexity became tangible. By building instead of just talking, there was room for different perspectives, equality, and genuine conversations. The hands-on approach helped participants explore sensitive themes in a way that felt safe and constructive.

Creative Lego tower model on a marble surface with bright colors and intricate design details.
lego, pink, building blocks, blocks, toy, lego, lego, lego, lego, lego, building blocks

A typical co-creation journey

Here’s what happens when teams work with me:

Before: A leadership team needs to align on strategy, but hierarchy is getting in the way. The same voices dominate meetings. People hold back. Decisions feel imposed rather than owned.

During: In a LEGO® Serious Play® session, everyone builds. The CEO’s model carries the same weight as the newest team member’s. Through structured facilitation, abstract challenges become tangible. Perspectives that were invisible suddenly become visible. Dialogue flows differently when hands are building and everyone must speak.

After: The team leaves with shared understanding, concrete priorities, and genuine buy-in. Because when people build the solution together, they own it together. Implementation is faster because no one needs to be convinced. They were in the room when it was created.

What they say

The LEGO® Serious Play® workshop has directed me in an easygoing and playful manner to evaluate my objectives and pave a path for the future. I really enjoyed Chared’s session and working with the Lego blocks and to form my story and refine my objectives around what I’ve built. It made me think differently, more intuitive, about my goals. Thank you for the fun and inspiring experience!​
Nathalie Huijbers​
Communication professional
My experience with the LEGO® Serious Play® workshop is that it encourages you to analyze your own processes, both professionally and personally. Working with your hands as a start clears the mind for reflection.
Michelle hamers, phd​
Communication professional
The LEGO® Serious Play® session hosted by Chared gave me good insights. By building with the lego bricks, you look at things from a different angle, and it helped me to organize my thoughts on the goals I want to focus on.
Wietske Hollegien​
L&D professional
Samen met LEGO® spelen en inhoudelijk goede stappen zetten met elkaar, wat een topdag! Alle eer aan Chared, die deze dag ontzettend goed heeft begeleid. Een aanrader voor elk team dat vanuit verbinding met de inhoud aan de slag wil!
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Janneke verheggen​
Afdelingshoofd B&U, Rijksvastgoedbedrijf
Gisteren met het team een mooie sessie gehad onder enthousiaste begeleiding van Chared. Tijdens deze dag werd duidelijk dat het echt mogelijk is om tegelijkertijd te Legoën, te werken aan teambuilding en ook nog strategische doelen vast te stellen.​
martijn bruijstens​
Strategisch adviseur, Rijksvastgoedbedrijf​
The LEGO® Serious Play® workshop was the highlight of the day, facilitated by Chared – an incredibly thoughtful, kind and generous comms leader. My ‘build’ is a reflection of how I would describe my strengths and contribution to IABC.​
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Karen Matthews​
Associate Director, RMIT Europe​
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