co-creation
- solving challenges together (with LEGO® Serious Play®)
I use LEGO® Serious Play® and structured facilitation to flatten hierarchy, make every voice equal, and create 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.
In most organisations, the people closest to the problem aren’t in the room when solutions get decided. Hierarchy determines who speaks. The loudest voices dominate. Difficult conversations get avoided because no one knows how to have them safely. And when solutions finally get announced, they fail. Because the people who have to live with them had no hand in creating them.
Why co-creation matters: the data
When organisations involve people in solving problems, the outcomes are measurably better:
likely to succeed when employees are involved in designing change initiatives (Prosci, 2023)
innovation rates in organizations that practice participatory decision-making (MIT Sloan, 2022)
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here’s an example of where it has worked >
“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.
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
Check out some of my work
