Creative Tools for Collective Creativity: The Serious Play Method Using Lego Bricks

Klaus-Peter Schulz () and Silke Geithner
Additional contact information
Klaus-Peter Schulz: ICN Business School, CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - UL - Université de Lorraine
Silke Geithner: Dresden University of Applied Sciences

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: When considering learning and development processes in the workplace, organizations often make use of their creative potential through integrating various stakeholder groups into collective activity. Heterogeneous groups can be seen as a source for collective creativity. It is the very diversity of the participants combined with their ability to share meaning and understanding which provides creative potential. Bearing in mind an activity-theoretical approach to learning and development such diversity is likely to bring about contradictions with regard to the existing practice as a prerequisite for learning as development. However, the contradictions need to be identified, explicated and made understandable among the participants of a development and learning process. Following the concept of expansive learning, contradictions can be solved through developing new activity which accompanies the change of existing background assumptions and understandings of the participants. This collective conceptualization can be seen as the central creative activity at early stages of the development and learning process. Questions, however, arise as to how such creative potential can be fostered and the necessary preconditions can be set which make foster collective creative behaviour more likely. To respond to this question we introduce a conceptual approach which aims to actively integrate all stakeholders of the learning and development processes, allowing them to gain awareness, express and exchange their ideas within a group. The approach includes the co-creation of physical models through "toolkit based modelling" which means in our case simple toolkits such as children's building blocks that are used to create and discuss prototypes. The creation process itself can be described as "serious play" . This concept addresses the paradox between intentionality and playfulness with the aim to foster the creative expression of ideas. Abstract models are created intuitively by the user as he/she carries out a general task. We particularly consider the use of LEGO building blocks, which can easily be assembled and disassembled without any prerequisites needed from the user.

Keywords: lego; Serious play method; Collective creativity; Creative Tools (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Sannino A., Ellis V. Learning and Collective Creativity, Routledge, pp.179-197, 2013, 9781138941694

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01514573

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().