The Build & Share method has been applied in a broad range of organisations ranging for government institutions, manufacturing companies, energy companues, universities and NGO’s.
Through the use of LEGO® the participants build metaphorical models that visualize and make meaning of abstract concepts that can otherwise be quite difficult to comprehend. The metaphors give a more complex creation of understanding and can make something more meaningful by equating it with something else. At the same time the use of metaphors and the way participants visualize things in a Build & Share workshop makes it much easier for participants to remember.
Some of the best practices include:
Vision and aspirations
Exploring and establishing good goals are crucial to motivation and engagement. One of the most powerful Build & Share application is related to personal and shared goals.
Participants build their personal aspirations, where after they share and reflect upon these. Following this part groups very often explore future scenarios related to their aspirations and end up building a shared model of the groups vision.
A Build & Share aspiration workshop creates a sense of having “built the future” – it become more tangible, a sort of possible future prototype.
Character Strengths
The benefits of identifying, exploring and using ones character strengths is now well documented. One of the most common ways Build & Share is used today, is to embed it into a character strengths workshop.
Upon identifying ones strengths through the VIA Character Inventory or the use of our Strength Cards (other tools can also be used) participants build one or more of their signature strengths. The stories related to these strengths are shared with the group and later combined into a coherent model of ones strong identity. It is also very common to let people build a model that tells a story of a strength they see in another person. Last but not least strength combination and strength usage can be explored through the Build & Share Strength Scenario process.
Prospection, scenarios and possible futures
Prospeciton explored with Build & Share may include planning, prediction, hypothetical scenarios, teleological patterns, daydreaming, and evaluative assessment of possible future events. Using Build & Share in this setting helps shape the participants cognitive, affective, and motivational systems – individually and collectively.
A key component in a Build & Share Prospection workshop is that it facilitates the benefits from narrative approaches using prospective storytelling and metaphors. In Build & Share the stories we tell about our future contributes to the construction, reproduction, or transformation of our reality and identity.