A LEGO® brick workshop defines a range of activities with LEGO bricks. Workshops with LEGO bricks are typically structured sessions with a clear goal or theme for participants.
LEGO bricks are great for STEM (Science, Technology Engineering & Maths topics), and can also be used for more creative workshop activities including creative problem solving and team building. Workshops can be run in schools, museums, and for corporate team building. LEGO bricks used as a tool to facilitate learning, improving communication and leadership skills, and engaging people of all ages.
With new LEGO set and part releases, our workshops with LEGO bricks evolve new challenges and activities, from robots to experimenting with magnets and even parachutes! Bricks McGee are forever evolving our list of activities with LEGO bricks from the constant stream of new LEGO elements being released.
- What to expect from a LEGO workshop: participants can expect to be set a series of usually related challenges in a fixed time session. LEGO bricks are provided for participants, and Bricks McGee offer certificates for participants for museum and school workshops too.
- Why workshops with LEGO bricks are an effective method of team building: our corporate team building sessions offer hands-on, tactile experiences which provide a great ice breaker, allowing participants who may not know each other to bond, and providing a memorable experience solving challenges together.
What should you expect from a LEGO® brick workshop?
Workshops can vary greatly depending on the venue they are held in, the theme, the type of LEGO bricks included in the workshop kits, and the number of participants involved. Workshops typically involve a series of 2 to 4 building challenges, with participants solving and completing the challenges using the LEGO bricks provided.
Tasks are typically timed to add to the challenge, and to ensure that the workshop runs to a specific schedule to allow for additional groups, or to fit within a corporate away day.
How is a LEGO® brick workshop structured?
Typically, workshops with LEGO bricks work as follows:
- Participants for the workshop are gathered in a room together, and split in to teams (or families!)
- A facilitator will introduce themselves, and set an initial challenge to be built from the LEGO bricks provided
- The first activity in a workshop will usually be an ice breaker activity to help participants focus on the following activities. Ice breaker activities can also be useful to gauge the abilities and priorities of participants in the room
- Additional challenges follow, as set by the facilitator. These typically include a mixture of traditional LEGO building tasks such as tower building or bridge building in teams, and creative-style challenges such as building local landmarks or “Frankenstein animals” – two animals in one creature
- Optionally, some team building workshops finish with a reflective session for participants, allowing them to review their response to the challenges set and how they could approach them differently should they
Activities can change based on team sizes and the duration for the activity available (you’d be surprised how long it takes to measure towers!). Bricks McGee can also cater for bespoke activities including large custom models built from LEGO bricks, engineering challenges, communication challenges, and more, changing the outcomes of the workshop to align with key values in your business.
How does this work as a team building exercise?
LEGO bricks are a fantastic tool for team building, because they provide a real, tangible item participants can interact with. Having a physical item to build – and play – with breaks down typical barriers to engagement in team building sessions. This means participants are more likely to want to engage in the session, and the team bonding effect is likely to be more effective.
Since 2012, Bricks McGee have used LEGO bricks to create fun team building workshops for companies and organisations of all sizes, and have since grown to provide corporate team events in the UK, Europe, North America and Asia. The benefits of team building with LEGO bricks in this time have become clear:
- Improved engagement compared to common team building sessions such as quizzes
- Improved communication skills between participating team members
- Improved awareness of likely communication and leadership issues during projects
Team building with LEGO bricks challenges typical team building activities by harnessing the almost unlimited power of LEGO’s building system – if you consider just 6 2×4 bricks can be combined in over 915 million combinations, imagine the power of tens of thousands of LEGO bricks!
Conclusion
In summary, a LEGO brick workshop can vary in content, duration and the activities completed. Workshops typically feature a structured session within a defined period of time, led by a facilitator who sets challenges and judges outcomes from the activities on behalf of the group. Bricks McGee workshops include one or more seasoned facilitators to engage the group and run the activity, their travel time and expenses, and hire of our team building workshop kits to ensure everyone has enough LEGO bricks to build with.
Contact Bricks McGee to discuss your next team building event tailored to your team’s requirements.