Question 1

What is LEGO® Serious Play® coaching?

Accepted Answer

LEGO® Serious Play® coaching uses LEGO® bricks as a tool within professional coaching conversations. Clients build models that represent their thoughts, emotions and goals — essentially 3D printing what's in their head. The model becomes a shared reference point that coach and client explore together, unlocking insight that words alone often can't reach.

Question 2

How is LEGO® Serious Play® coaching different from LEGO® Serious Play® facilitation?

Accepted Answer

In facilitation, the facilitator owns the process: pre-planned questions, timed builds, structured outputs. In coaching, the client leads. The coach follows their energy, uses the bricks when they serve the moment, and holds the space for whatever emerges. The model is never the point. The person is the point.

Question 3

Do I need to be a trained LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator to use it in coaching?

Accepted Answer

You need training, yes. But not necessarily facilitator training. SERIOUSWORK offers specific LEGO® Serious Play® Coaching training designed for professional coaches, which teaches you how to apply the method within a coaching context rather than a facilitation one. The skills, the mindset and the application are different.

Question 4

How does LEGO® Serious Play® align with ICF Core Competencies?

Accepted Answer

LEGO® Serious Play® maps directly to all eight ICF Core Competencies. It strengthens trust and safety through the model as a third point of communication, deepens active listening by adding visual and kinaesthetic data, and evokes awareness through metaphor and physical manipulation of ideas. It doesn't replace good coaching. It enriches it.

Question 5

Can I use LEGO® Serious Play® in online coaching sessions?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. Coaching with LEGO® bricks online works well, with clients across the world. The client needs access to bricks, a camera that shows both their face and their model, and a quiet space. It works. Not as a compromise, but as a genuinely effective way to bring the method into virtual coaching.

Question 6

What LEGO® bricks do I need to coach with LEGO® Serious Play®?

Accepted Answer

For in-person coaching, around half a kilo of mixed bricks (called brick soup) with a variety of shapes, colours, minifigures and a baseplate. For online coaching, Window Exploration Kits from LEGO® are a cost-effective option, or the client can use their own bricks. A brick can mean anything — variety helps, but perfection isn't required.

Question 7

How do I introduce LEGO® Serious Play® to a coaching client?

Accepted Answer

Start on the discovery call. Share that you work with a range of tools, including LEGO® Serious Play®. Frame it simply: it's a way of building your thinking rather than just talking about it. Have a few bricks nearby to demonstrate. Then let the client decide. No pushing. Just planting the seed.

Question 8

What is the skills build in LEGO® Serious Play® coaching?

Accepted Answer

The skills build is a short exercise, around fifteen to twenty minutes, that prepares the client to use LEGO® bricks meaningfully in coaching. It moves through three phases designed to build comfort, confidence and creative expression with the bricks. It only needs to happen once, and it's the foundation for everything that follows.

Question 9

When should I use LEGO® Serious Play® in a coaching session — and when shouldn't I?

Accepted Answer

Use it when the client is stuck in words, circling the same ground, or struggling to express something complex. Don't use it when the client doesn't want to, when you're using it to fill time, or when you've slipped into facilitation mode and started leading the process. The method serves the person. Not the other way around.

Question 10

What coaching outcomes can LEGO® Serious Play® help with?

Accepted Answer

LEGO® Serious Play® works across a wide range of coaching contexts: leadership development, career transitions, return-to-work programmes, team coaching, values exploration, goal setting and more. It's particularly powerful when clients need to make the invisible visible — turning vague feelings, complex systems or stuck patterns into something they can see, touch and work with.

Learn to Coach with the LEGO® Serious Play® Method

Learn how to use LEGO® Serious Play® as a 1:1 coaching modality, not a facilitation tool.

Who’s it for: Professional coaches wanting to bring the method into their practice.

What’s inside: Practical guidance, case studies, competency mapping and coaching frameworks.

Meet the Author, Vics Bradley

Lead Master Trainer for SERIOUSWORK, International Coaching Federation PCC Accredited Coach and trained to ICF Level 3 .

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