We’d like to provide you with some ideas on ways to use LEGO® to relax, find balance, and be happier.
Previously, we have talked about deconstructing models, organizing bricks, the effect of color, and the tactile qualities that bring joy, happiness, and peace to builders. Now we’d like to dig into the area of sounds.
When you think of the sounds of the bricks, you might think of the sounds the bricks make rattling around in that band new starter kit. Or maybe you recall the sounds of the exploration bag as people look inside or open it up or the sounds of hands running though the larger landscape kit as people look for that perfect LEGO brick. There is always that rumble that goes with hands rolling through loose bricks as the mind and hands work together to find the right shape, the right colour, or the perfect brick to help tell the story or to connect ideas into models. These sounds all indicate that people are thinking and processing information. It’s the sound of our imagination at play.
In this post, we want to talk more about other sounds.
Let’s start with silence in a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methods workshop.
In our workshops, we are always amazed at how quiet a large group of people can become when they are presented with the perfect question or building challenge. Silence while thinking is often followed by the soft sounds of building, prototyping, reflecting, and adjusting as the process of building causes deep pensive thinking to occur. This silence in a workshop is often only identified by the facilitator, who might notice they presented the perfect question to help people process and think at deeper levels. If something breaks the silence, it quickly disrupts the deep level of concentration and flow.
Silence is also a sound and it needs to be honored because silence can be powerful as people enter into the learning and thinking zone. And how often do we really allow ourselves to sit with silence?
Now let’s explore music in LEGO SERIOUS PLAY workshops.
Sometimes we have a professional guitar player perform acoustic music perfectly matched to the level of required thinking for the build during the workshop. We have found this to be highly effective at our larger workshops.
We also like to play the work of Mozart, because the master composed music that connects with brain patterns for thinking and creative imagination. Mozart is also a great choice if we want people to clean up or hurry up and we need to use music for energy or motivation. Very few people connect that we have changed the pattern of the music as the workshop progresses, forming an invisible backdrop.
Often, new facilitators will ask why we don’t use popular music or music with words. In fact, at times we might. However, it is never selected at random. People that work with Alzheimer patients will talk about the power of music for memory recall. Most people recognize that music triggers thoughts, ideas, and memory recall and can lead or direct people at a subconscious level. For this reason, we use a mixture of more unknown music that allows people to think and reflect without realizing the music is a part of the workshop.
Music triggers both memories and emotions. Can you think of a song that, when you hear it, transports you back to a time in your life? Do you have a favorite set list you use and play while building or facilitating? We would love to hear from you.