Dr Heather Stewart from the Department of Business Strategy and Innovation and Dr Deborah Delaney from the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics ran a workshop at the recent HERDSA conference at University of Auckland. In the spirit of the conference themes: leadership, work and identity, the interactive, action learning based workshop included the tactile reflective learning experience using Lego Serious Play, a highly innovative and powerful methodology for team building.
During the workshop, the 30 participants were guided through three phases to work individually and collaboratively to develop insight and new skills in terms of resilience, creativity and lateral thinking.
The participants employed and established ways and means to cope, overcome and potentially improve their leadership and self-awareness within their work place. Take-aways from the workshop, included experiential learning, self-awareness and deeper understanding individual’s leadership. Participant feedback was extremely positive.
“The collaboration really helped me with my ideas”
Workshop participant
Refocusing and taking fresh approaches to achieve leadership goals supports the individual’s professional development. Refocusing and taking fresh approaches to achieve leadership goals supports the individual’s professional development. Using Lego blocks facilitated creative involvement from everyone in the workshop and was useful for reaching innovative solutions.
“I found myself really thinking about who I am as a leader”.
Workshop participant
Through this workshop many left with ideas for improvement in how they can face the challenges of their work place identity, their leadership aims and professional development goals.
