Papert, the father of constructionism, observed that people are inherently motivated by ambitious challenges, even those challenges that require significant effort. Hard fun occurs when enjoyment and difficulty come together to form an engaging and satisfying activity. Papert highlighted that children like challenging activities as long as the activities are also engaging. He observed that "learning is essentially hard; it happens best when one is deeply engaged in hard and challenging activities."1
The LSP method uniquely demonstrates this principle. The method demands that participants think with their hands, construct metaphorical representations of complex ideas, and engage in deep reflection and dialogue — all challenging cognitive tasks.
People consistently report high levels of engagement because the process is meaningful, their skills are balanced with the task, and they have tools to express new information. This harmony echoes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of "flow" — the state of optimal performance when one's abilities and the difficulty of the task at hand are perfectly complementary.
Through the process's use of metaphor and touch, participants can physically engage with and connect to complex social and ethical issues already within their knowledge base.
Using Your Hands to Think
The foundational principle of LSP is "manual knowledge," or the belief that concrete model-making facilitates the disclosure of previously hidden abstract concepts and the promotion of open and welcoming group dynamics. Approximately 80% of our brain's neurons can be accessed through our hands. Through the process's use of metaphor and touch, participants can physically engage with and connect to complex social and ethical issues already within their knowledge base.
The embodied cognition approach, based on the work of Jean Piaget and further developed by Papert, recognizes the usefulness of physical objects in the performance of mental tasks. When people create something and then discuss it, they generate insightful, honest, and valuable conversations. Numerous studies support this conclusion.
Ultimately, everyone can recognize and challenge the hidden assumptions behind the design, problem, or process because we have externalized our thoughts through play.
Creating 100-100 Participation
When all voices are heard and valued, teams can solve complex problems like facilities management, budgeting, and organizational change. LSP disrupts the 20-80 meeting dynamic through several design principles:
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Focus on models, not people. By focusing on three-dimensional constructions rather than individuals, LSP neutralizes hierarchy effects and reduces self-censoring. Models facilitate discussion across expertise and authority levels.
Transforming Teams Through Shared Understanding
Teams often work suboptimally because members are unaware of each other's capabilities, perspectives, and the profound connections within the group. To effectively bridge silos that might otherwise remain isolated, LSP enables communication of complex ideas using the universal language of bricks and metaphors.
The process of building and sharing models brings these hidden strengths to light, creating deeper team bonds and more effective collaboration. The resultant shared understanding and knowledge of the underlying issues or future concerns is essential for school business professionals managing various functions, including food service, transportation, and technology.
A Proven Methodology Ready for Implementation
Hard Fun and 100-100 conversations transform team meetings and organizational processes by embracing rather than avoiding the hard work of genuine collaboration and deep thinking. By structuring 100-100 participation through hands-on building, metaphorical expression, and disciplined reflection, the facilitator co-creates the conditions for what Seymour Papert identified as hard fun — the deep engagement that comes when people tackle ambitious challenges with appropriate tools and support.
LSP is available under Creative Commons licensing from the LEGO Group. The methodology has been validated across industries for strategy development, change management, team building, and cross-functional problem-solving. While the method can be explored independently, working with trained facilitators increases the likelihood of successful implementation, and maximum impact occurs when all members participate and work together.
For school business professionals who manage complicated organizations with limited resources and high stakes, the LSP methodology provides a way to move past traditional meetings that often miss out on valuable knowledge and don't involve everyone in decision-making or awareness of the team’s collective capacity for learning, growth, and achievement.
Investing time and effort in proper workshops, effective facilitation training, and creating a safe space for everyone to participate will lead to better decisions, stronger actions, and more united teams.
The next time your team faces a complex challenge with no obvious solution, consider whether the answer might emerge not from the loudest voices or the highest position in the room, but from 100% of the people in the room thinking with their hands, sharing their stories, and building the connections of their future together — one brick at a time.