Summit Blog: Build your future brick by brick - A workshop on preparing for an ever-changing environment

The way the microphones were placed on the stage, Pete Jenkins and Vasilis Gkogkidis, from Gamification +  both gave the impression they were in a band. They gave us a rock star welcome and turned our focus to the tables in front of us. Presented was a packet of Lego bricks for each of us. This already seemed to be an interesting session.

I remember reading about Lego in the description of the workshop, but I must admit I thought it was an anagram for a business technique. There are an awful amount of them, however (SWAT, PPPP etc.), so having actual Lego was a nice surprise. I could tell everyone was eager to open them.

Vasilis took to the stage and introduced the purpose of our tools. We were told we would be using the Lego to represent the different stages of the future we want to build for ourselves. The plan for building our future, brick by brick, is structured as…

1.       Analyse

2.       Goal Setting

3.       Create your strategy

4.       Final Planning

The first activity was to create a sculpture out of the Lego to represent our most valued strength. Vasilis said, “If you don’t know who you are, you won’t know who you’re going to be”. I quite liked that.

One of my main strengths is my guitar playing, so I set out to create this. The blocks we were given were purposely limited in colour and shapes to make us think. I created a little Lego man with a ladder and pole as his guitar. I made the wall behind him colourful to represent my creativity.

The second task involved setting a goal, and then symbolising that goal through Lego. One lady on my table made a colourful snail. When we went around the table explaining what our creations meant, she told us that life goes by so fast and we end up missing a lot of it.  She said she wanted to slow it down and enjoy the various colours in life. I think that touched all of us, and is something a lot of us can agree on.

I was starting to see how visualising your goals in the form of Lego can help create physical meaning behind it, and make it that much more realistic. Lego works as a very versatile tool for this job too! Some people made some wacky creations, such as bright structures on top of a Lego man’s head to represent creative expression, or a flat platform to represent stability in their business.

When it came to the strategy, a few people on my table brought up networking. They wanted to expand their business through meeting new contacts and bringing in new prospects. Networking is a powerful tool for that when done in the right way.

Our final plan brought together everything we had brainstormed into one strong plan. I agreed with others when they said this was a great session for making us think more about our goals. So, this brings up the question…

Should we steal our children’s Lego for goal setting?

Thanks to Jake Wharton, Marketing Assistant at Ingenio Technologies for writing this blog

Ingenio Technologies is a client-centric IT Support & Telecoms company based near Brighton. To find out more go to www.ingeniotech.co.uk/ or call 01273 806211.

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk