A request for help with a job application. One and a half days of intensive work. And, by the end, a clear vision of what one’s own leadership style should look like – from the application process through the first 100 days right through to a vision for the future of one’s own area of responsibility.
I presented this case at the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Global Community Meeting 2026 in Billund (Denmark) and discussed it with an international professional audience. The meeting was organized by the Association of Master Trainers. The title of my talk: “No Idea How to Apply: A 1:1 Leadership Coaching Story with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®”.
It was really enjoyable to share my experiences, discuss questions and see just how much interest the use of this method in one-to-one coaching has generated.
It Started with the Application
A long-serving employee wanted to apply for his first formal leadership position. He knew the organization and the technical tasks well. In future, he would be responsible for an area with several different teams.
His original request was modest: support with the application.
In conversation, it became clear that bigger questions lay behind it: What qualifies me for this role? How do I want to lead? What do the teams need from me? And how would I shape the new role in concrete terms?
He had already attended leadership seminars. Even so, he found it hard to put his own understanding of leadership into words and to derive a convincing path for the application from it.
That is exactly what we worked on.
Discovering Your Own Leadership Experience
Over the day and a half of coaching, we used LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to explore his experiences, his self-image and the requirements of the role he was aiming for.
To do this, he built models, explained their meaning and related them to one another. That allowed us to keep asking questions about concrete representations: What is behind this? Where does it already show up in everyday work? What of it matters for the new role?
A pivotal moment came when he realised just how much leadership experience he already had. Among other things, he had taken on responsibility as a handball coach and in coordinating projects, involving people and working towards shared goals.
These experiences took on new meaning. He could see what he could build on and what he could transfer to a professional leadership setting.
What began as uncertain preparation gradually turned into clarity about his own position.
What Becomes Visible While Building
I was particularly impressed by the knowledge that became accessible in this process. Experiences and ideas he had hardly expected at the start became concrete while building and telling.
In the end, the table held his picture of himself, his assumptions about how others perceive him, the requirements of the new role and his ideas for the future.
We could look at these perspectives side by side, discuss differences and make connections. Even concerns took shape. That made it possible to explore how he might handle potentially difficult situations.
The meaning of the models always came from him. My job was to design the process, ask questions and support him in applying his insights to the task ahead.
What became especially clear to me in this coaching is how much people already bring with them. Sometimes it takes the right approach to make this knowledge visible and usable for themselves.
From Insight to Concrete Next Steps
The work resulted in an application and positioning strategy and a concrete picture of the future leadership role.
In the end, there were four interconnected results:
- a clearer understanding of his own leadership identity,
- a positioning for the application process,
- a plan for the first 100 days,
- a vision for the area two years from now.
For starting in the role, for example, conversations with the teams and clarifying priorities became concrete. At the same time, a picture emerged of how collaboration between the different teams should develop.
His personal development areas also became clear: effective communication, understanding his own role in the organization and in leadership, as well as self-organization and personal effectiveness.
He now had a concrete path ahead of him – from the application through a possible start in the role to the longer-term shaping of his area of responsibility. For further work on his development areas, the organization subsequently commissioned additional coaching.
Taking This Case to Billund
This is exactly the development I wanted to share at the Global Community Meeting in Billund: how a request for help with an application turned into an intensive exploration of leadership and one’s own future.
I was delighted by the interest during the talk and the conversations afterwards. Talking about the approach with experienced facilitators from different countries was also an opportunity to reflect on my own work and take away new perspectives.
What especially stayed with me was the appreciative feedback from Per Kristiansen.
The personal encounters with Per Kristiansen and Robert Rasmussen also stay with me. The dedications in their book are a lovely reminder of those days and the exchange about my work.
Billund also offered plenty of opportunity to keep learning myself. In exchanges with other facilitators, it became tangible how different the fields of application and experiences are – and how much can be gained from working together.
Space for Your Own Leadership Role
This case shows one way to use LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® in 1:1 coaching: to reflect on one’s own role, tap into existing experience and develop concrete steps from it.
Such questions arise when stepping into leadership, as well as when taking on a new area of responsibility or undergoing a fundamental reorientation.
How do I want to lead? What can I build on? What do I want to change? And where do I start?
It is worth deliberately making space for these questions.
Would you like to sharpen your leadership role or prepare for your next career step? In an initial conversation, we will look together at your situation and at which form of support can move you forward.
The case has been anonymized to protect the person involved. Details about the organizational context have been deliberately omitted.
Note: LEGO®, SERIOUS PLAY®, the Minifigure and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group, which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this website.
