Once Upon A Time In Legoland

This exercise was co-created as part of a collaboration day between myself and Paul Goddard

Timing:

60 minutes

Materials:

A lot of Lego

(Optional) A Digital Camera and Photo printer

Instructions:

Preparation

Ask the group to come up with:

1. a person from history,
2. a colour and
3. an object.

Construct a title out of these e.g. The story of Napoleon and the yellow pillow

Set the challenge:

1. To create a storyboard of this story by building scenes made from Lego.
2. There will be 3 sprints of 12 minutes (2m plan, 7m build & 3m review)
3. Each sprint must contain a start and end of the story and be in line with the vision (title)
4. Each scene must contain some action

If there are multiple teams playing:

• At the end of Sprint one ask each team to think of a location and then gave Team 1’s location to Team 2 and so on. This location must then be incorporated into their story.
• At the end of Sprint two, ask them to think of a leisure activity or a secondary character which will then be given to another team

If only one team is playing, throw in a location or character etc yourself

Learning Points: 

• How a vision + self-organisation can create a successful product
• Refactoring is necessary (and a good thing)
• Getting something done (vertical slice) each sprint (start and finish)
• Do something simple first then embellish
• How self-organising teams can be very creative
• Teams must be able to accommodate change while maintaining a consistent theme
• Seeing results at the end of the sprint is useful and motivational
• There should be a sense of pride about what they create

Variations: 

1. Expand the “definition of done” to include a photograph of each scene
2. Incorporate feedback from “stakeholders” (the other teams) into the planning of the next Sprint