The genius of lego play day

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The Genius of Lego Play Day: Lessons in Innovation

The annual Lego Play Day on June 11th, 2024, had me reflecting on the topic of innovation and why Lego’s approach is not only different, but I would go so far as to say, genius. As children, we played with unbounded imagination, where ten small Lego bricks could transform in our mind into an plane, a truck, a house, or even a castle. As a child, the word failure, when creating our desired solution was never in our vocabulary; our creations were only limited by our imagination. Lego, however seems to have perfected the innovation process, highlighting a critical aspect many companies are missing. Their approach goes beyond structured innovation pipelines and safe, evolutional designs, but what is it that has allowed Lego to capture the essence of pure innovation—that spark of genius?

Lego Play Day is a brilliant concept for a number of reasons. It’s a day dedicated to team-building, relaxation, fun, and happiness. Most importantly, for Lego, it’s about product development and observing real users interacting with their products. How often does a business get to see thousands of its users simultaneously developing new products, concepts, or ideas, providing real time feedback, direct from the source.

Every year, Lego hosts a company-wide Play Day, allowing all employees to experience “the power of learning through play.” This tradition spans Lego factories, stores, and offices worldwide with each year featuring a different theme.

The event aligns with Lego’s mission, play promise, and values. It builds team trust, encourages experimental thinking, sparks inspiration, and reduces stress.

With approximately 18,000 employees worldwide, if only 80% (14,400) engage in Play Day for 7.5 hours, that’s 108,000 hours of concept creation, development, team-building, and most importantly fun. This one day is equal to over 63 innovators working full time for a year, excluding typical work distractions! Factoring in emails, calls, meetings and other standard work activities, it could be the same as having over 100 full-time innovators focused on product development and innovation.

Moreover, Lego not only involves its employees, but its customers in the innovation and development process through the Lego Ideas website. On this platform, customers can submit their own product designs and concepts. Once a design receives a specific number of votes from the community, it is reviewed by the Lego team for potential development into an official Lego set. This approach ensures that market research and demand are validated before production, as only the most popular and promising ideas move forward. Lego’s turnaround is a testament to the effectiveness of this strategy, demonstrating the power of engaging directly with consumers to drive innovation.

Lego’s Play Day and Ideas website are just two examples of their remarkable success, where innovative strategies and customer engagement have been a significant factor in their turnaround. This customer-centric approach, combined with a strong focus on quality and the timeless appeal of its playsets, has revitalized the brand. This change of fortune has been called one of the biggest turnarounds in corporate history and David Robertson’s has written a book dedicated to the subject called Brick by Brick: How Lego Rewrote the Rules of Innovation. By leveraging platforms like Lego Ideas, the company has tapped into the creativity and preferences of its fanbase, ensuring that new products resonate with consumers. Lego’s commitment to continuous innovation and understanding market demands has not only restored its financial health but also solidified its position as a leader in the toy industry.

This unique approach to innovation by Lego led me to think, what if more innovators, suppliers or manufacturers changed their approach to innovation. When was the last time you saw a supermarket shelf stocker or an e-commerce pack bench worker participating in a packaging innovation workshop?

Usually these end user insights come to a designer indirectly, meaning there could be three or four links relaying these details and each person passing on their own version of the information. Having this direct source of truth, you can work backwards revealing totally new opportunities for innovations in materials and products.

The big question then is… how can we embrace creativity, playfulness, and boldness in our product innovation processes, tapping into our inner child and breaking free from the constraints of adulthood, creating without fear of failure and gaining more insights directly from the end user?

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By G4v1n

Hello… I am Gavin

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