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LEGO®Serious Play®in practice

LEGO®Serious Play®in practice

How can I build my team?

The serious business of play can be used to help individuals and organisations resolve issues and find a way forward.  Techniques such as Team Coaching and Constellations have been used for many years to enable innovative thinking to be creative outside of the conventional box. Now, you can take a box of Lego and, under guidance, use the bricks to help find a way forwards.

How can I resolve team issues?

 In LEGO®Serious Play® sessions, individuals construct their own models for specific topics and learn from translating their 3D creation into words, a surprisingly insightful process, noting how different people interpret the same instructions. Many people find it easier to express their emotions through a third party or vehicle rather than talk about them directly, and having a model facilitates this. There are also opportunities to model a future by building co-operatively, to allow the quieter ones to contribute at equal level as their more assertive counterparts.

Ian Gibbs: simple models tell great stories . Barcelona April 2022
One of the groups at Jessica Breitenfeld’s H2BU studio Barcelona

How can I plan my company’s future?

In April in Barcelona, Spain, Smart Coaching & Training ran a successful event with LEGO®Serious Play Certified Practitioners, Marta Odriozola and Ian Gibbs to demonstrate how Lego Serious Play works. Participants learnt how simple small pieces of coloured plastic can be transformed into a powerful way of thinking that can cross conventional boundaries and act as a catalyst for producing ideas that were buried inside them waiting to be discovered. You can see photos of how the individuals bonded and confidently told their stories to their team members.

LEGO®Serious Play® Workshops

SCT are now proud to offer a series of three five hour workshops to complete your understanding.

You can see them here

https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/LSP-Team-Strategy.pdf

https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/LSP-Company-Strategy.pdf

https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/LSP-Identity.pdf

See all our workshops and short courses: https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/what_we_offer/workshops-and-short-courses

And our longer Signature Corporate Training Courses: https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/what_we_offer/signature-corporate-training-longer-courses-and-retreats

At Smart Coaching & Training we coach and mentor according to client’s need, matching the client to appropriate associate based on needs including location and language.

Written by David Rigby © 2022 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd

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Woke up to Authoritarianism and Modernism

Woke up to Authoritarianism and Modernism

Open and Closed Mindsets

I wanted to write something with the work ‘Woke’ in the title, and not being sure whether Woke was a noun, adjective or verb, decided to start with the blues classic “Woke up this morning…”

What’s it to do with Carol Dweck ?

I woke up this morning wondering how Authoritarianism is connected with the work of Carol Dweck on open and closed mind sets.  Authoritarians want everything ‘my way or the high way’, and appear to be scared of trying something new in case they fail. So I guess they have a closed mindset. Equally, as we celebrate 100 years of Modernism, said to be founded in 1922, (the birth of Now? ) do we guess these folk, such as Bertolt Brecht, T.S Elliot and Louis Armstrong had open mindsets?

Hitler and Franco and ???

I understand that at least 40% of the world prefer to be governed by authoritarians of, presumably, the same closed mind set, not allowing others to be different. Classic authoritarians are the dictators such as Hitler, Stalin and Franco,  and there are many today who I won’t mention.  But they made sure that their fellow countrymen had the same views by ‘eliminating’ the opposition. The totalitarian state being enabled by initial indifference of the masses.

Listening to different people

Having worked in 22 countries, and lived a long time, I could still be of the opinion that ‘my way or the highway’ is still the right approach, broad as it is. However I have developed a team covering four continents, eight languages with diversity claims at least covering age, sex, sexuality, race, language, religion and education level, though we fail on neurodiversity. From this we are able to listen to each other and become stronger together than the individuals. I do not have an inclusion case for boring/not boring and entertaining/not entertaining and liking the wrong kind of music.

David Rigby with Ebrahim Hosani in Madinat Zayed, Al Dhafra, United Arab Emirates.
David Rigby with a retired singer in Ghana Africa
David Rigby with Radical Faeries, Glastonbury UK
David Rigby demonstrating career coaching at Abu Dhabi University

A collection of Cognitive Biases

We all have cognitive bias, recognise it, but at least we have different ones. There are many so set in their ways, insisting on the language of hygiene and political correctness, that they are no longer able to listen to discussions or anything which doesn’t affirm their beliefs. And personally I have often abandoned the challenge -after all what’s in it for either of us when dealing with closed mindsets. Especially if they cannot spell.

The same values as your mother?

When teaching coaching, I teach that one skill to have is to be able to coach people with different values than yours. I start with the questions ‘do you have the same values as your mother, when did you last change them’. And if the answer is ‘Yes, and Never’ then they wont make a good coach. And this then begs the question:

“If you have a learning and open mindset are you able to tolerate the views of others whether they be traditional religious zealots (of any variety) , privileged white supremacists, or of the politically correct snowflakes of the black/white/LGBT+/old/young/female lives matter brigade?” If so, you may have a future in coaching if you are not trampled on by the authoritarian majority from any one of those categories.

At Smart Coaching & Training we coach and mentor according to client’s need, matching the client to appropriate associate based on needs including location and language.

Written by David Rigby © 2022 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd

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Duck Ramps

Duck Ramps

What’s my role as a mentor?

Before going to Oman to deliver training to Ministry of Transport in December 2021 , I was enjoying a fine spring morning walking around my neighbourhood in Stockholm and preparing for an upcoming Zoom with one of my Institute of Hospitality mentees, when I stumbled upon this contraption on the side of a small canal, which runs through a park behind my apartment:

What’s that sloping metal sheet for?

Initially, I wasn’t sure what the purpose of the sloping metal sheet was that was attached to the side of the canal. Just as I was looking at the ramp and scratching my head, a duck mother and her recently born ducklings drifted past and paddled to the ramp. Mother duck hopped out of the canal with a swift jump, but the little ducklings used the metal ramp to reach the shore.
I remember thinking, that it says a lot about my new neighbourhood that local authorities go to the trouble of installing duck ramps, so little ducklings (or older ducks, which feel less energetic), can enter and leave the water effortlessly, but I also realized that the image fairly aptly symbolizes my role as a mentor

Adapting to mentee´s needs

I feel strongly that, just as every mentee’s circumstances are different, a mentor’s approach also needs to adapt and that “one size fits all” isn’t a good approach. For a mentor – mentee relationship to be successful and produce results, both parties need to, at least broadly, align, which also means that, depending on a mentee’s journey, he or she should work with more than one mentor. It’s important for a mentor to understand the stage a mentee is currently at to be able to provide the right guidance.

Danger- Mashed potatoes , no?

Equally, a mentor doesn’t just need to understand the mentee’s industry and circumstances, but also the finer details of why the mentee is looking for guidance. “Mentee pleasing” sounds like a nice thing, but isn’t really helpful in the long run. A mentor’s a short-time guide, not a permanent advisor, and he or she cannot mentor, say, an entrepreneur from the pre-start-up phases to successfully running every aspect of a multi-million-dollar business.

Martin Kubler training for Ministry of Transport Oman December 2021
Duck Ramp – Stockholm

You might be a start-up specialist and a sales expert, but have no idea of the intricacies of human resources or how to set up an ERP system. It’s best to be upfront with mentees and explain where you can and cannot add value. Beware of people who try to add value everywhere or you’ll end up with an ERP system that mashes potatoes (I don’t know too much about ERP systems, but I’m pretty sure that they’re not supposed to mash potatoes).

Swimming without arm floats

Personally, I’ve got things figured out – and that’s also where the duck ramp from earlier on comes into play again: I help mentees get into the water smoothly and safely and learn how to swim. Once they know how to use the ramp and can swim comfortably without arm floats, I might wave them a fond farewell and introduce them to a mentor who’s better placed to help them with the journey ahead. Unless, of course, you’re talking marketing planning, communications, digital, or one of my other specialties, in which case I might just jump into the water myself and paddle alongside my mentee for a bit longer.

The ‘Number One’ factor in growing up to be a Swan

Mentors, essentially, are duck mothers or maybe Swan mothers. We’ll make sure our mentees paddle into the right direction, but we’ll also know that the time will come when our mutual journey ends and when a mentee might need different, fresh, specialist guidance.

If you’re a mentor, look around you, and you’ll soon find your duck ramp – even if your local authorities aren’t as duck friendly as mine. If you’re a mentee looking for a mentor, don’t agree to a ramp when what you really need are water skis or a 500 horsepower outboard motor, but also don’t buy a fancy yacht when you haven’t yet learned how to row a dinghy boat.

At Smart Coaching & Training we coach and mentor according to client’s need, matching the client to appropriate associate based on needs including location and language.

Written by Martin Kubler © 2021 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd

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Dressing for Effect

Dressing for Effect

Having the unconventional on your team

Barry Brandon by Barry Brandon
the late Miguel Garcia by David Rigby

A man in a frock, a westerner in Arab dress! Which is worse? In this world of diversity what are you challenging when you break conventions, what are you going to achieve?


A man in a frock

A man in a frock: This shows a sign of confidence. A person good at getting publicity by challenging conventions. This photo was on linked in (I got permission to use) . The comments which went with it were fascinating. “No place for this on LinkedIn, an affront to women etc”. The overwhelming opinion seemed to be that those who were complaining should just get over it and get real. The transformation is impeccable – but still so obviously a man in a frock and high, high heels, not a woman. It should be noted that these days no one complains about women wearing trousers yet they were male clothing, High heels also were male attire, originally designed to prevent horse riders fall of their horses. Probably a good person to have on a diverse team – he would definitely get you to challenge your assumptions.


A Westerner in a thobe

A Westerner in a thobe (Arabic dress): this shows signs of disrespect. This is traditional clothing worn by Arabic Muslims. Non-Arabic Muslims in the business world tend to wear suits for business. Occasionally you will see Pakistanis and non Arabs wearing a thobe. Enquiring from my Muslim friends this represents Muslims showing support and respect for the Muslim Arabs. But they can only do it because they, themselves, are Muslims. So what will a westerner (presumed not Muslim) wearing a thobe achieve? – he will just look stupid and unaware. Don’t have him on your team!


It’s good to challenge assumptions and conventions – but know what you are challenging !

At Smart Coaching & Training we have associates in four continents speaking seven languages – some wear skirts some wear thobes.

Written by David Rigby , © 2021 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd

See Barry Brandon on LinkedIn

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Would you rather improve your competence or transform your mindset?

Would you rather improve your competence or transform your mindset?

Do you focus on task or focus on people?


Corporations that help their executives and leadership teams examine their personal world views can reap rich rewards in terms of effective cultural transformation and engaging the younger generation. Organisational Managers have two broad options in how to use their authority to serve the organisation at any given time. They can perceive themselves to be in a managerial mode delivering today’s outcomes within the relative ‘certainty’ of the system as it currently exists and operates or else by stepping back into an uncertain big picture mode of leadership of the future. Their daily performance necessarily combines both operational management of today’s needs along with a more strategic leadership role focused on tomorrow’s needs.

The voyage from Manager to Leader

The voyage of development ‘from manager to leader’ is not an easy one; some people change little during their lifetimes while others substantially.

Spiral Dynamics and Vertical Development

Those willing to work at developing themselves and becoming more self-aware can almost certainly evolve over time into truly transformational leaders. .

Are you on a ‘Heroes Journey’?

For the future world emerging, the higher stages of consciousness are being called forth dramatically, with the younger generation coming in at levels far higher than their bosses, creating new tensions in the corporate cultures. Note consciousness is very different from intelligence. Few current leaders are desiring to change the world for the worlds sake however many want to progress on their ‘Heroes Journey’.

We advise and sell many preference profiling tools such as DISC and C-me to help you improve your competence.

Spiral Dynamics


With Psychosocial Adult Development approaches such as Leadership Development Framework  and Spiral Dynamics  adults start at level one and can progress through a number of levels. The closer you are to the higher levels of consciousness the more able you will be to effect and deliver on change, be an effective director and manage internationally.
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https://www.smartcoachingtraining.com/what_we_offer/signature-corporate-training-longer-courses-and-retreatsPsychosocial Adult Development Training

Each stage can be regarded as a level of awareness or consciousness and forms the psychological basis for a critical perception of why we act in a certain way.  We can help leaders become better leaders by helping them transform from one level to the next.

To find out more check out our course “Transformational Leadership using Psychosocial Adult Development Strategy ” This is just one of our Signature Corporate Training courses. see then all here . Or simply just ask us at info@smartcoachingtraining.com

Written by David Rigby, © 2021 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd

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info@smartcoachingtraining.com

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