The Power of Play: Developing Empathetic, Reflective, Future Ready Leaders

Editorial

By Assoc. Prof. Betul Sekendiz, ICMS Associate Dean (Scholarship)

Introduction

In an era when higher education is increasingly expected to demonstrate student employability, experiential and evidence-informed pedagogies offer powerful ways to develop the graduate capabilities learners need for technology-driven and complex futures.

Sharing our research on LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) at the HERDSA Conference this year was one of those moments when scholarship, practice and impact came together before an international and culturally diverse audience.

At its heart, this work is about how play, when carefully structured, can become a serious pedagogical pathway for developing empathy, reflection and future-ready leadership.

Our study explored how an Athlete Development Workshop using LSP can create emotionally safe, reflective spaces where learners share their experiences, build shared understanding and strengthen the human capabilities they need to perform in high-performance sport settings[1].

This longitudinal study used a sequential mixed methods design to analyse two years of quantitative and qualitative student feedback. The results revealed a compelling pattern.

The reflective discussion process through LSP enabled students to open in ways traditional classes rarely allowed. Through hands-on model building and guided reflection and storytelling, students explored their goals and strengths more deeply and, importantly, recognised how those strengths helped them overcome challenges and contributed to their team’s success.

In an LSP session, reflective dialogue becomes a genuine practice of empathy, where listening with understanding isn’t just encouraged but built into the learning process. Learners develop confidence in navigating ambiguity, connecting their own “sayings, doings, and relatings” to the capabilities required in complex learning environments[2].

And if you are sceptical about LEGO® Serious Play®, you are not alone.

I was also not quite sure what to expect when I first encountered it during a strategy workshop at ICMS back in 2022. But as I moved through the reflective discussion process, I experienced something unusual. Building bricks had allowed me to tap into my subconscious, right back to childhood memories and experiences that had quietly shaped my creative thinking, my strengths, and the way I approach complex problems today. As Polanyi argued “we know more than we can tell,” and unspoken knowledge often emerges through action rather than verbal explanation[3].

That experience led me to pursue formal training and complete an intensive LSP Methodology Facilitator Certification program, where we explored the principles of LSP and practiced how using structured model‑making as metaphors followed by dialogic reflection can unlock critical thinking, innovative solutions and deeper human capability in organisations that thrive on teamwork.

This capacity to surface tacit knowledge is not accidental; it is embedded in the origins and theoretical foundations of LSP, which date back to the mid-1990s[4].

At that time, Johan Roos and Bart Victor, then professors at IMD in Switzerland, worked with LEGO® Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen to explore more imaginative and participatory approaches to strategy-making. Grounded in constructivist, constructionist and systems-thinking perspectives of strategic management, LSP developed into a method that uses LEGO® as three-dimensional metaphors through structured model-building, storytelling, dialogue and shared reflection.

Since 2023, we have been purposefully integrating LSP into curriculum at ICMS, particularly in high‑performance sport education to help develop athletes for the future workforce. Watching students build, reflect and genuinely connect has been one of the most rewarding parts of this practice.

Importantly, we have an LSP Research Group made up of a growing community of academics across ICMS actively utilising LSP in their teaching, collectively advancing its pedagogical potential through reflective practice and sharing of good practice.

Reflections on HERDSA 2026

This year at the HERDSA Conference, Associate Professor Chng Huang Hoon’s keynote on Building Capabilities for a Complex Future brought all of this into even sharper focus[5]. Her message about empathetic thinking, emotional generosity, sensitivity, and attentive listening as essential future capabilities echoed exactly with what we have witnessed through our LSP work.

She spoke about the importance of connecting community assets, managing anxiety, and cultivating habits of mind that support youth leadership in uncertain environments. As I listened, the alignment felt like pieces of a puzzle falling into place. These are precisely the type of capabilities that LSP enables learners to practise and develop.

In LSP workshops, students weren’t just building models or playing with bricks, they were building the capacity to listen generously, to understand each other’s perspectives, and to engage with complexity without shutting down. They were rehearsing the very capabilities Associate Professor Chng Huang Hoon called for in her keynote: empathy, relational awareness, and the courage to sit with uncertainty.

Leaving the HERDSA Conference after four days at the National University of Singapore with my colleagues, I felt reaffirmed and energised. I was reminded that every innovation begins with an idea and flourishes when we have a cause worth pursuing. For us, that cause is enhancing student learning through experiences that nurture the human capabilities our future demands.

Thank you to the HERDSA community for the invitation, the generous conversations, the kindness, and shared commitment to shaping higher education with empathy at its core.

If you are interested in learning more about our LSP study or would like to learn how you can engage with or collaborate with our LSP Research Group, please reach out. We always welcome new conversations and partnerships.

Acknowledgement

The author declares no conflict of interest and has no financial disclosures.

To cite this article:

References:

[1] Sekendiz, B., & Kelaiditis, D. (2026, July 6–9). Using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to foster engagement and transferable skills in high‑performance sport education [Showcase presentation]. HERDSA 2026 Annual Conference: Re‑envisioning Higher Education for Tomorrow’s Learners, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

[2] Kemmis, S., Edwards-Groves, C., Wilkinson, J., & Hardy, I. (2014). Theories of practice: Understanding education as praxis. Springer.

[3] Polanyi, M. (2009). The tacit dimension. University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1966)

[4] Roos, J. & Victor, B. (2018). How it all began: The origins of LEGO® Serious Play®. International Journal of Management and Applied Research, 5(4), 326-343. https://doi.org/10.18646/2056.54.18-025

[5] Chng, H. H. (2026, July 6–9). Building capabilities for a complex future [Keynote address]. HERDSA 2026 Annual Conference: Re‑envisioning Higher Education for Tomorrow’s Learners, National University of Singapore, Singapore.