Children's Creativity Won't be Stopped by LEGO's Innovation
by Hutch Carpenter
The New York Times has a great story about Lego's resurgence as a profitable, growing toymaker. In Beyond the Blocks, the newspaper asks: "Lego has rebuilt itself, but does it risk losing a sense of wonder?"
Lego is a universal toy for all of us, across generations. As kids, we played with canisters of those multicolored bricks. As parents, we pass along the tradition to our kids. The free form nature of Legos is part of their attraction. Build whatever you want, exercise the creativity muscles and wonder that's so prevalent in young children.
The company, however, was running into challenges of slow market growth and poor internal operational discipline. To combat the malaise that was setting in, a new CEO came in and made two big changes. He instilled a key performance indicator (KPI) mentality and greatly expanded the product line beyond the free form blocks. It is a story of success and innovating to become a stronger company, as the New York Times notes:
"But the story of Lego's renaissance - and its current expansion into new segments like virtual reality and video games - isn't just a toy story. It's also a reminder of how even the best brands can lose their luster but bounce back with a change in strategy and occasionally painful adaptation."
A key point made in the story is that the theme-based Lego toys have a downside. Toy sets based on Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Toy Story rob children of the creative aspects that the traditional plain bricks. With a plain set of Legos, there are no instructions, no pre-set pictures of what the end result will be. It requires that the child think about new possibilities and dream up their own structures. The themed toys, on the other had, are more about following someone else’s directions and creativity. Indeed, here's what psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Sinowitz says in the New York Times article:
"What Lego loses is what makes it so special. When you have a less structured, less themed set, kids have the ability to start from scratch. When you have kids playing out Indiana Jones, they're playing out Hollywood's imagination, not their own."
I think it's a point well-made. But I want to offer a counterpoint. It's not from any deep research background on childhood creativity. Rather, it's as a father of a five year old boy. Here is my son's current favorite Lego creation:
Lego flying machine contraption
What's that? Ask my son, and he'll tell you, "It's a secret." What did it used to be? A helicopter. A Lego helicopter that came with specific instructions for how to build it. Which we did together. But soon thereafter, he decided to make it his own thing. He can tell you all about the different parts of his magnificent flying machine. What they do, and where the people climb in and how they operate it.
What this tells me is that creativity is an intrinsic part of all of us. Sure, my son made a helicopter into a variation of something that flies, instead of turning it into a castle or bridge or something. So certainly, the theme of the toy influenced the direction of his creativity. But I actually think that's a good thing. Give him some direction for his creativity.
Can't wait to see what he does with the Grand Carousel.
Hutch Carpenter is the Director of Marketing at Spigit. Spigit integrates social collaboration tools into a SaaS enterprise idea management platform used by global Fortune 2000 firms to drive innovation.
The New York Times has a great story about Lego's resurgence as a profitable, growing toymaker. In Beyond the Blocks, the newspaper asks: "Lego has rebuilt itself, but does it risk losing a sense of wonder?"Lego is a universal toy for all of us, across generations. As kids, we played with canisters of those multicolored bricks. As parents, we pass along the tradition to our kids. The free form nature of Legos is part of their attraction. Build whatever you want, exercise the creativity muscles and wonder that's so prevalent in young children.
The company, however, was running into challenges of slow market growth and poor internal operational discipline. To combat the malaise that was setting in, a new CEO came in and made two big changes. He instilled a key performance indicator (KPI) mentality and greatly expanded the product line beyond the free form blocks. It is a story of success and innovating to become a stronger company, as the New York Times notes:
"But the story of Lego's renaissance - and its current expansion into new segments like virtual reality and video games - isn't just a toy story. It's also a reminder of how even the best brands can lose their luster but bounce back with a change in strategy and occasionally painful adaptation."
A key point made in the story is that the theme-based Lego toys have a downside. Toy sets based on Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Toy Story rob children of the creative aspects that the traditional plain bricks. With a plain set of Legos, there are no instructions, no pre-set pictures of what the end result will be. It requires that the child think about new possibilities and dream up their own structures. The themed toys, on the other had, are more about following someone else’s directions and creativity. Indeed, here's what psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Sinowitz says in the New York Times article:
"What Lego loses is what makes it so special. When you have a less structured, less themed set, kids have the ability to start from scratch. When you have kids playing out Indiana Jones, they're playing out Hollywood's imagination, not their own."
I think it's a point well-made. But I want to offer a counterpoint. It's not from any deep research background on childhood creativity. Rather, it's as a father of a five year old boy. Here is my son's current favorite Lego creation:
What's that? Ask my son, and he'll tell you, "It's a secret." What did it used to be? A helicopter. A Lego helicopter that came with specific instructions for how to build it. Which we did together. But soon thereafter, he decided to make it his own thing. He can tell you all about the different parts of his magnificent flying machine. What they do, and where the people climb in and how they operate it.
What this tells me is that creativity is an intrinsic part of all of us. Sure, my son made a helicopter into a variation of something that flies, instead of turning it into a castle or bridge or something. So certainly, the theme of the toy influenced the direction of his creativity. But I actually think that's a good thing. Give him some direction for his creativity.
Can't wait to see what he does with the Grand Carousel.
Hutch Carpenter is the Director of Marketing at Spigit. Spigit integrates social collaboration tools into a SaaS enterprise idea management platform used by global Fortune 2000 firms to drive innovation.Labels: Creativity, Hutch Carpenter, Innovation, Play
posted by Blogging Innovation at 4:00 AM
3 comments
"The community building began with the students placed into teams and, led by Jens Hoffmann of Strategic Play, proceeded with the team members building LEGO models to represent themselves, their ideal teammate and what each individual would contribute to their team during the two day workshop. From there, the teams created a group model, with the team members building and writing about how their community could service society. While the models were challenging to think about, the students all were creative in their models and bonded while building the group model, with groups getting more and more animated in their discussions and building. Building was punctuated by comments and laughs as teams built different models and items. With a common goal, the teams began to bond, regardless of language and culture, and by the end of the day, each table had a shared model, a shared language and shared view of the world."
"Afterwards, there was a final session devoted to evaluating the lessons learned. Bashar Al Safadi of Omniegypt was the host of this session, where the teams discussed what they learned from all of their activities. From their discussions, the top points were determined and presented to all of the teams. And through all the differences the students had when they first met, they found they had a lot in common - and they all had learned to communicate and have fun with each other.
