EXFO’s Serious Lego Adventure

ArticleTailored Trainings

For more than 35 years, EXFO has been developing solutions to test, monitor and analyze telecommunications networks around the world. Born in an apartment in Quebec City, the company now has 1,900 employees in more than 25 countries.

What’s at Stake

For the first time in its history, EXFO is bringing together all of its executives for a two-day summit in Mont-Tremblant. Approximately 120 leaders from around the world are gathered for presentations and workshops. Senior management wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to enhance the sense of belonging, to develop leadership within the company and to ensure that the leaders took ownership of the strategic plan. They called on La Factry to design two workshops that would allow guests to have fun while strengthening the bonds between them and consolidating the weekend’s learning.

The Proposal

From the outset, La Factry suggests using the Lego Serious Play (LSP) method, an experiential process that allows for team discussion around specific questions based on constructions made by participants with the famous coloured blocks. The game is thought-provoking and generates frank discussions based on a common universal language-a significant asset for a team from all over the world.

The proposal was strong enough to spark our curiosity, but we decided we needed to sit down with La Factry to understand it better,” says Louis Adam, EXFO’s Chief Marketing Officer. The first question that comes to mind is: will it be ridiculed by the participants? Even if we come up with something original and creative, this kind of summit is not just a big party: we have business objectives and we need a return on our investment. When you bring in this many people from all over the world, it has to serve a purpose. But that was settled in one call.”

EXFO appreciates the method, which it believes is effective in talking in simple terms about the strategies of a company operating in a complex field.

“Afterwards, we had a few meetings to clarify EXFO’s objectives in relation to the workshops, in the context of the broader objectives of the conference,” adds Simon Bourdeau, a professor at UQAM’s School of Management Sciences, and a workshop leader specializing in the LSP method.

In keeping with its approach, La Factry has customized a generic tool — in this case, LSP — to the client’s needs. It was agreed that there would be two sessions, one per day. With EXFO’s help, the workshops are designed to complement the other activities of the weekend to put participants into action and to allow them to reflect on how they would integrate their learning into their work and take ownership of the strategic plan that was presented to them.

Usually, we use LSP with small groups of about ten people, and I, as facilitator, am at the table to guide the discussion,” explains Simon Bourdeau. Here, with 120 people, we had to do things differently. We had a period of about 1.5 hours each day, so it had to run, it had to be fun, and it had to be relevant.”

“I saw in the La Factry team a desire to adapt the formula based on the audience, the people we wanted to engage in these workshops,” adds Louis Adam.

The Work

On the big day, Simon Bourdeau arrived at the Mont-Tremblant hotel with four field hockey bags full of Lego.

We were anxious to see what it would be like and how it would be received,” says Louis Adam. To manage expectations, I liked to repeat that either we were going to reach our goal and have a lot of impact, or we were going to fail royally, but that, in any case, it couldn’t be flat.”

In the large conference room, the tables form groups of six, and each group has a good amount of blocks to build their models following Simon’s instructions. The steps of the LSP process are: pose the challenge (what to build), build (each person is asked to build their own Lego model, based on their own reading), then, in turn, present their build (guided by questions thrown by Simon on the mic), and discuss as a team (colleagues at the table can bounce off the presentation, ask questions).

“People got on board, they got into action quickly, the energy level was great,” reports Louis Adam, who was both a participant and an observer. Beyond the fun experience, what they were saying was thoughtful, intelligent, relevant: it wasn’t just a Lego party.”

“It was a really great couple of days,” says Simon Bourdeau.

Among other exercises, participants had to build a Lego model that represented how they wanted to develop their leadership role in the coming year; another that illustrated the qualities they bring to EXFO; another that reflected their understanding of the implications of the company’s strategic plan for their teams…

On the last day of the summit, the La Factry team and CEO Philippe Morin had one last surprise for the executives: a collective game of rock-paper-scissors.

We had a meeting with La Factry the night before at 9:00 p.m. to script this game and work out the details,” says Louis Adam. But one thing we realized the next day was that, while Lego is universal, rock-paper-scissors is not. Fortunately, we were prepared for that.”

After a short demonstration, the workshop could begin. At each duel, the person who lost had to cheer on the person who won. So as the games went on, great teams emerged, each supporting their athlete loudly.

Everyone got on board, it was screaming, it was amazing!” laughs Simon Bourdeau. Then, when there were only two people left to compete, we did a deuce of three on the stage, and there was a little Lego trophy that was handed out… The team went on a high, really in the spirit of the weekend’s slogan, ‘Together, we’re EXFOstrong’.”

“And it all happened in a group of people who, in some cases, had never met in person!” emphasizes Louis Adam.

The Result

The workshops designed in collaboration with La Factry helped put the leaders who were physically gathered together for the first time into action.

“The fact that we had workshops where people had things to do, beyond the usual presentations, helped generate a lot of ideas. We designed the summit that way. We know that people remember more what they said than what they heard, and in that respect, I think it went really well,” says Louis Adam.

EXFO is also particularly pleased to have given itself the right to try something different.

“We don’t do open-heart surgery, either… You have to allow yourself to try. The moment something happens between the two ears, the moment people try to do the task, no matter how they do it, we’ve already achieved our goal. After that, if it goes well and the ideas that emerge are creative, that’s even better.”

After the summit, one attendee said it was his best days as a leader at EXFO so far—and he joined the company already several years ago.

“At the end of the day, taking time with people, taking them out of context, putting them in action and trying things out, that can be really engaging,” insists Louis Adam.

Rectangle_Factry

Factry

Team Factry

Related Article

Did you like this article? Read this one…