Digital Digressions

Making is Connecting

A great talk by Prof. David Gauntlett at the annual LEGO Idea Conference that I wanted to share with you. More thoughts about the conference here.

Great Moments in History Captured in LEGO

Mike Stimpson has been using LEGO to re-create some classic photographs. On the BBC site is a small selection of his work. One of my favourites is this one, Marc Riboud's 1967 photograph of an anti-Vietnam protest in Washington, with a cheeky Star Wars spin to it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/08/in_pictures_inspired_by_classic_photographs/html/1.stm

To see more of Mike Stimpson’s work go to: www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/

The Apprentice in LEGO by the Boleg Brothers

So now we know - Lee McQueen is the next apprentice and clearly no amount of fibbing on your CV or pterodactyl impressions is enough to dissuade Sir Alan that he is a worthy candidate. I do wonder how much we actually learn about the nature of business through shows like this and does seeing it on telly make it acceptable is the next question? Obviously values like honesty, integrity, pulling your weight, treating your customers with respect and the list goes on.. these are all redundant attributes in an apprentice?

Oh well, perhaps it's not worth getting too serious about the implications of this show that frequently has made me cringe over the last 12 weeks - it is actually best enjoyed as a comedy, with minifigures (or LEGO people) as highlighted by the Boleg Brothers. (not anything to with LEGO the company - just some good fun!)

http://www.bolegbros.co.uk/home.asp

http://www.bolegbros.co.uk/latest07.html

The LEGO Innovation Model

Innovation is one of those topics rife with debate and often what is innovation to one person is business-as- usual for the next. Communicating an innovation is often half the job of getting it on the shelf and innovators and designers alike, regardless of where they work, often have to be relentlesss lobbyists and use sophisticated tools of persuasion to further their concepts such as fancy presentations, multi-media, eye-popping visuals - you name it, these are the tools of the designer witch-craft. Needless to say, invariably the more skilled you are in all this, the more sought-after you are as a designer.

What we did at LEGO revamping our innovation process flew in the face of a lot of this. We recognised that some of this 'witch-craft' was getting in the way of making solid business decisions. Concepts were bought into, not because they had a solid business case behind them, but because people developed emotional attachments to them or saw it as their ticket to career advancement to push something through, regardless of the cost. To be fair, this happens all over the place, not just LEGO, but the difference is we chose to do something about it. Arguably some of this, along with the very hard work of the entire organisation in many different areas goes some way to explaining our remarkable turnaround from the doldrums in 2003 where our survival as a company was at stake. Last year, we posted our best results ever in the company's entire 75 year history. Perhaps just a little bit of that remarkable turnaround was down to this.

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/managingdesign/Design-at-LEGO/

The link above leads you to the full case study published at the Design Council site and it makes not only for some very good reading, but also is a timely reminder of the value a common tool can have in bringing different disciplines together working on innovation that combines design and business thinking instead of encouraging a war between the two. Having a shared language is tantamount to bringing people together and this model in particular has helped us have some hard-hitting, but objective debates about the merits of concepts and collectively understand how to improve them. Only by creating a shared foundation can you have any hope in trying to solve a problem together.

LEGO Play - Constructing knowledge and transforming the world

Every now and so often I get these questions  like 'explain the meaning of life on one page', which get your head spinning and are entirely possible to answer, but never without spending a long time meditating on that answer first. For that particular question I have an answer, which you may or may not agree with, which is: Happiness, but I digress.. This particular question though was on the subject of explaining LEGO play, which although simple in some ways: you put a bunch of bricks together in any way you imagine - can actually be pretty complex if you delve into what is actually happening between the lines so to speak.

So if you ever wonder about that question, here's my take on an answer.. and discuss!

Most of us automatically associate childhood with play more than anything else. Children play as often as they can; play is fun. Play also contains in its very foundation all the most important elements that allow us to learn[1], to make sense of our experience and find our place and voice in the world.

 Give the mind a hand, and give the hand a system (or pattern, or language, or logic)

 LEGO play champions a “low floor, high ceiling and wide walls”[2] approach – meaning the threshold to begin play is low, but only the sky is the limit by virtue of literally endless combinations possible with LEGO bricks. The wide walls is about supporting a broad range of open-ended exploration and discovery, yet underpinning it is a shared build system creating an intuitive set of constraints challenging one to think up iterations to an originally conceived idea. It is the familiarity of this System in Play and its capacity to support infinite variation in expression that encourages exploration of the unknown and a mindset open to growth.

From the day we are born, we learn, thrive and grow in relation to others. Vygotsky in particular emphasizes the role of language and other artefacts in mediating human interaction. Children’s extraordinary talent as learners comes largely from their ability to set the stage allowing them to safely project themselves into the unknown through their imagination[3]. In expressing ideas or giving them form through building with LEGO, we make our ideas tangible and shareable with others which, in turn, helps shape and sharpen these ideas further and in that process we build our knowledge and our view of the world through our own personal experience.[4]

Creativity (as opposed to mere novelty) occurs when you think a thought that is outside the space of thought even conceivable to you[5].

Ultimately LEGO play is not just a matter of giving form to ideas, making them tangible and shareable. It is also a matter of bringing ideas and forms to life by making ourselves part of the play by acting out scenarios, events and stories. Treating our creations as if they were the ideas they stand for is what brings them closer to our mind’s reach and enables us to immerse ourselves with the situation at hand and allows us make a creative leap, in effect transforming our view of the world[6].

LEGO play welcomes young and old, experienced builders and novices, but above all it presents everyone with opportunities for creativity that are dynamic and malleable. The experience of flow[7] often associated with LEGO play is the balance between existing skills and the challenge at hand as well as between the anxiety and impatience in realising your idea.

Much like knowledge is an experience to be actively built, both individually and collectively[8], LEGO is a product that isn't finished when it leaves the factory; your imagination makes it complete. It is a creative material, a catalyst in enabling us to influence the world by building and experimenting, pushing our cognitive boundaries and advancing our collective thinking by growing us as individuals.

---

[1] Hans Henrik Knoop, The Danish University of Education

[2] Prof. Mitchel Resnick, MIT

[3] Prof. Edith Ackermann, MIT

[4] Prof. Seymour Papert, MIT

[5] Prof. Margaret Boden, University of Sussex

[6] Prof. Edith Ackermann, MIT

[7] Prof. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Claremont Graduate University

[8] Prof. Seymour Papert, MIT

Hello world... and a new book: Groundswell

No, contrary to popular belief i have not fallen off the edge of the planet (just yet) although my silence recently could have given you that impression. Things have just been bonkers, I have been travelling too much and at times been so tired I have had absolutely nothing to add, which knowing my ability to talk may actually come as a blessing to my colleagues..

Things are looking up though - for those of you who followed my efforts to use this blog to recruit someone to join me, the news is: it worked! Surprisingly social networks and namely Facebook came to my rescue in that a friend came across the blog post and thought of a friend who would be perfect for the job (and he is!) and told me to get in touch (via Facebook). Sounds serendipitous and it was - but it turned out to be the best bit of sideways recruitment I've ever done. Now we both owe him a beer so Alex, when you do stop twittering and feel the onset of a beer, let us know.

Apart from that many things are afoot, which I need to share with you in the coming weeks, but in the meantime I wanted to build on the topic of communities, social networking and the lot and introduce you to a new book, Groundswell where my colleague, Tormod Askildsen, head of community development at LEGO has been interviewed too. read a little here on the topic of AFOLs or Adult Fans of LEGO:

Groundswell on Social Media Today

Debunking Popular Myths about Creativity

Like innovation, there are plenty of misconceptions about creativity out there, which makes it all the more confusing when people are extolling the importance of creative skill in the 21st century. To continue my quest to unravel these complex topics this instalment is all about explaining what creativity is NOT.

• You have to be an artist to be creative There are many creative engineers, scientists, financiers etc. creativity is not a privilege reserved to poets and artists alone. Nor is it a characteristic of loners, misunderstood geniuses or crazy people. It is about invention and innovation, often by teams!
• Creativity is a talent that some have and others don’t Viewing creativity as a talent is one of the best excuses for doing nothing. True, some people have a natural curiosity; an active imagination; a relentless energy; and a desire to think differently. But these qualities can be learnt!
• Creative people are mostly rebels (won’t play the game, play mostly by their rules) As we begin to understand the ‘game’ of creativity, we know how minds form patterns [in which they then get caught] and what it takes for people to move across patterns to generate new ideas (serious play). You don’t need to be a rebel to enjoy the sense of freshness that arises from unlocking stifling thought-patterns.

• Creative people are ‘liberated’, free-spirited and child-like. The ‘liberation’ myth is based on the notion that freeing people up from their inhibitions, and encouraging them to be playful and child-like will unleash their creative fibre. Comparing adult creativity with the playfulness of children is difficult. Children are endowed with a creativity bourne out of innocence because their minds have not yet formed as many stifling patterns. The minds of adults, on the other hand, are filled with many useful patterns to be cracked and bridged for the purpose of innovation.
• Tools and techniques are confining This myth rests on the notion that systematic tool-use is contrary to the nature of creativity, which must be ‘free’. According to this view, materials should be malleable (like clay) and user-friendly (like clay). Contrary to belief, however, materials with an integrity (a ‘logic’ of their own) are often more useful in boosting a maker’s creativity - provided, of course, the maker is a fluent user of that tool!
• Creativity occurs as a single burst of genius Despite the plethora of myths pertaining to this, extensive research into both artists’ most famous works and numerous inventions attributed to a single stroke of genius have shown that instead, ideas emerge through a process of fabrication that evolves over time and through hard work

Instead creativity:

• requires both divergent and convergent thinking
• is not a matter of left brain vs. right brain alone
• involves both problem-solving and problem-setting
• balances tradition and innovation, continuity and change
• combines/blends individual and collective contributions
• involves making the familiar strange and the strange familiar

For those interested in finding out more, have look at  Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation by Keith Sawyer, which gathers all the most recent findings in the field of creativity research and also outlines how different disciplines view creativity.

Understanding Innovation

Innovation is one of those words that are very hip these days. Granted, even I have it in my title. Interestingly, it is also one of the most misunderstood words in business today, so perhaps it's worth spending a little time understanding exactly where it comes from.

If you look for the definition of creativity on Wikipedia, you'll find over 60 different versions - most will agree on the basic premises below and beyond that, the views are radically different depending on your scientific or cultural background. Summarising:

• At the simplest level, creativity is about bringing into being something that was not there before
• Creativity is a mental process involving the generation of ideas and concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts
• Creativity occurs when a person thinks a thought that is outside the space of thoughts that is even conceivable to that person Margaret A. Boden

Now creativity is not innovation, although the two are frequently confused for one another. Innovation is actually made up of two halves:

• Imagination: No new ideas can be generated without a person’s abilities to ‘ think outside the box’ or envision alternative ways in her mind
• Creativity: No insights, however brilliant, will ever be realised unless they are projected out, i.e given material form

A person’s creative expression is the visible face of imagination at work.

Imagination and creativity are each faces of a coin called innovation

With this in mind, innovation becomes a process of fueling the imagination and using creativity to bring into existence the ideas at imagination gives rise to. The two go hand in hand and innovation becomes very hard if a) your imagination is stifled or b) you lack the creativity to bring to life the ideas that you've had.

Therefore fostering innovation is about a process to ensure that there is enough food and stimuli for individual and collective imaginations to engage and about creating avenues for creative expressions to materialise and be improved iteratively either by individuals or collectively. Some past blog posts to inspire you:

Avoiding Creative Apartheid 

Why Innovation cannot remain in the realm of the few

The 7 Must-Do's of Innovators

How to Encourage Innovation in Business

The Conditions for Thriving Innovation

That is not to say that these traits all need to exist in a single individual, instead they can collectively emerge in a community, in an organisation, a film crew, and so on. Successful organisations, communities or creative groups accommodate both the acquisition of stimuli to inspire the imagination of members as well as individuals with an ability to creatively realise those ideas. Collectively or individually, an essential part of innovation is the social dimension that fuels imagination and creativity as well as the process of iterative improvement. None of us are as smart as all of us.

Go LEGO!

Today my feet touched down in Billund again, the home of the beloved plastic brick, and a very special day it was too. 50 years of the brick was the occasion, and what 50 years it has been. In those years much has changed in the world around us, technology is everywhere and indeed this very notion of having a blog, to be read by people on the Internet, was not even a glimpse in the eye of Godtfred Kirk Christiansen when he decided to gamble all on the LEGO brick as the toy for the future.

So today was a great day of taking stock, celebrating a little (not as much as we did last August when the company turned 75 years old), but enough to crack open the champagne and eat some cake, as is the Danish tradition for virtually any occasion when more than 2 people meet. (what I do marvel over is that the Danes do manage to eat more cake than virtually any other European nation, yet they are one pretty slim and trim nation.. oh well. Must be all that brain work of playing with LEGO..:) )

Today also saw an unprecedented acknowledgement from arguably the most creative on-line company in the world, where the Google doodle was taken over by bricks and a mini-figure to celebrate LEGO and its profound impact on the founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin. Some of our craftier fans speculated whether Google is simply an anagram from Go LEGO, put I wouldn't go that far although it's a funny thought what a spelling mistake can lead to.. as I think the origin of Google the name came about. In any case, more proof of the pudding just what creativity can accomplish so a big toast to all you out there who still have stacks of bricks hidden in the cupboard, or under your bed - take it out and make something and you will be surprised what you'll come up with!

Don't Have a Band? Don't Worry - Get a Robot!

This is just the best take on Christmas carols ever - my colleague Flemming Sorensen at LEGO who is simply a genius with all things mechanic, robotic or LEGO, decided to see just what a Mindstorms robot was capable of and here is one great take - Flemming and the robot playing Jingle Bells together. He's one of those people when you think you've hit a brick wall and an impossible task, ask Flemming and he'll do one of those wistful looks into the horizon and say: hmm... let's see.. and before you know it, he will have thought of something you didn't think could even be done. So get yourself in a Christmassy mood:

Or get the full Xmas medley here Christmas Medley with Mindstorms NXT Robot where the Mindstorms robot also plays a bagpipe solo all by itself!

What Makes a Good Toy?

All the recent attention focused on the toy industry courtesy of safety concerns seem to have not just caused any Chinese-manufactured toys to be viewed with suspicion and sent parents trawling through the Internet in search of advice on the matter, but also caused a wider shift in spending patterns link as parents increasingly worry about finding something for their little ones this Christmas, which won't get recalled in a few months time when someone licks it and finds it poisonous.

This in my mind doesn't just touch on ensuring even better quality control on toys, but brings in to sharp focus two potentially incompatible value-systems: on one hand - the desire for safety and quality; on the other hand - the (almost) accepted transitory nature of many products (temporary diversion rather than long-term joy) and the subsequent unwillingness of some to spend money on products where safety and quality are taken extremely seriously.

Certainly in the toy industry nobody likes to point fingers and it is a matter of ensuring that each manufacturer takes responsibility for this, however with a lot of the focus on price, China has in recent years been a very tempting solution for many trying to keep abreast with a larger consumer trend of continuously wanting everything faster and cheaper than before. Quality takes time, it costs too and that can be a problem if your company's business model can't support the investment in it.

Back to lamenting toys I was recently asked what in my opinion makes a good toy, so here's my personal list of criteria:

1. Age appropriate - small children in particular like to put everything in their mouth and are very  tactile in their play and exploration of the world - that means that the materials used and size are essential in making the toy safe. Older children have better fine motor skills and have stopped 'chewing' on everything to figure them out so can better handle small pieces.

2. Hands on - minds on: children's gross and fine motor skills along with coordination mature earlier than other parts of their brain so it is important that their toys stimulate movement and coordination, both on large and small scale. The ability of the toy to engage your mind and imagination is essential as children learn about both themselves and the outside world through their imagination.

3. Easy to learn but challenging to master - this gives the toy longevity and guarantees interest over time.

4. Many ideas and opportunities - it is important to be able to learn through the toys, but if they do not encourage experimentation and idea generation the learning will be short-lived

5. Fun alone and together - being alone and together is important for kids, both with their own peers but also with their parents, so toys that can handle both enable role-play and storytelling that kids both love to hear and to do for themselves, alone and together.

Now some toys tick all the boxes, others only some, but it's important to remember than there are many kinds of toys, each with their own strengths and a good mix is important too, but above all they must all encourage play, the more the better!

 

 

Making a Difference While You Still Can

Whenever people ask me who I work for I more often than not instantly get a smile from perpetual strangers and some of the most touching personal stories about the role LEGO played in their childhood or still does for their own children. It is a wonderful privilege to be here and equally I feel it is an enormous responsibility I and my colleagues carry to ensure LEGO remains something kids (young and old) all over the world love.

Sometimes though, people get a bit sick of all our passion and think some of our emotional outpourings about how important creativity is for children a little schmaltzy - maybe because side by side with us on the toy shelf are countless other products aiming at children, some not even safe to play with and some so calculating in their approach that the only conclusion you could arrive at is that all toy companies must be evil exploiting little hands and minds with pointless diversions. Ironically - to some extent I would agree, there are plenty of products out there that fall in that category. To the same people, LEGO is also just another company, with politics and silly stuff and nothing of the 'specialness' that our fans talk about. To this though I have to vigorously disagree and explain why I'm here.

Before joining LEGO I worked for a UN-sponsored children's charity and one of our big focus areas was Agenda 21 and empowering young people to be part of the sustainable development of their communities. This work brought me in touch with young volunteers from all over the world and I got to travel to such disparate locations as Latin America, Africa and China on projects that were all about getting young people to take leadership of their own futures.

Despite how incredibly important the issue, it is heartbreaking how many young people out there are the victims of hunger, famine, war, AIDS or just the sheer lack of education, of opportunity and how very hard work it can sometimes be to inject hope into the eyes and minds of this generation on whose shoulders the future of the world rests. There is nothing more depressing than meeting 10 year-olds who have lost the will to live, because everything around them has been destroyed and they are consumed by hatred of the soldiers and people who killed their loved ones.

More depressing is the fact that they have never had the luxury of play, of discovery, of gradually gaining confidence in exploring their ideas and growing up to be curious and adamant learners, convinced in their own ability to make the best of a hopeless situation. But that is the gift of a creatively stimulating toy.

And thus for me, every year I go to the Toy Fair and am depressed in my heart and soul over how many rubbish toys are produced, pointless gadgets, little gimmicks that elicit a smile and 5 minutes of diversion before they too end up as landfill I know now for a fact that I could never work for another toy company than LEGO. Why? Because LEGO is more than a toy -

It is a mighty tool with the potential to reshape your mind and your thinking, but disquised as an innocent child's play thing it is not locked up in science labs as the exclusive tool of neuroscientists, but instead its out there, in children's toy chests around the world, giving the best gift a parent could ever give their child: the gift of creativity, of hope in a better future and the belief in your own ability to prevail over difficulty.

That is why I'm here.

Helmets aren't just for Astronauts.

Nick Larsen, the man behind the uber-cool Charge Bikes and the Charge Plug fixie I keep staring at longingly whenever I see one, just sent me this great video explaining the importance of wearing a helmet when cycling. I couldn't agree more as my run-ins with squirrels and most recently a car (!) are ample testament to the fact that helmets do work, they save your precious noodle and if you do bang your head, rather the helmet take the impact than your brain. We can get new teeth, new arms, skin will heal and bones will mend, but brains are harder to fix and since we only have one it's worth looking after as the kids in this video explain -

Exoforce for Real: Fully Functioning Exoskeleton for Humans

Some years ago I worked on LEGO Exoforce and inspired by the exoskeleton that Sigourney Weaver uses in the Alien movie, in addition to the Manga inspirations of Gundam and NeonGenesis Evangelion, the exoskeleton robots operated by tiny mini-figures took form.

Little did I know that only a year or two later, the technology would be available not just to play with as an idea in a toy, but something for us to try out for real. This video demonstrates the exoskeleton and sadly, here it is shown as something for the military to use, whereas I could see tons and tons of uses for it to help people in their day-to-day activities. Imagine no longer needing a wheel chair, just step into your exo and off you go.. dancing, running, walking up the stairs, playing ball - you name it.

Teaching in the Age of the Digital Native: LEGO Exploring Creative Learning Solutions for Developing Countries

Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

Today’s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past ...a really big discontinuity has taken place.. This is the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century. Today’s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video-games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives. (Marc Prensky)

With this realisation in mind, a radical re-think of education and skills development is needed. It's no longer about a teacher at the head of the class-room lecturing a bunch of disinterested students, too busy txting their friends, but about ways to utilise children's competencies and curiosities in the digital fields to improve learning. Another layer to this is the growing digital divide, where said media is becoming more and more important in our lives, but the rate of technology adoption and access is of course the greatest in the Western world, where developing countries are often left behind.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media lab, pioneered a solution to this growing problem through his One Laptop Per Child initiative, where the goal is to create a hundred dollar laptop, available to kids in the developing world to ensure they will not grow up to be the Digital have-not's whose abilities to learn, network and build a livelihood for themselves is hampered by a lack of key skills. As Negroponte puts it: "Any nation's most precious natural resource is its children. We believe the emerging world must leverage this resource by tapping into the children's innate capacities to learn, share, and create on their own. Our answer to that challenge is the XO laptop, a children's machine designed for “learning learning.”

Drawing on 10 years of research, product development and success as a consumer robotics pioneer with LEGO MINDSTORMS®,  LEGO Education, The LEGO Group's educational division, today begins testing of creative curriculum solutions in three schools in Brazil to establish the best technology platform for bringing 21st Century skills to students ages seven and older in underserved and developing countries.

LEGO Education is exploring how to harness technology to bridge the physical and virtual play worlds to provide advanced teaching methods that integrate science, math, engineering, language, social skills, and more. The plan is to provide selected classrooms with concept products that foster the hands-on, minds-on creative play for which the LEGO(R) brand is universally known. Ultimately LEGO Education is aiming to provide cost-effective, high-impact, versatile tools that foster creative exploration and learning for those schools and students who need it most to prepare for the future.

LEGO Press release

21st Century Skills

The Death Star Canteen

Just en route to the States I came across this sent to me by both Alex Nisbett and Tracy Suff on Facebook so I owe you both for cheering me up in the midst of airport security, online check-in and bag-drops (here we come!!).. Imagine Darth Vader in the Death Star.. going down for some food..

For those of you who aren't familiar with the comedian doing the voice-over: check out Eddie Izzard and your world will never be the same!

Priceless comedy for a Monday

Many thanks to Mark over at Herd for reminding me of some of the classics in LEGO stop frame animation. These two were created by the chaps at Spiteyourface.com where you can find plenty more of their handywork.

Upcoming Conference on Social Media & User-generated Content

You guessed it - a bit of shameless self-promotion as I will be speaking at this conference, but to be fair - it's on a topic I'm passionate about (as you know!) and am actually really looking forward to hearing about what others in completely different industries are doing to involve users in not just creating content, but in shaping their businesses.

Here's the official marketing blurb: Attending this premier Marcus Evans conference will enable you to:

• Gain a clear understanding on the difference between real changes in consumer behaviour and simple passing trends
• Discover how your organisation can truly engage consumers in the digital world and allow them to experience your brand in innovative ways
• Develop innovative initiatives to generate a higher response rate to your marketing campaign to run over the social networking communities
• Engage your target audience in the conversation
• Deal with the 'dark side' of social media and successfully turn it into an opportunity

Benefit from Case Study Presentations by:

• Coca Cola harnessing the power of the consumers to be the brand stewards of the future
• CNN presenting the value of incorporating user-generated content and social media into a mainstream media brand
• 3 Scandinavia exploring the future of on-line advertising
• Honda sharing the key success factors of a well built marketing campaign
• Sulake Corporation Oy (the provider of Habbo Hotel virtual community) engaging consumers in a more creative way
• Dow Jones looking into the future of on-line PR and reputation management
• LEGO integrating consumers in the business practise

So there you have it. A chance to supercharge your brain with tons of ideas and meet some interesting people, how about it? Here's the brochure for the conference with registration details

Download gm109_marketing.pdf

Tallest LEGO tower ever built: BIG LEGO

This caught my eye - a stunning display of LEGO being put to use by an architect to showcase a concept for urban renewal of a district in Copenhagen by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

He built the project on the LEGO Factory platform (build your dream model using LEGO digital designer on your computer and order exactly the bricks to make that model to be sent to your house!) and a few weeks later he received his box in the mail. Without further ado, he began building his LEGO Towers project and subsequently decided to scale it up to its current size of 1:50 scale,  in other words approx. 2 meters wide, 2 meters deep and 3 meters tall containing 250.000 bricks. Here is a beautiful time-lapse video of the making of it. For those of you in the Big Apple, i.e New York - be sure to catch it on display at the Storefront Gallery on Oct. 2nd.

Five Keys to Engaging the Customer to Produce Real Innovation: Lessons From LEGO

Many thanks to Helle Winding for sending me the link to this excellent post over at marketingprofs.com  where Leland D. Shaeffer takes a deeper look at five specific ways that Marketing can engage the customer in the innovation process, using examples from LEGO Group, where we continue to use these techniques successfully.

5 key points dominate the innovation process:

1. Learn from your Lead Customers
2. Co-design with your customers
3. Empower your customers to create their own designs
4. Let customers 'spead their wings'
5. Help your customers gain recognition for their designs

The article is an excellent insight in to the many initiatives running at LEGO. Only through walking the talk of 'None of us are as smart as all of us' is it possible to truly realise the potential of open source - by giving people a meaningful platform where they are listened to and empowered to collaborate with us. These are immensely inspiring times to be working at LEGO and what makes me want to get up in the morning is the commitment we all have in enabling people young and old to explore and harness their unique creativity. Read more