Councillor slams training session that used Lego

ALUDICROUS training workshop which forced councillors to play with Lego has been condemned as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Members of Walsall Labour Group were baffled when they arrived to take part in the two-hour session on creating more resilient communities – and found building bricks on the tables in front of them.

And they have now threatened to boycott future sessions if they are expected to “sit around for two hours, playing with Lego”.

But Walsall Council leader Mike Bird defended the workshop and said the Lego element was a small part of the training and used as a metaphor to demonstrate the need to build stronger communities. However, Labour councillor Matt Ward slammed the session as a waste of taxpayers’ money. Cllr Ward said: “To have senior councillors sitting there and playing with Lego is absolutely baffling. I’m sure the taxpayers will be furious to know councillors sitting there playing with Lego.

“It was beyond belief. The whole session was patronising.

“It is my belief that the taxpayer money could have been used in a more productive way to empower our community groups, rather than being spent on a very basic training session.

“Our residents expect and deserve more from councillors than playing with Lego in a training session.”

But ‘facilitator’ Jonathan Bannister of Make Happy Ltd – who did not host the session in Walsall – said the so-called ‘Lego Serious Play’ was a powerful tool to build ideas and foster better team work.

Mr Bannister said: “The complaints Councillor Matt Ward made actually reinforces why Lego Serious Play is such a powerful tool in situations like this.

“It fosters better conversations where everyone has the opportunity to contribute equally.

“In terms of how it works, the sessions run with the facilitator asking a question, and participants building their responses in Lego.

“The process of building gives participants a period of quiet contemplation as they create their response which often leads to better, more considered responses.

“The participants then share the stories behind their models in turn.

“This activity can be around a particular theme or to address a specific problem or challenge, and we would typically have several rounds of questions, building and storytelling.

“There is a body of academic work that demonstrates that people learn better when they see something in three dimensions and that an artefact or model can express more than mere words.

“The example of a shark eating a person was used by someone in a recent workshop to explain how they were feeling about a project they were leading. The visceral image helped his manager understand the depth of his concern, something she had not appreciated to that point.

“Once the group has built a number of models which represent their ideas or response to the posed question, we moved to a building a shared model.

“The shared model has to incorporate all the individuals’ models. The group needs to, therefore, consider and agree, how their models interact with each other.

“This forces the group to consider all viewpoints but doesn’t mean that every idea has to be given equal weight.

“Councillor Ward apparently believes there is nothing new to be learned, no way of doing things differently, no opportunity to look for new ideas.”

Residents expect and deserve more from councillors than playing with Lego Cllr Matt Ward, right

A NEW ‘super slender’ hotel tower has been given the go-ahead by Birmingham City Council – despite objections from the owners of a neighbouring skyscraper.

Set to be built at 211 Broad Street, the £58 million city centre ‘aparthotel’ will have 264 self-contained rooms, along with a bar, restaurant, gym and residents lounge.

Images show how the inside of the new apartments will look, as well as providing a look at the outside of the 37-storey building, which will be 116.5m tall and just 9.5m wide.

Both the proposed Mercian building at 212

Broad Street and Cumberland House, on the other side of the development, objected to the proposals, saying they would not allow cranes, equipment or materials to oversail their adjoining land during construction. However, such concerns were dismissed as ‘nimbyism’ by councillors at the planning committee.

Lisa Deering, director at Glancy Nicholls Architects, who designed the building, believes that it will be an ‘iconic’ addition to the city centre.

“Advances in engineering and construction technology have allowed us to design an iconic building that will enhance Birmingham’s skyline.

“This is an exciting project a key milestone for city architecture.” Work on the site is expected to begin later this year. No finish date has been given.