Case Study
Bold Leadership with LEGO®
We helped a Senior Leadership team of a global pharmaceutical company move beyond polite consensus — using LEGO® and the 3C framework to surface the honest conversations that rarely make it onto a meeting agenda.
- Format
- 2-Hours (Hybrid)
- Audience
- Senior Leadership Team
- Industry
- Pharmaceutical / Healthcare
Client Overview
The client is one of the world’s most respected pharmaceutical companies. The participating senior leaders are responsible for strategic decision-making and team performance across functions and markets, bringing diverse perspectives to a team that already enjoys a strong culture of trust and collaboration. The session formed the opening anchor of a full leadership offsite day, delivered in a hybrid format.
The Challenge
The brief was to strengthen constructive challenge, improve the quality and speed of decision-making, and build more open and effective team dialogue — introducing a practical communication framework for difficult conversations and culminating in specific, individual leadership commitments. All of this within a tight two-hour slot at the start of a packed offsite agenda.
Our Approach
We designed a fast-moving LEGO® journey built on one simple rule — everyone builds, everyone shares — using the methodology’s power to make thinking visible: each model becomes a 3D print of a thought that others can see, question, and build on.
Skills Build — Your Bricks, Your Story
A rapid warm-up build introduced the core skill of the method: using a model as a metaphor. Each leader built a simple object, then shared what it revealed about them as a leader — establishing from the first minutes that this session was about meaning, not construction, and that there is no hiding behind a colleague’s model.
The Bold Leadership Build
Leaders built the boldest, most effective leader they know — real, fictional, or imagined — and brought them to life for the group. A guided reflection then asked each person to score how close they are to that bold leader today, and name the one thing keeping them further away than they’d like: the honest gap the rest of the session would work on.
Care, Candour & Clarity
We introduced 3C as the through-line of what the room had just surfaced: Care (being genuinely present and invested in people), Candour (the courage to say what needs to be said), and Clarity (being specific about needs, expectations, and next steps). Leaders immediately practised the framework on realistic scenarios — unclear direction, credit-taking, staying silent in reviews — sharing their approaches in a fishbowl format.
Closing the Gap
In the most reflective segment of the session, each leader built a model of what they need to do or let go of — to become the leader they aspire to be, then shared one specific commitment out loud in front of their peers. Every model was photographed and the commitments captured, so the takeaways left the room with the team.
Result & Impact
Honest Dialogue at a Senior Level
The builds did what slide decks rarely can: leaders shared candid reflections about their own leadership in front of their peers, moving the conversation well beyond surface-level agreement.
A Shared Language for Constructive Challenge
The 3C framework was repeatedly named the most valuable part of the session — a simple, memorable model the team can now invoke to keep challenge caring, candid, and clear in their day-to-day interactions.
Public, Personal Commitments
Every leader left having stated one specific leadership commitment aloud to the team creating peer accountability that outlasts the workshop.
Appetite for More
Every respondent rated the overall workshop 4 or 5 out of 5, praising the hands-on approach, the pace, and the space to reflect. The most common request? More time — with leaders asking to apply the model even more deeply to the real organisational issues in their units.
Participant Feedback
The 3C model and the hands-on approach with LEGO is very engaging and natural, while still striking the right messages.