Playing Legos with Robert Creo

'Not long ago, I was visiting my alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, during the traditional Friday afternoon free-beer happy hour. I noticed a group of students unloading a mass quantity of Legos from boxes. The Legos were set around a clear area in the middle of the room. It was obvious that they were ready to engage in a communal and improvisational building project.

It stuck me how appropriate the Legos analogy is for not only for training mediators, but in the conduct of the mediation process itself...

... So Lego masters, here are some simple construction principles:

Take in all the colors, shapes and sizes

Honor creativity

Honor flexibility

Honor Improvisation

Stage and Sequence

Be open--not attached to outcome

Don't be afraid to hold back some pieces

Don't be afraid to tear down all or part of the structure

Don't be seduced by the easy path

Don't be afraid to use the unique or riskiest pieces

There will always be leftover Legos

Don't be afraid to play with Legos at any point' [read more]