Lego

Create innovative play experiences

Inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow

Create values that inspire endless possibilities

• Imagination
  Dream it first so you can do it.
• Creativity
  Come up with ideas that are new, surprising, and valuable.
• Fun
  Surprise both yourself and others by being fully engaged in something that requires mastery.
• Learning
  Be curious by experimenting and collaborating.
• Caring
  Make a positive difference in the lives of children, colleagues, partners, and the world we live in.
• Quality
  Challenge yourself to make continuous improvements in order to provide the best play material.

Deliver fun experiences that combine logic and reasoning with playfulness and imagination

The friendly creator

Nicknamed 'My LEGO friend,' these creators have vivid imaginations, are curious, and like to try out new experiences. They are comfortable adapting to different roles and are never bothered by the little things. They are friendly, approachable, and truly care about empowering others to explore, imagine, and succeed. They find meaning in bringing people together and their fun, energetic, and optimistic spirit makes everyone love being around them.

Playful, energetic, inclusive, and human

By infusing excitement and optimism into their communications, LEGO encourages their customers to explore, build, and create new worlds using their imaginations. Their goal is to create an atmosphere filled with limitless possibilities where people are free to explore and discover new things. To do this, they created a tone that is:

• Playfully humorous, but not silly and never boring
• Energetic and active
• Respectful, avoiding anything that could cause controversy like religion or politics
• Encouraging, but never condescending or patronizing
• Inclusive and intuitive, avoiding gender stereotypes
• Human and authentic, not childish
• Relevant and contemporary, avoiding fads and trends

System in Play

The LEGO System in Play is about creating high quality interlocking plastic bricks that fit together seamlessly, that can be explored in multiple ways, and that can be built and rebuilt together. To LEGO and its customers, "this means that bricks bought years ago will fit perfectly with bricks bought in the future…It means that a LEGO element not only has instant value, but will keep its value always…[and that LEGO] will always make sure that all bricks—from yesterday, today, and tomorrow—fit together."

Creative learning

LEGO describes creative learning as the company's "functional benefit" that their audience gains from using their products.  For parents, this means that their children learn through play by "balancing challenges with [their] child’s capabilities, fun, creativity and imagination." For children, it means that they can bring to life whatever they can imagine, alone or with their friends and family.

Creative builders

LEGO's core customers are broken down into two groups. The first being boys and girls ages 5 to 11, and the second being their parents. But within these groups, LEGO focuses on appealing to those children who "appreciate hands-on, minds-on activities like creative building and role playing" and parents who "recognize their role in guiding children in a rapidly changing world."

LEGO's secondary core customer is known as the Adult Fan of LEGO, or AFOL. These adults and teens , who, "also enjoy hands-on, minds-on play like creative building and role playing."

Create a safe space to have honest conversations about your culture

Around LEGO offices, employees gather in areas with campfires built out of LEGOs to signify that they are not having a regular work meeting but one that focuses on sharing ideas, opinions, and concerns about the company's culture. While some campfire sessions provide employees time to share what they have learned from their successes and failures of the day, others use the time to brainstorm how to make cultural shifts in the company, like developing a more diverse employee candidate pool.

Respect staff personal time through nudges

At LEGO, when employees email colleagues outside of their normal working hours, the sender will receive a prompt to schedule the email during their colleague's normal business hours. This nudge reinforces the importance of not interrupting a colleague's family or personal time.

Make meetings purposeful

LEGO has built their culture around keeping meetings focused and solution-oriented with the following:

• Shortened meeting times. Meeting lengths are defaulted to 25 minutes for 30-minute meetings and 50 minutes for 1-hour meetings.
• Clear expectations. Meeting templates require the organizer to fill out the meeting's purpose, agenda, and expected outcome. This helps attendees prepare for the meeting and helps the organizer determine if the meeting is necessary or if an email will suffice.
• Preparation requirements. Time is not spent on reviewing documents shared beforehand. Instead, all attendees come prepared, pre-reading the materials and noting questions to explore further.

Encourage curiosity, focus, and bravery with Missions

To encourage staff to try new things and reduce their fear of failure, LEGO implements a strategy called Missions. Missions are challenges given to staff that focus on LEGO's leadership attributes: Curiosity, focus, and bravery.

Each division and store has its own way of handing out missions—some are handed out before shifts, while others are picked out of a hat. Missions can take as little as an hour or up to two weeks to accomplish, but once completed, team members gather to reflect on their successes and failures and discuss what they have learned.

View Missions examples.

Unleash the joy of creation and the pride of building

As LEGO puts it: "We are in the business of Play." And through play, children learn about themselves, others, and the world around them, while also developing important skills like creativity and imagination. When children are able to create something from their minds, their confidence grows and, in turn, they proudly share their creations with everyone in their lives. As a result, families come closer together and parents know that they are raising happy confident children who will have the skills needed to adapt to an ever changing world.