Are You a LEGO Master Builder (of Business)?

In case you can’t tell from previous blog posts and embedded photos, I currently enjoy a LEGO® lifestyle for business and pleasure. This way of life includes LEGO sets, LEGO minifigures, LEGO Wii U video games, and LEGO Minecraft. My LEGO experiences are further deepened by a LEGO bed comforter, assorted LEGO T-shirts, souvenirs from LEGOLAND (the one in Winter Haven, Florida), and so on.

How did this come to be? It’s simple: I gave birth to a LEGO fanatic. In fact, I just remembered that I am the sole keeper of the communal LEGO VIP card, which we acquired years ago at the LEGO Store in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

My son Ethan will celebrate his 12th birthday tomorrow, which can only mean one thing: My personal Master Builder will soon revel in sorting the bricks and accessories for his about-to-be-built LEGO Mini Cooper.

So what does all this have to do with you and your business?

Well, becoming a Master Builder is not an easy thing to accomplish. Do you have what it takes to be the business equivalent of a LEGO® Master Builder? Allow this blog post to be your instruction booklet, brick by brick:

Here’s What It Means to Be A LEGO Master Builder: Perhaps you think I’m joking about this whole LEGO Master Builder thing, but I’m not. If you go to LEGO’s website (avoid the shopping cart!), you’ll find a page entitled “Welcome to the LEGO Master Builder Academy.”

Sure, this page is for builders (of all ages–not just boys ages 5-12) who want to sharpen their skills and acquire advanced building knowledge. But the MBA (coincidence? I think not…) is merely the tip of the Master Builder iceberg:

“LEGO® Master Builders are the highly trained and super-creative builders who design all of the official LEGO sets. Other LEGO Master Builders create giant, detailed sculptures out of LEGO bricks for LEGOLAND® Parks and special events all around the world.”

Let’s build a little deeper regarding how you can become a Master Builder for your business or employer.

A Real-Life LEGO Master Builder Explains It All: Here’s a great Yahoo! Movies interview (a tie-in with last year’s phenomenal The LEGO Movie) with a LEGO Master Builder named Paul Chrzan. According to Mr. Chrzan, there are 40 recognized LEGO Master Builders in the world. Seven of them reside in the U.S.

Alas, there is no endowed LEGO University you can attend to earn your Master of Builder Arts. (But there is something about the “MBA” acronym that is inherently embedded in the LEGO lifestyle.) You do have to be a LEGO employee in order to become a Master Builder, though.

Mr. Chrzan states in the interview that the only way to become a truly innovative designer of LEGO sets is to “build, build, build.” And if the set is designated as a house or a spaceship or an evil lair, you don’t necessarily have to follow the pictorial instructions.

In other words, you need a bit of imagination to build something beyond the instruction booklet. (Hmm, how is your business imagination these days? Do a reality check via this insightful Forbes article…)

The Educational Background of a LEGO Master Builder Is a Vision to Behold: In the same interview with Master Builder Paul Chrzan, he reveals to the interviewer that “most of the Denmark-based company’s 40 MBs have a background in sculpture, engineering, architecture or some other area of ‘three-dimensional design.'”

To become a Master Builder of finance or IT or even a bakery shop, you should dabble a bit in some type of visualization technique to boost your business foresight. And if compiling a vision board isn’t your thing, develop an action board instead…

LEGO Master Builders Think from Small to Big (And So Can You): The most impressive creations at a LEGOLAND park (Winter Haven, FL, or Carlsbad, CA, in the U.S.–try one or both) are huddled together in a section known as Miniland USA. These works of (brick) art are designed and constructed by LEGO Master Builders. At the Miniland USA in Florida, you’ll find replicas of:

• The Statue of Liberty
• The Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
• A section of the New York City skyline that includes Times Square
• The Hollywood Bowl
• The Daytona International Speedway
• The Las Vegas Strip
• And much more…

My point (yes, I do have one) is this: Constructing LEGO replicas requires extensive knowledge of the smallest LEGO bricks, the vision to convert something small to a larger scale, and the otherworldly wisdom of Mother Teresa or Gandhi.

As a co-founder of the LEGO Company’s only accredited LEGO offshoot in Britain (called Bright Bricks), Duncan Titmarsh is a bonafide LEGO Master Builder (since 2010–apparently, he’s also a LEGO Certified Professional–see below). He revealed some of his “secrets” in this November 2014 pocket-lint.com article.

Another brick of inside information regarding Master Builders: They don’t build alone, especially if the project is a 500,000-piece LEGO sled for a public Christmas display. The same rule should apply if you have employees–never build your business alone!

Oh, the Places You’ll Go As a LEGO® Certified Professional: There are other gentlemen (and one visionary gal–Beth Weis) who are a rare breed of freelance (brick) artists officially licensed by the LEGO Company as Certified Professionals. They create custom LEGO sculptures commissioned by corporations, museums, schools, other non-profit organizations,  and private collectors.

Some of the inventive sculptors who inhale LEGO blocks and exhale small and large-scale LEGO masterpieces include:

Sean Kenney (He is “a full-time artist who works exclusively with LEGO bricks.”)

Robin Sather (He’s the only Canadian within the LEGO Certified Professional gene pool…)

Nathan Sawaya (He is an independent “brick artist” who created the touring exhibition “The Art of the Brick.” He holds a double degree as a Master Builder AND a Certified Professional.)

Jumpei Mitsui (The youngest of LEGO’s Certified Professionals lives in Japan.)

Additional brick-crazy artists are based in other countries like Australia, Belgium, Germany, Norway, and Singapore. Most LEGO Certified Professionals work from their home studios. But depending on the size and degree of difficulty of a commissioned LEGO sculpture, they have travel opportunities galore.

They also get to meet celebrities. And kids who’d rather build LEGO sets than play with their multiple electronic devices 24/7 consider LEGO Certified Professionals to be full-blown rock stars!

Creating something substantial from a small idea or concept is the gateway to business success. Learn from these gifted artists and the magic they create with plastic bricks. Get out there and challenge your senses. It will stimulate your business creativity and lead to new developments regarding your company’s products and services.

Take Time to Plan a LEGO Business Field Trip: Building LEGO sets and creations may seem like child’s play, but being a LEGO Master Builder (or Certified Professional) is serious business-building business.

I hope this LEGO-centric blog post compels you to step outside the boundaries of your business and experiment with your LEGO-building capabilities. Honestly, I don’t know what else to throw at you, except…

You say building with mold-injected plastic blocks doesn’t come naturally to you? Then start small–first, put a few LEGO minifigures together. And if you’re fortunate enough to reside in the Philadelphia area, inspiration will soon be as close as The Franklin Institute.

Nathan Sawaya’s well-traveled “The Art of the Brick” exhibit opens at the Franklin Institute on February 7th, and will through early September.

But you don’t need actual offspring to have a convenient excuse for visiting “The Art of the Brick.” Make it a mandatory business field trip for your marketing team, sales staff, or business-development peeps. Perchance you’ll consider jump-starting your 2nd or 3rd quarter in 2015 by taking your entire company to this beyond-cool exhibit. You can thank me later…

In what way(s) do you consider yourself a LEGO Master Builder? Have you ever participated in or administered a brainstorming session or corporate-training program? Did it involve building something from odds and ends or toy-like components? What were the results?

If you could construct anything out of LEGO bricks to build team morale or inspire your employees, what would you build, and where would you display it?

And finally: Happy 12th birthday to my son and LEGO-builder extraordinaire, Ethan Jonah Shapiro!

Lori Shapiro is the owner of By All Writes LLC, a business-to-business (B2B) writing, editing, and research company in Marlton, New Jersey. She revels in shielding her clients from the pain of writing their own print or web marketing and educational copy. Please call Lori Shapiro at 856-810-9764 or email By All Writes LLC at lori@byallwrites.biz  for a no-obligation project quote today!