Challenge

Challenge

A LEGO Group team – the Government & Public Affairs (GPA) team – wanted to make an impact, both in their organization and the world at large. But this emerging team, scattered around the globe with vastly different local issues, was doubly challenged by the strictures of the Covid pandemic. How could they effectively coalesce around a common purpose, and do something that, uniquely, only their GPA team could make happen to create a real difference in the world?

Solution

Solution

Co-creating their GPA ‘team purpose’ to provide the group with cohesion, meaning, clarity, and direction was a two-step journey. First, in 2021, amidst travel bans and other pandemic challenges, the 25 members of the GPA team came together virtually to participate in our Purpose to Impact® program and uncover / articulate their individual purposes. Equipped, now, with a deeper sense of themselves and each other – the unique gifts and motivations each brought to the team – this initial program was followed by the Team Purpose program, which sought to define the group’s identity. Here, the team was challenged to:

  1. Clarify what core attributes defined their unique value to the LEGO Group and its mission
  2. Create a team purpose that encapsulated these attributes
  3. Identify a project that was meaningful and central to their new team purpose – and, importantly, one that only the Government & Public Affairs team could carry out.

CLI Impact

CLI Impact

Celebrated annually now, the goal of this globally-recognized day is to elevate play as central to children’s learning and wellbeing.

Emboldened by their new team purpose, the GPA team created and led a coalition of 28 global entities, including NGOs and other commercial organizations (even major competitors) to support this important project which aligned so completely with the purpose of both the team and the LEGO Group and LEGO Foundation. Working closely with UNICEF, a key UN partner, every member of the GPA team engaged in a diplomatic dance to gain consensus across multiple governments, achieving a remarkable co-sponsorship of around 140 countries to successfully support this important resolution.

When asked what made this seemingly impossible project successful, the leaders of the GPA team, Ed Lewin and Claire Thwaites, identified 4 key aspects:

  1. The Team Purpose to Impact® program, which was the launch pad and catalyst, creating space to conceive the project
  2. Great partners at the LEGO Group and LEGO Foundation who supported and resourced the project, as well as likeminded partners in industry and civil society
  3. The existing global need to support children who don’t have the time or space to play
  4. Belief in universal goodwill and the importance of this project, which gave them the courage and drive to carry on when this marathon effort felt overwhelming.
Purpose to Impact™ LEGO Group
Purpose to Impact™ LEGO Group

“Purveyors of magic, calming the seas and shaping play-filled futures.”

– Government & Public Affairs Team Purpose,
The LEGO Group

“Purveyors of magic, calming the seas and shaping play-filled futures.”

– Government & Public Affairs Team Purpose,
The LEGO Group

“Purveyors of magic, calming the seas and shaping play-filled futures.”

– Government & Public Affairs Team Purpose,
The LEGO Group

Purpose works at the LEGO Group

Purpose works at the LEGO Group

Listen to Claire & Ed as they share their journey in an episode on our Leading from Purpose podcast.

EDWARD LEWIN &
CLAIRE THWAITES

Government & Public Affairs, the LEGO Group

Building Purposeful Collaboration Across Continents

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