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Exploring the Power of Artefacts in Coaching

Dec 16, 2024

Coaching is a dynamic process that facilitates growth, self-awareness, learning and life-changing transformation.

Among the many processes coaches can use in coaching - the incorporation of physical artefacts, such as LEGO builds or physical objects, offers a unique and powerful way to deepen the coaching experience.

Artefacts can be used symbolically in the coaching process to unlock creativity, foster self-awareness and inspire meaningful change. 

Building out thoughts with LEGO, for example, can connect our minds with our hands and creatively support the expansion of thoughts, ideas and conscious awareness.

How Can Artefacts Support Clients in the Coaching Process?

Artefacts in coaching are tangible objects that serve as a symbolic representation of a client’s thoughts, feelings, ideas, habits, intuition or experiences.

Getting curious about, or building artefacts, can assist clients to externalise internal processes, allowing them to see their challenges and aspirations from a new perspective, especially when clients feel stuck in expressing their current circumstances and/or what they want to experience in the future.

Artefacts, or physical items, can be chosen by the client to explore ‘hidden’ thinking by asking how that item represents their current or future thinking.

Parts or attributes of the artefact can also represent specific thoughts and ideas which can be expanded, challenged, let go of, incorporated, amended or reframed.

A highly effective way of creating artefacts in coaching is by utilising LEGO bricks. As Paul Sanbar, MCC ESIA from Certified Hands-On Thinking Coach, a Hands-on Thinking Coach and a Certified LEGO SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) Facilitator shares, using LEGO offers a playful yet profound medium for clients to express their inner world by using their hands creatively to express their thoughts.

Through building and creating what is happening in the moment, clients externalise their thoughts, making the abstract or invisible tangible and visible.

Seeing and feeling their way through their opportunity and/or challenge can potentially have much greater resonance than just verbalising their learning.

This powerful process taps into embodied cognition, which is the idea that our physical actions influence and/or reflect our mental unconscious processes.

Paul explains the LEGO building allows clients to step into a state of flow, where they can explore their thoughts and emotions without judgment or inhibition. And when working with a coach, who gets curious about their LEGO build based on the questions the coach asks their client and the client’s artefact they have built, can support the following outcomes:

1. Enhanced Creativity

Building with LEGO engages the creative parts of the brain, helping clients think beyond traditional problem-solving approaches.

2. Perspective Shifts

By creating a tangible model of their current situation, clients can observe it from different angles, leading to new insights and solutions.

3. Embodied Cognition

The act of building connects the mind and body, accessing wisdom stored in physical experiences.

4. Tangible Anchor

The resulting LEGO artefact serves as a lasting reminder and reinforcement of the client’s insights and commitments

Paul’s approach to LEGO SERIOUS PLAY in his coaching involves supporting clients to explore a challenge, by identifying desired outcomes or reflecting on a specific experience through a process of asking open-ended questions such as:

  • What does this part of the model represent?
  • How do the pieces connect?
  • What story does this artefact tell?
  • What emotions or thoughts arise when you look at it?

By encouraging clients to use colours, shapes and LEGO ‘minifigures’ to build and express their thoughts and emotions, as well as modify their artefacts during the session, the iterative process mirrors their journey of self-discovery and growth.

Using artefacts in coaching

Artefacts utilised in coaching, such as LEGO, can bring a sense of playfulness to the process.

Play is often overlooked in adult life, yet it’s a powerful tool for creativity and problem-solving.

By reintroducing play using artefacts and supporting clients to unpack the meaning, coaches can support clients to access a childlike sense of curiosity and exploration, opening the door to new possibilities and a sense of what is possible.

Purposeful play with artefacts, as Paul would name it - can be a powerful game-changer, unlocking new dimensions of creativity and connection to self in the coaching process.

A Tangible Path to Transformation

Using artefacts is a profound way to engage clients on multiple levels. By externalising their inner world, clients gain clarity, self-awareness, and the confidence to move forward.

The physical nature of artefacts ensures the insights gained in coaching persist long after the session ends, serving as lasting anchors for growth and transformation.

Listen to the full podcast episode 217 'Purposeful Playfulness and Power in Coaching' with Paul Sanbar here and explore how artefacts and LEGO can support powerful, transformation coaching conversations.

If this episode resonates with you, please share it with fellow coaches or clients who are on their journey to authentic living.

Be empowered.

Jeanine and Marie Empower World Co-founders

The Empower World's world-class ICF Approved Professional Coach Training and Leadership Programme's next intake starts on 14 Feb 2025 in Doha, Qatar. You can find out more here.

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