Teaching Project Planning,Analysis and Control with Lego

1. Project Planning, Analysis and Control
with Lego
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3. Give Your Brain a Hand
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“The human mind is designed to work in three dimensions. When our hands are used, we engage an increased
portion of our minds. For the scientific community, this is a well-established fact – yet we tend to predominately use
two dimensional mediums like paper and visual presentations in business.”
Our course “ Project Planning, Analysis and Control with Lego” invites all participants to take an active role in the
process. The common language – the bricks – treats everyone as equals and allows all opinions and aspects to be
heard. Project planning and control is everyone’s responsibility and it takes the whole team to synergize in order to
meet each milestones on-time.
The entire strategy is dependent on Engineering and Procurement providing
their deliverables to meet Path of Construction.
And in this lesson we are showing you on the strategy, process and tools
needed to achieve the above goal.

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If someone asks you a question …
… and you answer verbally, you activate your short & long term memory
(= +- 15% of your brain)
… and you start building with your hands,
80% of your brain is activated.
Darwin proved that.

5. Why Teaching Project with Lego
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Traditional Project Planning Training Planning with Lego
20% participation 100% participation
We breakaway from the traditional training.
It’s all about 100% collaboration.

6. Bricks in Project Planning Training
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Lego in Project Planning is a technique where we use LEGO
bricks to follow through a series of structured exercises
during which we simulate a typical construction activities
and manage the activities with project management best
practise method.
Why using Lego ?
It helps you generate alternate solutions:
Design Thinking is about identifying and working within
given set of constraints to arrive at new and better
solutions. We will present a problem, Lego Project Planning
is a great way to generate new ideas, imagine alternate
solutions and implementation.

7. Bricks in Project Planning Training
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Why using Lego ?
You construct, deconstruct and reconstruct:
Creative thinking requires the ability to break the existing
pattern to discover another.. Deconstructing helps to break
our preconception so we can see the same thing
from a whole new perspective or have the freedom to
change things by examining all parts, keeping some and
adding new ingredients.
Creativity involves breaking out of established
patterns in order to look at things in a different
way….. Edward De bono

8. Bricks in Project Planning Training
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Why ?
It creates commitment and alignment :
Each models planned and built based on the understanding
from all participants in the group. That achieves a
commitment, as the conclusions are discussed, agreed and
understood by all. Everyone is having a say to contribute
and to take the next steps going forward. It also creates
alignments and strategic clarity.
If it’s not then the team will fall back and the scores speak
by itself.
“ If innovation is part of your strategic landscape then this course is for you.
Many business recognise that innovation is a critical element in competitive
strategy but they have no idea on where to start. ”

9. Why Lego in Project
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Why ?
No bullet points and backs to the wall – brick by brick
LEGO Project Planning models are three dimensional and
better to understand than for instance a presentation.

10. Project Planning with Lego
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Warm-up Construct Constraint
management Reflection
We begin with project planning,
analysis and control training.
•Emphasizethe importanceof initiating
project with structured approach
•Systematicallyidentifythe work required
to achieve project goals
•Defineand develop the foundation of
project plan including,the project
requirementsdocuments, WBS,
schedule and cost management.
•Describeproject risk identification,risk
assessment and risk mitigation strategies
•Control project by managing against the
baseline
Time to build and let’s have fun
•Construct Lego model based on a typical
EPC project management approach.
•Requiredto complete buildingwithin a
given budget (cost), risk and time.
•Participantswill assume the roles of a
typicalEPC project, including trade of
planner, foreman, project manager or
even risk manager.
Time to strategize.
•Team’s challenge. Constraint: an item or
requirementthat will prevent an activity
from starting, advancing or completing
as planned.
•Team will be required to analyze the
constraint together with associated risk
and take necessary approach for
mitigation.
•Emphasizethe importanceof pull
planningmethodology and tools.
(constructionsequence, look-ahead
schedule, constraint analysis, work
package breakdown, readiness (make-
ready)assessmentetc.
Takeaway
•Sharing and discuss with what
and how we can do better.
•How we have done against the
budget and time.
•The underlying values of the fun
includethe belief in the potential
of people, and also the belief that
everyone within an organization
can contribute to the discussion,
solutions, and outcomes.

11. From Bricks to Complex EPC Project
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Example of Project WBSs
GeographicalWBS – Site 1 – Area 1 – Sub-Area 3
GeographicalWBS – Site 1 – Area 1 – Sub-Area3 -
Workfront Package1
WBS 1 : Flooring
WBS 2 : house level 1: structure, beam etc
WBS 3 : House level 2 window, door etc
WBS 4 : Roofing,
From bricks
Complex EPC WBS example

12. Project Planning with Lego
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Project planning ,
monitoring and control
strategy
Construction
Delivery
Baseline
Project planning ,
monitoring and control
strategy
Construction
Delivery
30 minutes
3 hours
Milestone
30 minutes
4 hours
Delay = 1 hour
Milestone
Actual
Participantwill learn :
1.Liquidateddamage calculation
2.Impactdue to stop-workorder
3.Quantifydisruption and delay
4.Methodto manage period of inefficiency
5.Lossof productivity calculation
1. Risk not identified and not mitigated (ex. missing detail in
risk register)
2. Resources not planned and managed properly (ex. bricks
quantity less than planned)
3.Missingitems in purchase order (ex. missing bricks)
4.Conflictin the team (ex. RACI matrix is missing from project
charter)
5.Overlookon long lead (LLI) items. (ex. LLI bricks does not
managed)
Delay quantification

13. Example : Procurement Risk (Long Lead Item)
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WBS 1 : Flooring
Team A randomly picked up bricks with long
lead items risk attached to it.
This can cause delay to the flooring activities.
This 15 seconds could have mitigated at no
cost if the risk identifiedand appears in team
A risk register.
Since this risk was not captured during
brainstormingsession the team left with only
2 choices as per the card.
Participantsare explained the nature of Long Lead Item risk
in a typical EPC project.
1. What is the impact of a long lead item delay in a project?
2.How to identify a long lead item?
3.How it should appear in schedule?
4.Types of dependency or successor ?
5.How to communicateprocurement risk?

14. Risk Management with Lego Bricks
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Participant start to construct
based on a typical EPC
project flow
Project planning ,
monitoring and control
strategy
Project lesson learnt
1 Participantsare introduced to Project planning, analysis and control concepts
2 Tools : based on PMI best practice
3 Riskidentificationand mitigation plan will be emphasized at this stage
1 Riskare introduced randomly while each participantsconstruct.
2 Participantswill have the “feel” of cause and impact on their
constructionbased on early stage risk management practice
1 Reflectionon the lesson learnt

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These are just some of my ideas to break the traditional habits in project planning
discussion or even training.
20% of the participants in the meeting use 80% of the
time to talk about their knowledge and their intentions.
Project boss
Project Planner
Risk planner

16. When Fun Meets Protocols
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• Fun and playful
• Hands-on and vibrant
• Collaboration and team work
• Innovative process design
• Imagination
• Project management methodology
and tools
• Project planning and control
methodology and tools
• Best practices
• EPC project management know how
• Procedures and worksheets
Project planning Project planning as a system
Plus
The result : Meet us in our training ;)

17. ;)
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"You can learn more about a
person in an hour of play than
you can from a lifetime of
conversation"
-Plato

18. The End
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