Building Better Leaders with LEGO Serious Play & AGILE

In a recent Harvard Business Review article Nieto Rodriguez (2021) shared a striking prediction from a senior IBM talent executive: “Soon we will no longer have job descriptions. We will have only project roles”.

Operations, which involve simply running the business, have been displaced by projects, which involve changing the business.

The sudden acceleration in the Project Economy and what it means for businesses

The answer lies in the twin disruptors of our era: artificial intelligence and digital transformation. As generative AI and automation absorb mundane, operational tasks that used to define our workdays, human value is shifting entirely to change-driven initiatives. Machines can now run most business activities, but humans must still charge it. This technological lead has spawned a massive demand for project leaders. The Project Management Institute (2023) now estimates the global economy will need 2.3 million project professionals annually through 2030 just to keep pace with technological adoption and economic shifts.

Yet, despite this massive system growth, only 35% of projects worldwide are actually successful (Nieto-Rodriguez, 2021). The market is desperately crying out for a new breed of project leader, but the talent pipeline is dry. The reason is simple: traditional education is still teaching project management as an administrative, box-ticking exercise even in the myriads of online versions.

The World Economic Forum (2023) predicts that nearly 44% of workers’ core skills will be disrupted in the next five years alone. The future of work is shifting from rigid, role-based structures to an adaptable network of teams, like a Hollywood movie crew coming together for a production and disbanding when it wraps (Berkley Group, 2021). Traditional, waterfall project management, rooted in a command-and-control hierarchy, has its place, but cannot survive this transformation in isolation.

Meeting the demands of the modern economy

Today’s modern economy requires Agile. However, it is not just a software development tool. It is a fundamental shift in mindset for any project burdened by high uncertainty and complexity. It requires breaking work into short, iterative cycles, delivering value continuously, and adapting based on rapid feedback (Ribera, 2018). To thrive in this AI-augmented environment, leaders must develop a sophisticated arsenal of competencies, ranging from strategy and business acumen to change management, adaptability, and ethics.

Developing cross-functional leaders for tomorrow’s high-uncertainty environment 

You certainly cannot teach someone to be a cross-functional leader by lecturing at them from a slide deck. This is why our new MSc Project Management course uses LEGO Serious Play to teach Agile methodology. In traditional education, you might memorise the twelve principles of Agile Manifesto (Ribera, 2018). In our classroom, you physically build them.

Bridging the gap with LEGO Serious Play

When you use LEGO to simulate Agile project, you are forced to practice the exact skills the market is begging for. You do not just read about servant leadership, you practice it as a team leader, actively removing impediments for your cross-functional team. You do not just memorise the concept of responding to change over following a plan, you experience the visceral shock of a stakeholder changing the project scope, forcing your team to prioritise that backlog mid-sprint.

Through physical simulation, you learn to estimate using relative sizing rather than falling into a trap of false precisions. You learn how to conduct effective daily standups and retrospectives, and you develop the behavioural flexibility needed to navigate the chaos of digital transformation. The job market no longer needs administrators who merely track inputs and outputs. It needs strategic leaders who can deliver tangible outcomes and value (Nieto-Rodriguez, 201). Blending the hard theory of project management frameworks with tactical, experiential learning, Kingston University bridges the gap between knowing what Agile is and knowing how to lead it. If you want to be one of the millions of specialists driving the $20 trillion project economy, you need to stop studying projects on paper, and exams and start leading them in practice.

Learn more about how LEGO Serious Play is integrated into Kingston University's Project Management MSc.

References

Berkley Group. (2021). The Rise of the Project Economy & The Future of Work. Berkley-group.com. (Accessed 25 July 2026).

Nieto-Rodriguez, A. (2021). The Project Economy Has Arrived. Harvard Business Review, November–December 2021, 2–9.

Project Management Institute. (2023). Talent Gap: Ten-Year Employment Trends, Costs, and Global Implications. PMI.org. (Accessed 25 July 2026).

Ribera, J. (2018). Agile Project Management: An Old “New” View on Project Management [Technical note APN-505-E]. IESE Business School-University of Navarra.

World Economic Forum. (2023). The Future of Jobs Report 2023. WEF.org. (Accessed 25 July 2026).