Team Building & LEGO Serious Play | Build Better Teams

Shannon Russell | Leadership & Team Facilitator | LEGO® Serious Play®
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The Build Better Teams Podcast is for HR professionals, event planners, executives, managers, and team leaders looking for team building ideas, corporate team building activities, leadership workshops, company offsites, and LEGO® Serious Play® experiences that actually engage employees and create meaningful results. Hosted by Shannon Russell, Strategic Leadership & Team Facilitator and certified LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator, each episode shares practical strategies, real-world experiences, and creative approaches to team building, leadership development, employee engagement, workplace communication, strategic planning, and team alignment. Go behind the scenes of real team building workshops, leadership retreats, corporate events, strategic planning sessions, and LEGO® Serious Play® workshops to discover what works, what doesn't, and how to create an experience your team will actually remember. Whether you're searching for team building activities for work, planning a leadership retreat or company offsite, organizing a corporate event, or looking for new ways to improve communication and collaboration, you'll find practical ideas you can bring back to your organization. Topics include: • Team building activities and workshop ideas• Corporate team building and company offsites• LEGO® Serious Play® workshops and facilitation• Leadership development and leadership retreat ideas• Strategic planning workshops and facilitation• Employee engagement and workplace culture• Team communication, collaboration, and trust• Interactive corporate events and networking experiences• Team alignment and high-performing teams• Creativity, innovation, and play at work  If you want to move beyond boring meetings and predictable team building activities, Build Better Teams will help you discover creative ways to get people out of their seats, talking, building, thinking, and solving problems together. Whether you lead a Fortune 500 company, nonprofit, growing business, or small team, you'll learn new ways to strengthen communication, encourage innovation, increase employee engagement, and create stronger teams. Learn more about Shannon's team building workshops, LEGO® Serious Play® experiences, leadership retreats, strategic planning facilitation, corporate event facilitation, and keynote speaking at BuildBetterTeamsConsulting.com.

  1. 1d ago

    Leadership Can Be Lonely: Why Great Leaders Need Support Too | #27

    Who supports the leader when everyone else is looking to them for answers? Leadership can be rewarding, but it can also feel incredibly lonely. Whether you're managing a small team or leading an entire organization, you're expected to make decisions, solve problems, motivate employees, and guide your team through challenges. But who is supporting you? In this episode of the Build Better Teams Podcast, host Shannon Russell explores why even the most successful leaders need mentorship, peer support, professional development, and meaningful connections to continue growing. As a strategic leadership and team-building facilitator, Shannon has worked with leaders across industries and has seen firsthand how leadership retreats, executive offsites, and LEGO® Serious Play® workshops can create opportunities for leaders to step away from their daily responsibilities, share challenges, learn from one another, and discover they're not alone. You'll learn why asking for help is a leadership strength, how surrounding yourself with other leaders can improve your confidence and decision-making, and why investing in your own leadership development is just as important as supporting your employees. Whether you're a manager, executive, business owner, or emerging leader, this episode is a reminder that strong leadership doesn't mean doing everything alone. The best leaders continue learning, growing, and surrounding themselves with people who challenge and support them. Because great leaders need a team, too. Planning a team building workshop, leadership retreat, or strategic planning session? I help organizations create engaging, hands-on experiences that strengthen communication, collaboration, and team alignment. 🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events.  Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

  2. Oct 6

    What Is Company Culture? How Leaders Build Stronger Teams at Work | #26

    What does company culture really mean? It isn't free snacks, casual Fridays, company happy hours, or the values written in an employee handbook. Company culture is the experience your employees have working together every day. It's how people communicate, how decisions are made, how conflict is handled, and whether team members feel supported, respected, and heard.  In this episode of the Build Better Teams Podcast, Shannon Russell explores how leaders can intentionally build a stronger workplace culture, whether their employees work together in an office, remotely, or as part of a hybrid team. You'll learn how communication, leadership behaviors, shared experiences, employee recognition, and team collaboration shape your culture. Shannon also shares why workplace culture becomes especially important during periods of change, uncertainty, conflict, and stressful deadlines, when employees are watching closely to see how their leaders respond.  You'll also discover practical ways to strengthen culture across remote and hybrid teams, including creating consistent communication, giving employees opportunities to connect beyond their job titles, and designing interactive experiences that allow people to collaborate and solve problems together.  If you're an HR professional, executive, manager, or business owner looking for practical employee engagement ideas, team building strategies, leadership development, or ways to improve workplace culture, this episode will help you look beyond the perks and focus on what your employees actually experience. Because a strong company culture isn't created by chance. It's built through trust, communication, respect, and shared experiences.  Planning a team building workshop, leadership retreat, or strategic planning session? I help organizations create engaging, hands-on experiences that strengthen communication, collaboration, and team alignment. 🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events.  Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

  3. Sep 30

    Beyond the Name Tag: Creative Networking and Team Building Ideas That Actually Connect People | #25

    Tired of networking events that consist of name tags, awkward small talk, and the same old question: “So, what do you do?” There’s a better way to help people connect. In this episode of the Build Better Teams Podcast, strategic leadership and team-building facilitator Shannon Russell takes you behind the scenes of two recent interactive networking events where participants skipped the traditional introductions and instead built LEGO® minifigures that represented who they are. The result? People started talking about hobbies, families, travel, interests, personalities, and experiences instead of leading with their job titles. A simple hands-on activity became a natural conversation starter and helped participants discover common ground, tell stories, laugh together, and build genuine relationships.  Pasted markdown Shannon explores why creative networking activities and hands-on team building can make it easier for people to connect, strengthen psychological safety, and ultimately improve collaboration in the workplace. You'll learn why connection should come before collaboration, how “thinking with your hands” can unlock meaningful conversations, and how leaders, HR professionals, and event planners can create more memorable corporate networking events, leadership retreats, employee engagement experiences, and team-building workshops. Whether you're planning a company event, networking experience, leadership retreat, conference, or corporate team-building activity, this episode will inspire you to think beyond the name tag and create an experience people actually remember. Because the strongest teams aren't built one meeting at a time. They're built one meaningful connection at a time. 🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events.  Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

  4. Sep 14

    Leadership Retreat Ideas: Creative Activities to Build Stronger, More Aligned Teams | #24

    Planning a leadership retreat or executive offsite? Don't bring your leaders together just to spend eight hours sitting around a conference table listening to presentations. In this episode of the Build Better Teams podcast, strategic leadership and team-building facilitator Shannon Russell shares creative leadership retreat ideas and activities designed to get leaders out of their seats, away from their screens, and actively communicating, collaborating, problem-solving, and planning for the future. From LEGO® Serious Play® and strategic planning exercises to cross-department challenges, improv, future visioning, and facilitated conversations, Shannon shares practical ways to create a leadership retreat that feels different from a normal workday and produces meaningful results. You'll learn how to design a retreat around the conversations your leaders actually need to have, encourage cross-functional collaboration, address challenges that may be holding your organization back, and create a shared outcome your team can take back to work. Whether you're planning a leadership retreat, executive offsite, strategic planning session, or corporate team-building workshop, this episode will help you create an engaging experience that strengthens communication, team alignment, employee engagement, and organizational strategy. Because the best leadership retreats don't just give people a day away from the office. They help change what happens when everyone gets back. 🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events.  Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

  5. Sep 7

    Imagination at Work: How Play and Creativity Help Leaders Build More Innovative Teams | #23

    What happens when we stop using our imagination at work? After recently stepping onto the TEDx stage, strategic leadership and team-building facilitator Shannon Russell is reflecting on the idea at the center of her talk: The Imagination Recession. As adults, we become focused on productivity, efficiency, deadlines, and getting more done. Somewhere along the way, many of us stop making time to play, experiment, create, and imagine what else might be possible. But organizations still expect employees to innovate, solve problems, adapt to change, and develop new ideas. So how can leaders expect creativity without creating space for it? In this episode of Build Better Teams, Shannon shares lessons from her TEDx experience and explores why imagination at work is essential for leadership, workplace innovation, team collaboration, and the future of work. Drawing from her experience facilitating LEGO® Serious Play® workshops, leadership retreats, and strategic planning sessions, Shannon explains how hands-on play can help teams move beyond traditional brainstorming, unlock new ideas, and get every person in the room participating. You'll discover why imagination isn't something adults lose. It's something we stop using, and something leaders can intentionally bring back into the workplace. If you're a leader, executive, HR professional, or manager looking for new ways to encourage creativity, innovation, employee engagement, communication, and collaboration, this episode will challenge you to rethink the relationship between work and play. Because before we can build better teams and better organizations, we have to be able to imagine them first. 🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events.  Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

  6. Aug 24

    Building Better Leaders: How Empathy and Self-Awareness Create Stronger Teams | #22

    Why do organizations promote great employees into management roles and then expect them to automatically know how to lead? Being excellent at your job doesn't necessarily mean you know how to manage people, delegate effectively, communicate with empathy, or build an engaged team. In this episode of Build Better Teams, Shannon Russell sits down with leadership development coach and Lightspark Leadership founder Risa Seelenfreund to discuss the leadership skills managers need to build stronger, more engaged teams. Risa shares why the traditional command-and-control leadership model no longer works, especially in today's multigenerational workplace, and why empathy, self-awareness, delegation, communication, and relationship-building are essential leadership skills. In This Episode You'll Learn: • Why great employees don't automatically become great managers • The leadership skills new managers need to develop • Why empathy is essential for employee engagement and retention • How to hold employees accountable while still leading with empathy • Why self-awareness is the foundation of effective leadership • How to delegate without simply handing off work • Why leaders need to support employees after delegating • How DISC and team assessments can improve team communication • Why different working styles can strengthen a team • How leaders can help employees grow without feeling threatened by their success Risa also explains why developing your people doesn't diminish your role as a leader. It can make your entire team, and ultimately your organization, stronger. If you're a new manager, executive, HR professional, nonprofit leader, or business owner looking to improve leadership development, employee engagement, team communication, and workplace culture, this conversation is packed with practical advice you can use. 🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events.  Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

  7. Aug 17

    Behind the Scenes of a Strategic Planning Workshop with LEGO Serious Play | #21

    What makes a strategic planning session actually lead to change? In this episode of Build Better Teams, Shannon Russell takes you behind the scenes of a recent three-hour strategic planning workshop she facilitated for a leadership team in Oklahoma City using the LEGO® Serious Play® method. Instead of spending hours talking through PowerPoint slides, taking notes, and leaving with more questions than answers, the leadership team used hands-on strategic planning to explore where their organization is today, identify challenges and opportunities, and build a shared vision for the future. Shannon explains how visual thinking, equal participation, and collaborative problem-solving can help leadership teams create stronger alignment, clearer priorities, and greater accountability after the meeting ends. In This Episode You'll Learn: • What an interactive strategic planning workshop actually looks like • Why traditional strategic planning meetings often fail to create action • How LEGO® Serious Play® helps teams visualize complex ideas and challenges • Why every voice should be included in strategic planning • How leaders can create a shared organizational vision • Why hands-on facilitation encourages curiosity instead of defensiveness • How strategic planning improves team alignment and accountability • Why people are more invested in strategies they help create • Three strategic planning lessons every leader can use with their own team If you're planning a leadership retreat, company offsite, strategic planning session, or executive team workshop, this episode offers a different way to create meaningful conversations and turn ideas into clear direction. 🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events.  Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

  8. Aug 10

    Play Is a Leadership Strategy: How Creative Team Building Drives Innovation and Employee Engagement | #20

    What if play wasn't a distraction from work, but one of the most powerful leadership strategies you could use to build a stronger team? In this episode of Build Better Teams, strategic leadership and team-building facilitator Shannon Russell explores why play at work can increase creativity, improve employee engagement, strengthen communication, and help teams innovate in ways traditional meetings often can't. As workplaces become increasingly influenced by AI, technology, remote communication, and automation, human skills like imagination, curiosity, collaboration, empathy, and creative problem-solving are becoming even more valuable. Shannon shares why she uses LEGO® Serious Play® with organizations, leadership teams, corporate retreats, and strategic planning sessions to help employees think with their hands, communicate ideas visually, and ensure every voice in the room has an opportunity to contribute. Play isn't about being unprofessional. It's about creating an environment where employees feel safe enough to experiment, imagine, contribute, and solve problems differently. Because when people think differently, organizations innovate differently. 🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events.  Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

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The Build Better Teams Podcast is for HR professionals, event planners, executives, managers, and team leaders looking for team building ideas, corporate team building activities, leadership workshops, company offsites, and LEGO® Serious Play® experiences that actually engage employees and create meaningful results. Hosted by Shannon Russell, Strategic Leadership & Team Facilitator and certified LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator, each episode shares practical strategies, real-world experiences, and creative approaches to team building, leadership development, employee engagement, workplace communication, strategic planning, and team alignment. Go behind the scenes of real team building workshops, leadership retreats, corporate events, strategic planning sessions, and LEGO® Serious Play® workshops to discover what works, what doesn't, and how to create an experience your team will actually remember. Whether you're searching for team building activities for work, planning a leadership retreat or company offsite, organizing a corporate event, or looking for new ways to improve communication and collaboration, you'll find practical ideas you can bring back to your organization. Topics include: • Team building activities and workshop ideas• Corporate team building and company offsites• LEGO® Serious Play® workshops and facilitation• Leadership development and leadership retreat ideas• Strategic planning workshops and facilitation• Employee engagement and workplace culture• Team communication, collaboration, and trust• Interactive corporate events and networking experiences• Team alignment and high-performing teams• Creativity, innovation, and play at work  If you want to move beyond boring meetings and predictable team building activities, Build Better Teams will help you discover creative ways to get people out of their seats, talking, building, thinking, and solving problems together. Whether you lead a Fortune 500 company, nonprofit, growing business, or small team, you'll learn new ways to strengthen communication, encourage innovation, increase employee engagement, and create stronger teams. Learn more about Shannon's team building workshops, LEGO® Serious Play® experiences, leadership retreats, strategic planning facilitation, corporate event facilitation, and keynote speaking at BuildBetterTeamsConsulting.com.

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