At LEGO, potential ventures and ideas are presented to a variety of stakeholders, many of whom are ... [+]
If you think that diversity equity and inclusion initiatives are loaded with false promises and don’t engage the workforce in a way that’s meaningful, you’re not alone. New reporting from MIT Sloan Management Review suggests that maybe organizations aren’t putting the same ambition or energy into inclusion efforts or may lack the creativity that they need to get the task done. A report from The Valuable 500 (full disclosure, I am the author) also shows that while companies say they are well positioned to be inclusive in the coming years, many key efforts, from surveying consumers to making their products more accessible, remain stagnant. The Valuable 500 report shows companies are focused on collaborating across leadership to share information that can help drive innovation and stronger participation in inclusive practices.
While no company is perfect, there are those that impress and those that don’t. In my research of recent trends in DEI, I found the The LEGO Foundation is one organization that has set out a clear and decisive path towards long-term inclusion. Its new Play For All Accelerator, a $20 million grant in ventures/organizations that help children who think and learn differently. The goal of Play for All specifically is to help autistic and ADHD children develop crucial life skills that can help them from childhood through adulthood and in entering the workforce. While it’s only recently kicked off (April, 2022), the structure and strategy of the initiative have been years in the making and are part of a trend towards helping under-represented entrepreneurs already interested in a particular societal issue to gain capital, strategy, wisdom and mentorship and bring their inclusive ideas to fruition, according to Philanthropy News Digest.
Here's a look at The LEGO Foundation’s work and four take-aways for any company interested in reigniting interest in impactful inclusion programs through grant-making and entrepreneurship.
Lego: Looking Backward—and Forward
The LEGO group is 90 years old this year and The LEGO Foundation (which holds a 25% stake in the LEGO Group) is investing millions in Play for All in part because neurodiversity innovation is massively underfunded and new innovations create platforms that will pave the way toward a more inclusive future for neurodivergent children and their families, says Maureen N. Dunne, Ph.D., Senior Advisor/Neurodiversity Expert at Lego Social Ventures and The LEGO Foundation. Structured play has proven to be helpful in developing social skills and confidence.
Whether it’s proof that DEI initiatives are less appealing than ever, or maybe simply because it wasn’t the latest Skywalker Series 2022 release, the Denmark-based company didn’t cause as much as a marketplace stir as I would have thought. People who learn differently, are ADHD, dyslexic, or autistic, for example, make up at least 20% of the population. That’s no small number and consumers are highly motivated to find programs that work to help their kids learn and find their strengths after two years of pandemic-lite learning.
Lesson #1: Listen to Consumers (More Than You Already Do!)
If customers want you to be more inclusive, they’ll tell you so. Your job is to listen and to find experts can align your product with what is most useful for your inclusion efforts. The LEGO Foundation had been interested in social ventures focused on special education since around 2017, when across the company people said they were getting a tidal wave of ideas for inclusive or therapeutic play. Suggestions came from all corners of the world and spanned interests in helping children with TBI (traumatic brain injury) to older adults with dementia as well parents raising non-verbal autistic children, explains Diana Ringe Krogh, head of collaboration and social ventures at The LEGO Foundation. Note: I have no stake in Lego, except that as an ADHDer and consumer, I would like to see the idea that all bricks should be glow in the dark come to fruition. I have stepped on far too many in the middle of the night. But as I learned, I am only one of thousands who write letters and send ideas for improving their products each year.
And yet a recent study by The Valuable 500 (LEGO is not a signatory) shows few are opening their ears and eyes to what their customers want—and these are companies that have made a public commitment to being inclusive. A staggering 44% had not done external consumer research on disabilities. It may sound obvious, but inclusion often falters when you put tactics in place but don’t get feedback from your target audience.
Lesson #2: Follow the Science
The Lego Foundation ultimately began testing ideas brought to them by two Ph.D.’s who are also moms of neurodivergent children. Play Included, a U.K. based social venture, are one of the first social venture partnerships and the leading resource in the Brick-by-Brick program, which is designed to offer meaningful social opportunities to neurodivergent children through collaborative LEGO play
It was first used to help neurodivergent children returning to school post-pandemic in the U.K. Using LEGO, each student was assigned a set role, which was helpful for accommodating both autistic and ADHD thinkers and a very powerful one in helping neurodivergent children feel valued and included through play with opportunities to showcase strengths, says Dunne.
Play Included’s Brick-By-Brick program applies a scientific methodology to the physical platform of LEGO, something that any company can do by engaging experts in the field. In this case, “having a set of rules and roles and structured play helped give each child a sense of belonging,” says Krogh. “This type of play brings in children who may be on the outer edges of groups who have a lot of new thinking to offer.”
Practical steps backed by science that will help to promote the success of a growing number of children and teens identified as ASD (on the autism spectrum) is finally also becoming a national priority. The CDC recently announced their SEED program, which will attempt to document and solve for many of the same issues as LEGO: low participation in education beyond high school and difficulty finding or maintaining full-time work. These are spotlighted in the CDC’s recent announcement that came out the same month as the Lego Accelerator kickoff. The CDC also note a limited opportunity for community and social activities. Lego is looking at these issues in children.
Lesson #3: Focus on Accelerating The Pipeline
LEGO Foundation will ultimately provide grants to five organizations and become their long-term partners (25 organizations take part in the selection process, and the Foundation provides funding to support them develop their ideas as they go through the selection process). By 2032 they want to reach 75 million children. To keep their momentum, they are hoping to keep their messaging simple. Not everyone will understand the subtleties of neurodivergent minds or educational methodology. What every stakeholder can get is that something as simple as learning through play helps families connect and thrive. Post-pandemic, evidence-based programs that can be scaled to help families raising neurodiverse children thrive are in short supply. There is a lot of value in the word accelerator, says Krogh. “The investment is meant to speed up social venture that add meaning to therapeutic play.”
Most investments in innovation take a piece of the revenue. The LEGO Foundation grants are equity free and support pipeline over profit. It is a long-term vision and a model for inclusion that is meaningful because it can directly influence the pathway a person takes to employment later in life, says Dunne. Trying to tightly control entrepreneurial ventures can backfire leading to a tug of war between short-term and long-term goals.
Lesson #4: Think Like An ADHD or Autistic Mind
ADHDers naturally dream up outlandish solutions and turn things on their sides to keep themselves interested, as I know from personal experience. Dunne adds that these gifted thinkers often think of out of the box solutions and that many innovations and social transformations that have changed the world were led by neurodivergent thinkers. (You don’t have to look farther than Elon Musk’s SpaceX or less-well-known space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock for real-life moonshot inspiration.) And the list of neurodiverse creatives is endless—everyone from Courtney Love and Billie Eilish to James Taylor and David Byrne.
“This is how we produce dopamine—the project must be a thrill and not a bore,” says Krogh. “We are also incredibly sensitive, so we are always creating images in our heads that are larger than life.” (I can attest to that). Traditional companies may find it stressful to engage with atypical thinkers. I’d caution anyone who worries about this to judge the final product not the process. When you see the work created—and try to set aside the somewhat nonlinear process it might take—you won’t regret your decision.
This is what LEGO is putting into practice early with students “by innovating with new platforms that will demonstrate authentic inclusion using a strengths-based approach neurodivergent children will feel valued and find a place where they can belong while honing their critical thinking skills,” says Dunne. To uplift different thinkers, we must uplift their ability to problem solve. Too many companies squelch these ideas, saying they are impractical or not on brand. What’s on brand for inclusive initiatives? It’s including all kinds of thinking. If you find that a mind-bending way to approach a problem, that’s exactly why you should engage neurodivergent thinkers to do the work of creating a product for this audience. Can’t find those people? You probably aren’t describing the work or the project in terms that neurodivergent people can relate to. Hire someone who is ADHD or autistic to recruit and build a team and you’ll get the job done.
At LEGO, Dunne put together a neurodivergent advisory board to join the selection and strategic advisory committees working with The Foundation. Neurodivergent advisors are playing an important role in choosing the ventures that will make it to each stage of the Play for All Accelerator program.
A Final Lesson
Systemic change—or even building a business that is inclusive from the ground up—take bold thinkers who buck the system and bridge builders, who can manage to communicate across a company’s stakeholders, top to bottom and bottom up. Fostering entrepreneurship is not the only or best answer to bringing in different thinkers and using their strengths to help all consumers appreciate a product.
It may be that what ‘inclusionists’ within a company need most are blinders or in other words, the will to not look back at the way things were done, to not look up to leaders pressing or political concerns and to not look away when the pressure of profits bears down on long-term goals.
