Team Building & LEGO Serious Play | Build Better Teams

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you really know the people on your team?

Not just their job title or daily responsibilities, but their hidden strengths, untapped skills, career goals, and what truly motivates them?

In this episode of Build Better Teams, Shannon Russell shares 10 powerful leadership questions that can transform your one-on-one meetings, improve employee engagement, strengthen workplace communication, and help you uncover talents that may already exist within your organization.

As a strategic leadership facilitator and certified LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator, Shannon has worked with organizations across industries and has seen firsthand how asking better questions leads to stronger relationships, more engaged employees, and higher-performing teams.

If you're a manager, executive, HR leader, or business owner looking to improve leadership communication and build a stronger workplace culture, this episode is full of practical ideas you can use immediately.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• Why great leadership starts with curiosity

• How asking better questions improves employee engagement

• The 10 questions every leader should ask their team

• How to uncover hidden skills and untapped talent

• Why psychological safety encourages honest conversations

• How meaningful one-on-one conversations strengthen workplace culture

• Ways to improve communication without another employee survey

• Why hands-on facilitation helps teams think more creatively

Discover how the right questions can unlock better communication, stronger relationships, and more engaged employees.

🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events. 

Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

Is managing your team enough to create a high-performing workplace? Not anymore.

Today's leaders are navigating hybrid work, remote employees, multiple generations in the workplace, AI, and changing employee expectations. Simply managing projects and checking off tasks isn't enough to build engaged, collaborative teams.

In this episode of Build Better Teams Podcast , Shannon Russell explores the difference between management and leadership and shares the five characteristics she sees in every high-performing team she's worked with through leadership retreats, strategic planning sessions, and LEGO® Serious Play® workshops.

If you want stronger communication, better collaboration, and employees who feel connected to your organization's mission, this episode is for you.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• The difference between managing people and leading people

• Why leadership matters more than ever in today's workplace

• The five traits of high-performing teams

• How clear communication improves team performance

• Why psychological safety drives innovation and employee engagement

• How shared experiences strengthen workplace culture

• Why accountability creates ownership instead of micromanagement

• How team-building workshops improve communication long after the event ends

Whether you're an executive, manager, HR leader, entrepreneur, or team leader, you'll walk away with practical leadership strategies you can begin using immediately.

🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events. 

Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession

Does the word networking make you cringe? You're not alone.

For many professionals, networking feels forced, transactional, and awkward. But what if networking wasn't about collecting business cards or making sales? What if it was simply about building meaningful relationships that make you a better leader?

In this episode of Build Better Teams, Shannon Russell explores why networking has earned a bad reputation, how leaders can reframe it as relationship-building, and why expanding your professional community can strengthen your leadership, improve team communication, and create new opportunities for your organization.

Drawing from her own experiences as a business owner, leadership facilitator, speaker, podcast host, and certified LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator, Shannon shares practical ways leaders can build authentic connections that benefit both themselves and their teams.

In This Episode You'll Learn:

• Why networking gets such a bad reputation

• How relationship-building makes you a stronger leader

• Why fresh perspectives improve team innovation and problem-solving

• How networking benefits your employees, not just your career

• Simple conversation starters that create genuine connections

• Why leaders should build their network before they need it

• How generosity builds trust and long-term professional relationships

• Easy ways to grow your professional community online and in person

Whether you're a business owner, manager, executive, entrepreneur, or team leader, this episode will change the way you think about networking and inspire you to build relationships that help both you and your team succeed.

🔗 Learn more about Build Better Teams Consulting and our LEGO Serious Play workshops and events. 

Watch Shannon's TEDx Talk on The Imagination Recession