Backwards Bicycling, LLC is owned by Heidi Spangler, an innovative executive with over 25 years of experience working with business-to-business media companies on strategies to engage audiences with content. After years of consulting, she realized that a universal problem among clients was the lack of planning and productive discussion prior to committing to a project. Certified in the LEGO® Serious Play® method and materials, Heidi is able to work with teams to get to the heart of the discussion which leads to stronger planning, project execution, and team relationships. She is an asset to clients in facilitating strategic discussions, team-building workshops, and conference event sessions.

Her firm, Backwards Bicycling, focuses on forward-thinking communications strategies for businesses and individuals. She helps teams find solutions to strategic questions using the LEGO® Serious Play® method and materials to unlock hidden and new knowledge and break habitual ways of thinking. Through this method, she facilitates meaningful business discussions that engage your team and encourage effective communication. Everyone in the room participates and everyone in the room reflects. Her workshops encourage 100% participation from all members of the group, changing “lean backwards meetings” to “lean forward meetings”, where the result is more participation, more insights surfaced, more engagement, and a more positive experience for all involved.

The LEGO® Serious Play® methodology is a unique process designed to enhance innovation and business performance. Based on research which shows that this kind of hands-on, minds-on learning produces a deeper, more meaningful understanding of the world and its possibilities, the LEGO® Serious Play® methodology deepens the reflection process and supports an effective dialogue – for everyone in the organization. The LEGO® Serious Play® method (LSP) is a facilitated thinking, communication and problem solving technique for use with organizations, teams and individuals. It draws on extensive research from the fields of business, organizational development, psychology and learning, and is based on the concept of “hand knowledge.” LEGO® Serious Play® is based on a set of fundamental beliefs about leadership and organizations.

• • Leaders don’t have all the answers
  • Their success is dependent on hearing all voices in the room
  • People naturally want to contribute, be part of something bigger, and take ownership
  • All too often, teams work sub-optimally leaving knowledge untapped in team members
  • We live in a world which best can be described as complex and adaptive and allowing each member to contribute and speak out results in a more sustainable group structure