Learning and development leaders know that the most powerful training experiences are the ones that change how people think. In the latest Training Impact Podcast episode, Jolynn Ledgerwood of Elevate Your Talent joins Jeff Walter to share how creativity, neuroscience, and tactile engagement can unlock new problem-solving abilities in teams. Her work offers a refreshing perspective for organizations trying to strengthen collaboration, drive alignment, and create learning experiences that cut through stagnant thinking.
Jolynn brings more than 25 years of experience across hospitality, consumer goods, retail, professional services, IT, and cybersecurity. Throughout her career, she has held roles that placed her at the forefront of team development, coaching, and training design. These experiences eventually led her to launch Elevate Your Talent, a firm grounded in the belief that adults learn best when they are fully engaged, emotionally safe, and given opportunities to think with both their hands and their minds. The approach blends CliftonStrengths with LEGO Serious Play, a methodology designed to activate new areas of the brain and invite deeper insights.
Much of modern workplace training relies on linear, left-brain thinking. Slide decks, long lectures, and static conversations often leave participants disengaged and disconnected. Jolynn introduces a very different approach. By using LEGO Serious Play, she helps teams tap into the prefrontal cortex and unlock creative thinking that traditional methods rarely activate. She explains that when people build with their hands, they can access nearly eighty percent more brain power than they would in a standard meeting environment. Physical building allows learners to visualize concepts, express obstacles, and surface insights that are difficult to articulate verbally.
This shift matters because many teams come to Elevate Your Talent when they feel stuck. They may be facing intractable strategic challenges, cross-department friction, stalled collaboration, or uncertainty about how to navigate change. With bricks on the table, the conversation becomes less about defending personal opinions and more about exploring ideas from multiple angles. People build models that represent goals, anxieties, or structural barriers, and through guided reflection they begin to see patterns, opportunities, and new paths forward.
During the conversation, Jeff and Jolynn explore examples from organizations that used LEGO Serious Play to break down silos, enhance communication, or evaluate the ripple effects of policy or market changes. Educators used the method to map how shifts in state funding could influence classrooms, budgets, and student experience. Corporate teams used it to identify previously unseen blind spots in their service delivery. Even sales teams, often difficult to keep focused during long workshops, became more engaged when given something tactile to work with.
For learning and development professionals, this approach offers more than novelty. It supports a deeper level of reflection and equips teams with a shared language. Instead of relying on abstract conversation, learners anchor discussions around physical models. This enables more honest conversations and reduces the defensiveness that often blocks progress. It also supports adult learning principles by creating active involvement, concrete experience, and opportunities for self-directed discovery.
While LEGO Serious Play is powerful inside corporate environments, Jeff and Jolynn also explore how tactile learning elevates training in distributed networks. Franchise systems, dealer programs, and channel ecosystems often struggle with alignment, communication, and expectations. Learners are adults with varied experience levels, diverse motivations, and real-world business pressures. Many training programs in these environments blend prework with instructor-led workshops, mirroring Stage 1 Library and Stage 2 Knowledge Acquisition from the LatitudeLearning Training Program Roadmap.
Hands-on learning complements these stages. During onboarding, franchisees and partner teams can use LEGO Serious Play to articulate goals, identify perceived risks, and visualize the relationship between their own business and the broader brand. The method encourages clarity and questions, helping providers uncover hidden misconceptions before they lead to performance issues. This aligns closely with strategies outlined in extended enterprise training, customer training, and franchise training resources. It also matches the knowledge-acquisition best practices that emphasize active engagement, relevance, and real-world context.
One of the most memorable parts of the conversation comes near the end. Jolynn reminds listeners that adults often lose their sense of play far too early in life. The transition from elementary school to adulthood brings fewer opportunities to explore, create, and experiment. Yet play is not frivolous. It enables creativity, strengthens resilience, and helps people access broader cognitive resources. The quote she shares from Mary Poppins captures it perfectly: in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. When learners rediscover fun and creativity, they unlock new potential.
For organizations seeking to improve performance, this is more than a feel-good idea. It is a strategic advantage. When adults are encouraged to think with their hands, they approach problems with more imagination. They collaborate more willingly and articulate their thinking more clearly. They see possibilities instead of roadblocks. And they remember what they learn.
Elevate Your Talent offers learning leaders a powerful blend of coaching, strengths development, and tactile problem solving. The methodology fits naturally in strategic planning sessions, team workshops, leadership development, onboarding, and external partner training. Whether the challenge is unlocking creativity, improving communication, or breaking through complex obstacles, the approach gives organizations a structured way to access deeper thinking.
Listeners who want to understand how creativity intersects with modern training will find this conversation insightful, energizing, and full of practical applications. And for those who want a detailed look at how Elevate Your Talent structures its training, supports different learner types, and applies LatitudeLearning best practices, the companion case study provides a deeper technical breakdown.
The Elevate Your Talent episode is a reminder that learning is not just about information transfer. It is about activating human potential. LEGO Serious Play and strengths-based coaching help individuals and teams see their challenges in new ways and discover solutions that would remain hidden through traditional training. For organizations navigating complexity or trying to build stronger cultures, this creative and research-informed approach offers a compelling model.
🎧 To explore the full conversation, listen to the Training Impact Podcast episode featuring Jolynn Ledgerwood of Elevate Your Talent.
📄 Download the companion case study: Elevate Your Talent – A Creative Approach to Modern Learning and Organizational Transformation
🌐 Learn more about Elevate Your Talent on their website https://elevateyourtalent.co/
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