Back to search

Playing to win

2025-1-LT02-KA153-YOU-0002993382025Mobility of youth workersongoing
Countries: LT|MT|AT|EL|ES|CY|FI|PL|EE · Grant: €27,873
Quality and innovation of youth workNew learning and teaching methods and approaches

Objectives

In today’s rapidly evolving and competitive landscape, organisations must navigate complex challenges and seize emerging opportunities to remain relevant and thrive. A well-crafted strategy is essential because it provides a clear roadmap for making deliberate choices that drive long-term success. Without a good strategy, organisations risk spreading themselves too thin, chasing every opportunity without focus, or failing to differentiate themselves from competitors. Strategy is not about doing everything; it is about making bold, informed trade-offs to define where to play and how to win. By aligning aspirations, capabilities, and resources, a strong strategy empowers organisations to create unique value, foster sustainable growth, and achieve a meaningful impact in their chosen market (Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin). A good strategy is not an exception for youth organisations. Whether a youth organisation trying to advocate for a specific minority of young people, create participation spaces, provide trainings, encourage peace-building or contribute to youth work in any other way, it is crucial to be aware of how youth organisation learns and develops towards its mission. In doing so, youth organsations should plan strategically and fully understand how to make the most out of opportunities (Organisational trajectories of learning and development in the European youth programmes, RAY-LEARN, 2024). Youth work in its many forms has always had to adapt to variable and changing contexts; the risk of ever attempting a precise formulation of youth work as a practice is that external expectations of its role – from young people on one side and those who support it through funding and advocacy on the other – may rapidly change. Various researches (RAY-LEARN, 2024, RAN Thematic event, Vienna 2022, Cornerstone Challenges for European Youth Work and Youth Work in Europe Making the Connections and Bridging the Gaps, 2020) suggest that youth organisations still face several significant challenges in strategic thinking - financial instability, attracting and retaining people, human resource limitations, administrative and bureaucratic burdens, managing growth and sustainability, knowledge loss and internal communication, balancing coherence and flexibility, dependence on external programs. Moreover, due to the speed of technological advancement, youth organisations of every shape and size increasingly require skilled youth workers who can think strategically and creatively to troubleshoot youth issues and find the right solutions quickly. Thus, with this project we want to support youth organisations' organisational development which directly leads to quality of youth work. To do this we suggest an innovative tool LEGO SERIOUS PLAY method which was originally developed to facilitate the strategy development function of the Lego Company and since then has been applied in many other well know companies such as IKEA; Virgin Atlantic; Samsung; Microsoft, Google etc and proved itself as a well-working method in strategy development (Lego® Serious Play® as a Business Innovation enabler, 2018, White Paper on LEGO ® SERIOUS PLAY A state of the art of its applications in Europe, LEGO® Serious Play® in management education, 2023). The initial aim of the project is to equip youth organisations involving youth organisations' management teams with strategy development tool - LEGO SERIOUS PLAY - to support organisational development by promoting active participation and ownership of the outcomes and in such way support quality youth work. Its hands-on approach will help youth workers and organisations address challenges, develop innovative solutions, and engage young people in meaningful ways (i.e. active participants, problem-solving, creativity etc). The objectives of the project: 1. Introduce participants to organisational development and learning (theoretical input). 2. Equip participants with meaningful techniques of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY to build youth organisation's strategy to support organisation development and quality youth work. 3. To implement dissemination activities and promote innovative strategy development methodologies related to youth organisations growth.

Project partners (9)