Last year, Lego (which means “play well”) surpassed Mattel with $2.1B in revenues in the first half of 2015. Lately, Lego has been in the press for their unique views on leadership.  Jorgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO of Lego has a great quote about failure:

“Blame is not for the failure: it is for failing to help or ask for help.”

This book, “Small Data: The Tiny Clues that Uncover Huge Trends” (see review here) focuses on the danger of conventional wisdom assumptions.  The article talks about how Lego made a strategic decision not to be easier (with bigger pieces), but actually get more complicated (with smaller pieces, complex configurations) because they realized that children got more satisfaction from their symbols of achievement and being the best at something difficult.

This strategy of how they view play,  coupled with the philosophy on asking for help is a powerful combination.  Isn’t that we all want: to achieve great, difficult objectives with the ability to give and ask for help?