It is not a secret that the Association of Master Trainers are not alone in delivering facilitator training programs in the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® method

There is a number of others in that market, some who has been around for a while, new ones coming in and hoping to capitalize on the last years development, some more or less intentionally re-writing or re-interpreting the history that we lived, some trying to re-think how the training can or should be delivered.

This blog is not meant to argue for one type of training or for why we believe it takes four days (see here for why), even less is the intention to whine about people doing the sessions shorter, cheaper or in a different format. All of this is good, and healthy for the market.

It means that we are constantly challenged to make certain that we deliver value for the time and money people are investing in us and our training. AND, more importantly, this extended choice is good for all the coaches and facilitators, who may feel they have less time and money to invest (and who, I would of course argue, are looking for a different return ?)

Alas, other trainers in the market means that we need to be on our toes, that we need to question our-selves and how we work. Otherwise how can we stay relevant, and trust me, after doing this for 18 year, it is our intention to stay relevant.

However, when you ask your-self the question: “Are we relevant and do we deliver?”, then you also look for answers from the outside, and this blog was actually inspired by a rather interesting confirmation from a few months back:

In short, what happened was that in a country in South America, which one shall remain unsaid, a person posted an update on LinkedIn. It seemed that he had just completed a facilitator training with a trainer from the Association of Master-Trainers, so he proudly posted a picture of his new diploma.

The only problem was what the diploma was fake! It was in many ways a well-made fake diploma. The lay-out was almost exactly the way it should be, and perhaps we had not caught up with it so fast if it was not for the signature: It was allegedly signed by one of our trainers, who rather sadly and unexpected had passed away several months before he was supposed to have signed the diploma.

Naturally, we immediately contacted the culprit, he admitted his transgression, removed all posts, apologized deeply and we decided to leave the matter at that.

Despite the reminder of the tragic and untimely death of a dear friend and excellent trainer, we found this to be a confirmation that we are still doing the right thing:

As long as people copy you – you know exactly where they are: Two steps behind