Michael J. Tews Jr.
Make It Real. Make It Stick.
State College, Pennsylvania, United States
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1. Michael is an associate professor in Penn State's School of Hospitality Management.
2. He has a Ph.D. from Cornell University and a master's degree from the London School of Economics.
3. He's been teaching human resource management for more than twenty years.
4. He's published 74 refereed journal articles, including twenty about fun at work.
5. Much of his research comes back to the same question. What makes people connect, and why do those connections matter?
6. His workshops involve LEGO, Jenga, and difficult workplace decisions.
7. Participants build, play, compare perspectives, and occasionally disagree.
8. He's led workshops for hospitality leaders, educators, and students in the United States and Europe.
9. He once presented his work with MiniCandidate to Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
10. He's spent much of his career studying how people learn.
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Building Connections with LEGO Serious Play
People work together every day without necessarily getting to know one another.
This workshop gives them a chance to do that.
Participants build LEGO models, share the stories behind them, and discover things about the people around them.
Designed for teams, retreats, and groups getting to know one another, the experience creates space for shared laughter, unexpected similarities, and a better appreciation of what makes each person different.
Build something.
Get to know someone.
MiniCandidate: See the Whole Person
MiniCandidate starts with a table of LEGO pieces.
Working in small groups, participants build characters without knowing what the pieces represent.
They name their characters and use decoders to discover their characters' working styles, performance histories, and personal circumstances.
Then come decisions.
In Who Gets Grace?, participants manage a six-person team. They decide who needs support, who gets their limited mentoring time, and who deserves a promotion.
They explain their choices and compare decisions with other groups.
Why did one person get another chance while someone else didn't?
MiniCandidate can be adapted for leadership development, hiring, and conversations about diversity and inclusion.
Relational Stagecraft: Working Through Difficult Workplace Moments
Difficult workplace conversations rarely go exactly as planned.
In Relational Stagecraft, participants sit around a table, take assigned roles, and read two versions of the same workplace scene.
No acting or improvisation required.
The people are the same.
The problem is the same.
The manager responds differently.
After each reading, participants write down what they noticed and compare their reactions.
Who got support? Who was left carrying the problem? What did the rest of the team see?
The exercise gives participants a chance to examine difficult management decisions without putting their own workplace conflicts on display.
The moment ends.
The working relationship continues.
Michael J. Tews Jr.
Make It Real. Make It Stick.
State College, Pennsylvania, United States
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