THE ART OF SEEING DIFFERENTLY
- Dr El-Karien van der Linde
- Oct 9
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 14
By El-Karien van der Linde
Industrial Psychologist and Executive Consultant
Most leaders believe their biggest challenges are what’s already obvious: the visible strategy gaps, clear process flaws, overt talent shortages. This is especially true for high-velocity organisational environments, where leaders often assume metrics and processes determine success.
But in virtually every organisation we’ve worked with, the real obstacles to performance fester below the surface: unspoken tensions in teams; blind spots in leaders; outdated habits that everyone feels but no one names.
In fact, our work across culture, change, leadership, and organisational design shows that what’s invisible is often infinitely more of a threat than that which is known.
To help leaders and teams see differently, we often employ two powerful tools that have led to some of our greatest breakthroughs: Discover Insights, and LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®.
A powerful, dual pathway
Each of these globally recognised methodologies surfaces a different layer of organisational life – the self and the system. Together, they create a complete picture of the invisible dynamics that, left unaddressed, stall execution, erode trust, and ultimately cost organisations more than any broken system ever could.
As Accredited Discovery Insights Practitioners, TPA uses this methodology as the mirror leaders often avoid. It helps individuals uncover their preferences, strengths, and blind spots. Crucially, it creates a common language that builds empathy, reduces conflict, opens communication, and lays the foundation for trust to grow. Ultimately, Discovery Insights unlocks who we are.
As Certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Practitioners, TPA takes the work further by helping teams surface how groups see themselves. This process reveals their collective strengths, their hidden dynamics, and the patterns that limit progress. It creates a space for dialogue that is honest, human, and safe. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® reveals how we work together.
This dual approach is structured to illuminate both the self and the system.
Seeing differently – in practice
The impact of these tools is not abstract. We’ve seen them arrest dysfunction in real time; the team that walks out of the room is rarely the same one that walked in.
Two recent examples show the power of these approaches.
HDI GLOBAL | Leadership Alignment
The HDI Global executive team, charged with steering the business through an ambitious phase of accelerated growth, arrived fragmented and cautious. There was significant friction beneath the surface – conversations that stopped short, decisions that dragged, and trust that had worn thin. By mapping individual leadership identities through Insights Discovery, each leader confronted their own blind spots and learnt to see difference as a resource, not a threat.
Then, through LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, the team externalised what had long been unspoken. They built models that reflected how they worked together, what constrained them, and what collaboration could look like instead.
A session that began in tension ended in renewal – with visible personal shifts, collective commitments, and a shared code of leadership that restored alignment and trust.
MERIDIAN GROUP | Values Alignment in an African Context
A similar shift unfolded at Meridian, a client in the agricultural sector. The goal was not only to align with its Saudi parent company, Ma’aden, but to make global principles feel local – and lived – in a uniquely African context.
Using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, Meridian’s executive team made strategy tangible through storytelling. Leaders built models representing the values that mattered most to them – care, integrity, ownership, and teamwork – then shared personal stories of where those values showed up in their daily work.
When they combined their models, the landscape that emerged reflected Meridian’s unique African identity: bridges symbolising collaboration, pathways representing growth, and foundations built on care. What began as a technical values exercise became a powerful moment of collective reflection, laughter, and belief.
What both journeys reveal is that performance rarely breaks in the visible layers of an organisation. It fractures in the hidden ones – in the subtle signals leaders overlook, the assumptions that go untested, the tensions that go unnamed.
When teams surface what’s been invisible, alignment, trust, and clarity stop being ideals – they become measurable sources of advantage.
Are you ready to surface what's really holding your organisation back?
The Performance Agency helps leaders and teams uncover the invisible dynamics that limit trust, clarity, and performance. Explore how we can help your organisation turn awareness into alignment – and build the human architecture for lasting impact. Email me at elkarienv@tpasa.co.za.
Dr El-Karien van der Linde is an industrial psychologist and one of TPA's most experienced executive consultants. She holds a Dcom Industrial & Organisational Psycology focused in Industrial and Organisational Psychology.
Read more about El-Karien's other recent projects.
