Lego's Mission and Vision Sets the Bar

Play Well. 

Lego is one of my favorite companies.  It is most likely THE favorite company. 

Before I knew what a mission statement was and before I knew what computers were, I had a box of jumbled Lego bricks that could be...anything. 

This is back before the internets were in every home...when the Lego kits were pretty basic.  It was fun to build them.  And, even more, fun to take them apart again and rebuild something new.

Lego's, Voltron (Defender of the Universe) became my favorite cartoon show vehicle/character.

Whether it was a "better" Voltron, aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway, or Star Wars space ships and/or corrals for my horses.  I think I was 8 when I thought I would submit to Lego a new design for a Voltron kit.  Unfortunately,  I became worn out half way through the process of documenting that 18-inch bad boy with a pencil...but, the plastic was certainly cast at that point.   I loved building products, I just didn't know it yet.

A few years later, when I started programming, my mental model was Lego bricks.

Today, under the covers of ResultMaps, we use abstractions based on object orientation and a combination of our own ideas and open source frameworks. And to this day, when I code, when I architect, when I problem-solve, I see myself fitting the bricks together, rearranging them until...click. 

It should be no surprise that their history is one of incredible resilience and innovation, or that they are driven by a clear vision and mission.  

Play well, indeed.