Just Imagine with Benezir Phoebe Benta 💭
Just imagine driving a vibrant and buzzing community that is a diverse melting pot where creatives and non-creatives are empowered to bring their authentic selves that inspire our business. Each one of them special in their own way. Then imagine it’s your job to create a sense of community they can all feel part of. Benezir Phoebe Benta is thriving on this challenge and helping the LEGO® Design organisation take shape.
“My role is brand new to LEGO Design, the parts were already here but it made sense to bring the various strands together into one. It means we’ve grown from over 200 people to around about 560 with over 54 nationalities represented, that’s amazing! I am on a journey of facilitating and creating a sense of community, which is an exciting opportunity for me to be leading on. Finding out what community means for all in LEGO Design and what brings us together energises me every day.
“We’ve covered a lot of ground but this is a journey, not a race. We’ve found ways to innovate and drive a creative community through events like Creative Boost. Everyone in LEGO Design takes the week to focus on developing innovative design solutions for products, concepts, and play experiences. At the end of the week, all the ideas are presented at a Creative Boost Exhibition and reviewed by the LEGO Design Leadership Team, with the possibility to go into further development or be absorbed into existing projects.
“I have a mantra. It’s a simple expression of why we’re all here and runs through LEGO Design: ‘we nurture and celebrate our creative culture’. It’s an ideal we all need to share. It’s something we orientate ourselves around. For me, community is all about having a safe space, where everyone feels included and recognised - and that begins with knowing who each of us is and what that means.
"Living this includes our new initiative, “Belonging Begins with Us: a LEGO Design Journey,” an ongoing initiative focused on cultivating a culture of inclusion and belonging in LEGO Design. Building a more inclusive future is not just about a one-off event, but about creating ongoing opportunities for reflection, dialogue, learning, and action. It’s about having an open-mind and being receptive to new ideas and change. Or as simple as just sitting down and sharing a coffee. The point is to come together, to listen and learn.
“Every day is a school day for me. Especially as I’m still only less than two years into my role. But this is a learning organisation which has a lot of history. 90 years of it in fact. I’m a very curious person working for a brand that thrives on this quality. So, for me, having the freedom to experiment and being able to collaborate with all these incredibly talented people is an amazing experience. It is a little bit about trial and error. But if you don’t try, you don’t know, right? This seems very rooted in the LEGO values. To be successful in my role, I have to listen to the feedback people have been brave enough and cared enough to share.
"You know, in the same way, all the various parts of LEGO Design already existed, so do the parts of the culture and community that we’re binding together. We have such strong values, we share such a powerful sense of purpose in what we all do, and the threads are already there. We’re simply weaving them together into a new pattern - one that everyone is bought into. Not to conform in any way, but to share. That’s the important difference here.
“So when we decided to create a LEGO Design sweatshirt, for instance, all the vibrant colours of the LEGO bricks were represented. When we picked a day for us all to wear them, it was a way to celebrate a sense of community. Communities are at their best when they allow individuality to fly and everyone is taking and giving at the same time. It’s a small thing. But what is a community if not a group of smaller things coming together in a way that makes everyone grow? That’s what we’re all about, our North Star: Nurture & Celebrate our Diverse Creative Design Culture.”
Just imagine creating a new way to play.
Now make it real.
Join the LEGO® team today