This article details two cycles of interventions and reflection in various executive development contexts led by the authors as facilitator/consultants. Their hunch that changing the constraints of strategy processes would also change the content generated was tested by changing the typical mode of work to that of 'serious play' and modifying the usual medium from verbal, computer and two-dimensional text and graphic by the introduction of 3-D media (LEGO bricks). The authors examine the potential for using serious play in the particular organizational challenge of making strategy, and highlight the capacity of 'action research' to contribute simultaneously to both academic understanding and practical value. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.