How a Lego model built damaging headlines

What might trigger the next round of negative media coverage about your organisation?

A £20,000 outlay may seem like an unlikely cause for many organisations.

But for one, that cost has just been described as its “greatest spending blunder yet.”

Reports last week showed that HS2 spent the money building a model station out of Lego.

The toys were used to create a model of Old Oak Common, which is set to be a new transport hub in West London.

The model, made of 15,000 bricks, was built to improve public understanding of the project.

And it suddenly gained lots of media attention, creating headlines that would not have made comfortable reading for those involved in the major infrastructure project.

Leg-d’oh? Or a lot of fuss about nothing?

I’ve seen the argument that it is a non-story.

But context is everything.

The story renews scrutiny of spending on a project that is over budget. And that has been plagued with spending controversies as part of a constant drip feed of bad news.

Only last month, MPs on the public accounts committee described HS2 as “a casebook example of how not to run a major project”.

And a couple of months earlier, it emerged that £100m had been spent protecting a colony of bats.

But let’s get back to the bricks.

The Lego model was constructed by consultants Bricks McGee. Its website says the model has “everything from the trees and pool to a community art wall, cycle lanes, bus stops and taxis.”

A spokesperson for HS2 defended the model by saying it had been seen by “thousands of people”.

The spokesperson said: “Our Lego model of HS2’s Old Oak Common superhub is an informative way to engage local communities, businesses, rail-users and the general public about construction of part of Britain’s new high-speed railway.

“It has been seen by thousands of people since it was commissioned more than two years ago, helping those affected by the build, as well as future passengers, better understand the station.”

So, what crisis communication lessons can you learn from this?

Well, it is another reminder of the importance of keeping crisis comms up to date and assessing different reputational threats.

The model is a relatively low-cost expense in a project where there appear to be no buffers capable of preventing costs from spiralling off track.

But it does not take much imagination to consider how an under-fire organisation effectively spending public money on toys might be presented in the media.

Was the Lego model identified as a risk by HS2? Was it featured in its crisis comms plan? 

During our crisis communication training, we stress the importance of organisations anticipating every impactful issue. And then testing plans and spokespeople against those scenarios.

If we go a little further back in time, another pertinent question would be whether the comms team was involved in the initial idea and had any input.

We often talk about the importance of comms teams having a seat at the top table and the role they can play in spotting potential risks like this before they cause damage.

The other fascinating aspect here is timing.

As HS2 said in its response to the story, the Lego model was commissioned more than two years ago.

So, why has the story come to light now and gained so much attention? HS2 has not only been generating negative coverage in recent times – it has an extensive back catalogue.

In this situation, you might think a Freedom of Information Act request could be the trigger.

But I cannot see any mention of that in the coverage, which is unusual.

Could it have come from a disgruntled former employee looking to stir the pot instead? We can’t be sure.

But that would seem like a strong possibility with the time that had elapsed before this became a story.

It's often the cause of damning stories. And it is why disgruntled employees must not be overlooked in crisis comms plans. They must feature just as prominently as other causes, like workplace accidents, IT failures, product recalls and natural disasters.

What else can you learn from this story?

There is a line in much of the HS2 Lego coverage that grabbed my attention.

In many articles, the model is described as being “around the size of a kitchen table”.

Whatever you think about the model and the coverage it sparked, that is a brilliant example of how to bring numbers to life in the media, something often discussed during our media training sessions. 

15,000 Lego bricks sounds like a lot.

But it is hard to visualise. And numbers alone are not particularly easy to remember.

The comparison to an everyday household item overcomes those barriers and brings the scale to life.

And that is something positive spokespeople and comms professionals can take from this latest high-speed PR disaster.

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