While working at Thoughtworks, I had the opportunity to design and facilitate a team-building workshop that brought together 60 consultants across five project teams. The goal wasn’t simply to improve collaboration—we wanted to go deeper: to build meaningful relationships that would ripple into how people designed software together.
The Hypothesis
“Valor em software é criado não apenas pelo que as pessoas sabem e fazem, mas também pelos seus relacionamentos e pelo que são capazes de alcançar juntas.”
Software value doesn’t come only from knowledge and execution. It emerges from connections—how people think, feel, trust, and influence each other. That was our north star.
The Setup
Participants were split into five teams and rotated through four short, focused dynamics. Each activity lasted about 10 minutes and tackled a different aspect of team cohesion:
- 🟦 Candy Cards – A rapid icebreaker using color-coded prompts to spark personal storytelling.
- 🟥 Hogwarts Game – A reflective tool to identify behavioral styles based on assertiveness and emotional expressiveness.
- 🟩 Cultivation Meeting – A structured format to share objectives, strengths, and learning goals.
- 🟨 Nossa Próxima Pessoa – A collaborative mapping of opportunities to support the team’s growth by identifying gaps and matching them with internal networks.
Participants were grouped by color and rotated through each activity with facilitation support at every station.
Why Games?
Games let people drop defenses. Each round was crafted not for fun alone, but to mimic deeper dynamics of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. We didn’t talk about these topics—we experienced them.
Here’s a glimpse of what we explored:
VERMELHO: O que você ama no seu trabalho?
AMARELO: Uma meta de vida que você está buscando?
VERDE: Algo que quer aprender?
MARRON: Como você se reenergiza?
AZUL: Algo que achou fera no Away Day?
LARANJA: Sua comida favorita?
These weren’t trivial questions. They invited stories, values, and intentions—unearthing what people bring beyond their tech skills.
Making It Stick
At the end of the session, we reflected: What makes a good product? A good team? Success itself?
Instead of prescribing answers, we worked from a shared truth: “Só podemos falar o que vimos e vivemos.”
This wasn’t a lecture. It was lived. Relationships started that day grew stronger over months. Collaboration got easier. Feedback became natural. Onboarding was faster.
What We Learned
- A team isn’t just an org chart. It’s a living network of expectations, feedback loops, and emotional safety.
- Culture isn’t built by posters or values—it’s built by shared experiences.
- Leadership means designing the conditions for teams to connect—not controlling outputs.
Want to Run Something Similar?
Here’s a sketch of how to adapt the workshop:
# Setup
60 people → 5 teams of 12
4 stations → 10 min each
# Station 1: Candy Cards
Color-coded prompts to share stories
# Station 2: Behavioral Styles
Use Hogwarts Game to reflect on team interactions
# Station 3: Cultivation Meetings
Share strengths, goals, and collaboration needs
# Station 4: Network Mapping
Identify who to connect with next, and how
# Wrap-up
Group reflection on product, team, and success
Final Thought
In fast-paced tech environments, we often invest more in frameworks than in people. But the real velocity gain comes when teams trust each other deeply enough to challenge, support, and build together.
Don’t wait for relationships to form organically. Design for them.
Helio Medeiros Software is a team sport.