Case Study
At first glance this sounds painfully boring.
No one wants to spend their retreat estimating drywall costs.
So instead, teams pitched spaghetti bridges, dodged laser shooting penguins and connected LEGO systems.
Construction projects rely on many different specialties working together across multiple phases. Yet most employees only see the portion of the project that directly relates to their role.
For the retreat, the client wanted an experience that would help employees understand how each phase connects and how different roles contribute to the success of a project.
Instead of recreating real construction work, the game translated the phases of a construction project into metaphorical team challenges.
Teams progressed through five phases of a project:
Business Development
Design & Preconstruction
Project Start Up
The Build
Project Close Out
Instead of pitching the actual company, teams drew absurd scenarios — like a spaghetti bridge or a penguin skyscraper — and pitched them as real projects. Teams still practiced storytelling and persuasion, but the ridiculous premise made the challenge fair and hilarious for everyone.
Instead of estimating the cost of a real project, teams estimated things like the number of gumballs in a machine. The important part was defending their reasoning — mirroring how teams justify estimates during real project planning.
Instead of a traditional trust fall, teams designed the safest possible trust fall with the least amount of risk and demonstrated it in a short video. This captured the core idea of safety thinking: assess risk, engineer solutions, protect people.
In the final phase, teams used LEGO pieces to construct components of a larger system. Each team was responsible for a specific element. To complete the challenge, they had to connect their build with other teams' systems.
Business Development
Teams delivered an elevator pitch for absurd projects like spaghetti bridges or penguin skyscrapers. The challenge kept the structure of a real pitch while making it accessible and entertaining.
Design & Preconstruction
Teams estimated the number of gumballs in a container and defended their reasoning. The goal wasn't guessing correctly — it was demonstrating logical thinking.
Project Start Up
Teams discussed quirky prompts about preferences and personality, then created a team photo representing those insights. A creative exercise revealing how teams interpret requirements.
The Build
Each team constructed a LEGO system component. To finish, teams had to connect their system to another team's build to create a unified project. This moment often triggered a shift from "our team" to "the project."
Teams began in the Business Development phase
Poster puzzles and mobile challenges unlocked new tasks
Teams progressed through project phases around the room
The final phase required connecting LEGO systems with other teams
The event ended with a leaderboard reveal and highlight video
Poster-based puzzles placed around the room
Mobile app challenges submitted through iPads
Team photo and video missions
Collaborative building challenges
A final shared build experience
Leaderboard reveal and wrap-up video
A fun and engaging team event
A deeper understanding of how different roles contribute to a project
Cross-department collaboration
Participants left with a clearer picture of how their work fits into the bigger project lifecycle. The game became one of the highlights of the retreat and is now being explored as a potential training tool for cross-department collaboration.
The Project Close Out phase was designed so teams could not finish alone. While teams initially built their own LEGO systems, the final points were only awarded when their system physically connected with another team's build. This forced a sudden shift from "us vs. them" to "one company."
It did. The conference WiFi was unreliable and caused some uploads to remain pending on the iPads. Our event leads stayed on-site after the event, manually checking every device and using personal hotspots to ensure that every team's submissions were captured and preserved for the final recap.
Yes. Using poster challenges combined with mirrors and cipher keys, we turned the ballroom into a physical puzzle environment that didn't rely solely on digital screens. This allowed the entire room to function as a giant game board.
The game ran for approximately 100 minutes.
19 teams competed during the event.
Yes. The entire experience was designed around the phases of a construction project.
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