What a Team Icebreaker Revealed About Who We Really Are
At our April 27th virtual retreat, I gave the Steel in the Air team an unusual assignment. Each person was paired with a colleague and asked to use AI to build a creative representation of that person — a trading card, action figure, poem, superhero profile, or short story. The only rules: keep it positive, focus on strengths, and light humor is fair game.
The secondary objective was just as intentional. I wanted everyone to actually use AI for something low-stakes, work through any friction that came with it, and let the creative constraint do the teaching.
I think the entire team enjoyed the exercise more than I expected they would.
The level of thought people put into their assigned teammates was immediately obvious. Debbie turned me into a SITA-series trading card — legendary rarity, naturally — complete with a cycling photo that makes me look like I'm descending a technical rock face at speed. I appreciated it. My actual rides are considerably more civilized. Gypsy became a D&D-style Flow Architect, complete with a passive ability called "Oracle of Unread" drawing on her legendary 41,234 unread emails, and a Wisdom stat she clearly earned. Gypsy turned Teresa into a collector's edition action figure with a Vivacious Voice Chip and five fun phrases. Teresa wrote Michele a poem. It landed exactly right. And Michele captured Debbie — cats, YouTube rabbit holes, infinite curiosity, and all.
That's harder than it sounds in a virtual company.
When your entire team operates remotely, it's easy to lose sight of the human on the other side of the email, Teams without video, and the shared documents. You interact with outputs — tasks completed, questions answered, problems flagged — and the person behind those outputs can quietly fade into the background. This exercise pushed back against that.
We're sharing the cards and the poem here, along with one reaction from each team member, because we think they say something true about this team and the culture we've built. Not as a pitch. Just as a window.
Ken Schmidt — The Cell Tower Crusader
Created by: Debbie
Gypsy Mims — The Flow Architect
Created by: Ken
Teresa — The CRM Commander
Created by: Gypsy
Michele — A Poem
Created by: Teresa
A decade of leases, a mountain of files,
Michele handles chaos with focus and smiles.
Where others see clutter and fine-print confusion,
She finds the hidden truth and the right conclusion.
But look past the data, the spreadsheets, and charts,
To the unwavering faith that she holds in her heart.
With a compass of spirit and a soul full of light,
She is the first in the room to stand up for what's right.
She'll face down a giant, she won't bend or sway,
If justice or kindness are leading the way.
A warrior for truth with a backbone of steel,
Her strength is as quiet as it is truly real.
Yet for all of her strength, there's a hand she'll extend,
To a teammate in need or a struggling friend.
She'll drop what she's doing to listen and stay,
Chasing the clouds and the worries away.
From the pace of the game to the assessment of land,
You know exactly where Michele will stand.
A colleague, a mentor, a pillar of grace,
Who champions camaraderie and brightens this space.
Debbie — The Curious and Cat-Loving Colleague
Created by: Michele
