When people talk about team building, their minds often run to spectacular images: whitewater rafting, escape rooms, mountain climbing. Yet the truth is that the heart of team building is much simpler: it’s about making connections.
I have been fortunate to experience teamwork in many different contexts.
I have experienced teamwork in very different contexts. I started in a start-up, programming side by side with other developers, learning how essential direct and daily collaboration was to grow a project. I then spent over 13 years in IT consulting, moving from developer to business analyst, project manager, product owner, delivery manager, team lead, and in 2018-19 Head of Analytics & AI at Atos Switzerland. There I saw firsthand how data and artificial intelligence could become powerful tools, but only when supported by teams capable of communicating and working effectively together.
For the past 3 years, I have been working as a Senior Agile Coach at Sunrise, helping teams and management improve collaboration, find focus, and build a more effective and sustainable work environment.
In parallel, I run CucinaLi, my project dedicated to food and gelato, which over the years has also become a way to design and deliver team building experiences: cooking together as a metaphor for collaboration, creativity, and coordination.
In all these worlds I have found that the principle is always the same: when you know the people you work with better, you work better.
Not just roles, but people
Psychology reminds us of this with the Johari Window: each of us has a part known to ourselves and others, a hidden part and a blind area, that is, aspects that others see of us but we do not perceive. Team building means opening these windows, sharing more, breaking down invisible barriers.
When a colleague stops being “the project manager” and becomes “Marco, the one who goes hiking every weekend,” the relationship changes. There is better collaboration, more confident discussion, and even conflicts become more manageable.
When team building makes a difference
I have seen team building make a difference in at least three situations:
- A new team that needs to accelerate mutual acquaintance
- A conflict that requires stopping for a moment and restarting from more human connections
- An annual ritual, useful now more than ever in a hybrid world, where we see each other a little remotely and a little in the office, and need a time to strengthen ties
In all these cases, team building is not a luxury, but an accelerator: it creates the fertile ground for better collaboration.
You don’t always need a big event
Sometimes all it takes is 15 minutes at the beginning of a workshop. A small game to break the ice, a light activity that puts you in a good mood or opens the mind before a brainstorming session.
Some examples I use often:
- The common ground – An imaginary line is drawn from 1 to 10 with two extremes (e.g., “morning person” or “nocturnal animal”). Everyone positions themselves along the line and then talks with their neighbors for a minute: commonalities easily emerge.
- Question bingo – A grid is distributed with simple questions and some curious ones (e.g., “Who has run a marathon?”, “Who has tried a strange ice cream flavor?”). Participants have to find colleagues who match the boxes. An excuse to talk to everyone.
- Rock-paper-scissors with cheerleader – A quick energizer: rock-paper-scissors is played in pairs. The loser becomes a cheerleader for the winner and follows him or her into subsequent rounds. Eventually a final round is created with two players and a loud cheering audience.
These are quick games, but they have a real impact: they bring out smiles, connections and a different climate for working together.
Culinary team building in Ticino
The kitchen is an ideal terrain for team building. Cooking together requires listening, coordination, and managing the unexpected. It is the perfect metaphor for what is also needed in business.
Therefore, with CucinaLi I offer team building experiences in Ticino: from simpler formats that focus on conviviality to more structured one-day team building like Collab & Cucina.
In Collab & Cucina, there is more than just cooking. Teams work together as in a real project-from creating a menu to developing a food truck concept. In the end, in addition to a memorable experience, you take home concrete tools to collaborate better at work as well.
Full interview (in Italian)
You can listen to my full interview with ReteUno dedicated to the topic of team building here:
In conclusion, team building in Ticino is not an “extra,” but an investment in the quality of relationships. Because whether it is in front of a blackboard full of post-it notes or a pot of risotto, the real magic happens when people feel part of something together.
Looking for an original business of Team building in Ticino or the Zurich area? Take a look at the offers from this page !
- Gelato Project v10.3 - 30 November 2025
- Gelato Project Open Lab - 28 November 2025
- Halloween Special Offer: Gelato Project Forever - 29 October 2025
