Team Building—University Case Study
A public university's student life division wanted colleagues across departments to build stronger, more trusting relationships—not through another mandatory mixer, but something more intentional. Forty-three staff members submitted more than 180 photographs in response to a single prompt: how do you experience and express gratitude? A half-day workshop incorporated visual storytelling in small groups. Participants reported that the experience deepened relationships more in a single morning than ordinary interactions had in the past.
What’s Gratitude Got to Do with Work?
University divisions with large teams that mostly see each other in passing meetings and hallway hellos carry a familiar kind of distance: colleagues who've worked in parallel without really knowing each other. A student life division at a public university recognized that pattern in its own team and wanted something more intentional than the usual all-staff mixer to close the gap.
The discovery and design process led to the theme of gratitude. Weeks before the team’s off-site, every staff member was asked to compose two or three photos representing how they experience or express gratitude in daily life—nothing rehearsed, no agenda, just show us what you’re thankful for.
On the day of the workshop itself, forty-three staff members gathered around tables of six with their printed photographs in hand. After a short warmup activity, these small groups followed the Reframe & Develop visual storytelling process—a paced format built around clear communication agreements, giving each person real, protected time to share the story behind their photo while others simply listened.
Afterward, each group processed the experience together: what they held in common, what feelings and insights they encountered, and what they hoped to carry forward. Then everyone chose one or two photos, taped them to sheets of paper and added short handwritten captions. Their co-created gallery invited the whole group to reflect on and remember what had unfolded.
“Photovoicing was an enriching experience to be part of. A photo is worth a thousand words—and then some. The deep opportunity to share more about ourselves was great.”
Participants described an important shift, one that was evident in the post-workshop survey. What people identified as most valuable was the relationships it opened up, especially with colleagues outside their usual day-to-day team. Several participants wanted more time, and more chances to connect beyond the people at their small group, which revealed an appetite for more, not necessarily a critique of the workshop—it’s a common refrain across Reframe & Develop’s work.
Without this kind of structure, an all-staff gathering this size can too easily default to the familiar: predictably clustered co-workers, mingling that stays surface-level, and conversations that circle back to work updates. Instead, colleagues shared meaningful parts of their lives and left with new levels of trust, understanding, and appreciation for one another.
Beyond the Frame
The prompt behind this workshop wasn't arbitrary. Decades of research in positive psychology has found that people who regularly reflect on what they're grateful for report less burnout, more optimism, and a more resilient outlook overall. That research shaped the choice of prompt for this workshop: gratitude isn’t just a pleasant theme, but one with real evidence behind why it opens people up rather than closing them down.
Asking a room full of co-workers to share photos and swap stories about gratitude does something important: it changes how people see each other and equips staff with social and emotional resources for resilience.
Ready to see what this could look like for your team?
Build a workplace culture where teams trust one another more deeply, employees communicate with greater understanding, and everyone collaborates more effectively across differences—that's a culture built through intention, not by accident.