Group Grope: Trust

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Surface shared beliefs about workplace trust and negotiate consensus on key factors using structured card trades and visual modeling.

Use it when: Use when starting work on team culture, psychological safety, leadership norms, or workplace agreements.

Skip it when: Skip during acute active interpersonal disputes where trading statements about trust could foster cynicism.

Group arrangement: Individual drafting, whole-room card swapping, then self-selected teams of 3 to 5.

Timing: Thiagi suggests about 40 minutes; structured here as a 35-minute workshop activity.

Materials and tools

• 4 blank index cards per participant
• Pens or pencils for all participants
• At least 20 pre-written Trust Cards (or 2 per participant)
• 1 flip chart sheet or large poster paper per team
• Felt-tipped markers for each team
• Timer or clock
• Shared digital whiteboard and video breakout rooms (for remote or hybrid formats)
• Individual digital devices (for remote or hybrid formats)

Before participants arrive

1. Write statements from the facilitator card bank onto index cards, creating at least two per expected participant.
2. Clear a large central table to hold the discarded card pool.
3. Place blank flip chart paper and markers at group workspaces.

Say this to open

We will explore common beliefs about workplace trust through card trading and visual design. You will write four statements on index cards, trade cards with a central pool and with each other, form teams around shared ideas, and create a wordless poster representing your final three cards.

How to run it

1. Write trust cards 4 minutes

   Speak the opening script. Hand four blank cards and a pen to each participant. Ask each person to write one statement per card about what creates or breaks workplace trust. Statements should reflect common workplace perceptions rather than private confessions. For example: 'A single act of betrayal damages trust forever.'

2. Deal cards and rank 3 minutes

   Collect participant cards and mix them with the pre-written cards. Deal three cards to each person. Spread all remaining cards across the central table. Ask everyone to inspect their three cards in silence and arrange them from most to least credible.

3. Exchange cards at pool 3 minutes

   Direct participants to the central table. Participants may discard cards from their hand and take replacement cards from the pool. Everyone must stay completely silent during this exchange. When time is called, each participant must hold exactly three cards.

4. Trade cards with peers 4 minutes

   End the silence rule. Tell participants to walk around the room, talk with peers, and trade cards to build a hand that best matches their view. Every participant must complete at least one card exchange with another person, finishing with exactly three cards.

5. Form teams and reduce cards 5 minutes

   Ask participants to form teams of 3 to 5 based on shared or compatible cards. Each team pools its cards, discusses them, and agrees on exactly three cards to keep. All members must agree on the final three. Discard the rest to the central table.

6. Draw graphic poster 6 minutes

   Hand flip chart paper and markers to each team. Give teams 6 minutes to draw a poster illustrating their three chosen statements. The poster must not contain any words, letters, or numbers.

7. Present posters and debrief 10 minutes

   Call on each team to show its poster, read its three cards aloud, and explain its imagery in under 60 seconds. Use the final 4 minutes to ask one or two debrief questions to the room, hearing from three or four volunteers.

Debrief questions

• What made you trade away a card or fight to keep one?
• How did your team negotiate the final three cards from everyone's hands?
• Looking across the posters, which patterns or contradictions about workplace trust stand out?

Finished output: A set of three agreed trust statements per team accompanied by a text-free visual poster.

Remote

Run on a shared digital whiteboard. Pre-populate sticky notes with facilitator trust cards in an open pool area. Participants write four statements on individual digital notes, add them to the pool, receive three random notes assigned by the facilitator, browse the pool frame silently to swap cards, trade cards with peers via private chat or breakout rooms, form teams in designated breakout frames, reduce to three cards, and draw a wordless visual using digital sketching shapes.

Hybrid

Every participant uses an individual digital device connected to a shared digital whiteboard. Card pools, peer trading, and visual poster creation occur in designated board frames so remote and in-person colleagues collaborate on equal footing.

Access and participation choices

• Participants who prefer not to draw may serve as card curators or team presenters.
• Participants may write broad workplace observations instead of personal experiences.
• Anyone may pass on speaking during the poster presentation.

If the session gets stuck

One or two participants are left without a team during formation.

Invite unaligned participants to join any team with fewer than 5 members, or group them into a separate team.

A team writes words or explanatory labels directly on their poster.

Remind them that the poster must be entirely visual. Offer a fresh sheet or have them color over the letters.

Terms used here

• Group Grope: A collaborative card-trading and consensus framework where players negotiate cards and build coalitions around shared topics.