Santiago Jaramillo’s Post

I almost forgot how much I love being in front of a whiteboard with a team that cares deeply about their work. We just held our Q2 planning offsite in Indy. First time all of Pragmatico has been under one roof. We covered a lot of ground. Client delight. Market strategy. Product roadmap. Team and culture. But the moment I keep coming back to: The Personal Operating Manual exercise. There's a version of team-building that's fun and forgettable. And then there's the kind that invites people to be honest, and you watch the whole room lean in. Everyone answered five prompts (credit to Adam Weber for these). Privately in writing first, then out loud with the group: 1. I’m at my best when… 2. I get derailed when… 3. A pattern I know about myself (for better or worse)... 4. You’ll know I’m under pressure when… 5. The most useful way to support or challenge me is… You learn things about people in this exercise that months of Slack conversations and meetings never surface. You also hear yourself say things out loud that you've never quite put into words. We're building something big here. But the quality of what we build is directly tied to how well we work together. The Personal Operating Manual creates depth of shared understanding between our individual styles and proactively improves the quality of our collaboration. Feeling incredibly grateful for this team and energized for Q2! Anyone else love in-person all-team planning as much as I do? What’s the best “team exercise” you’ve seen at an offsite?