SPIC Exploding Feedback Case Study: A Feedback Culture Gamified in 5 Weeks

[IMAGE 1, hero] Alt text: “Materials of the SPIC Exploding Feedback program: feedback-retribution cards, illustrated Mission Guide for energy operator employees, and the yellow-blue program visual identity” Filename suggested: case-spic-exploding-feedback-hero.jpg

TL;DR: In its climate survey, SPIC Brasil (energy and infrastructure) identified that employees wanted to strengthen the feedback culture. SkilLab responded on two fronts: a physical-digital card game for structured feedback delivery, and a 5-week gamified online + offline action with missions that turned feedback into daily practice. A Mission Guide and cards form the program system.

SPIC Brasil is the Brazilian subsidiary of SPIC (State Power Investment Corporation), operating in energy generation. The operation combines technical teams (engineering, plant operations, maintenance) with corporate and management teams, in a culturally complex context of an international joint venture with Brazilian regulatory components.

Client and Challenge

SPIC Brasil runs periodic climate surveys, like many energy operations. In one specific round, the company identified a symptom with uncommon clarity: employees explicitly expressed interest in improving feedback culture. They did not ask for “training on feedback.” They asked the company to create conditions so feedback would be daily practice, not an annual performance-review event.

The distinction matters. Training on feedback addresses knowledge about the topic. Feedback culture requires habit, routine, naturalization of practice. Those are distinct goals and demand different interventions.

Two-Front Approach

SkilLab structured the response on two complementary fronts to attack the problem from two angles.

The first front was a card game, in physical and digital formats, designed to create dynamics of feedback delivery. The cards offer prompts and structures that participants can use to give and receive feedback in a lighter, less heavy way than the formal “I’m going to give you some feedback” conversation. The game allows feedback to happen in a scheduled team moment or in ad-hoc format day to day.

The second front was the 5-week Exploding Feedback gamified action, in hybrid online and offline format. Each week brought a thematic arc with specific missions participants had to complete individually or in teams. The missions progressively reinforced the practice of feedback as daily routine, instead of treating it as synonymous with fear or apprehension.

Structure of the 5-Week Program

SkilLab designed the 5 weeks with calculated progression of stakes and depth. Each week introduces a different facet of feedback culture.

Week 1 opens with low-stakes missions focused on observing and naming positive behaviors. Before asking employees to give corrective feedback, the program establishes that feedback also includes explicit recognition of what works.

Week 2 introduces the concept of requested feedback: the mission is for each participant to ask specific feedback from colleagues, about an own situation or behavior. Asking for feedback is frequently harder than giving it.

Week 3 works the structure of descriptive feedback, based on situation-behavior-impact (a model derived from classic literature on the topic). The practical mission turns the model into a script used in real conversations of the week.

Week 4 expands to feedback between peers and across hierarchy levels, typically the most uncomfortable point of culture. Specific missions invite upward feedback (from employee to manager) and horizontal feedback (between peers from other areas).

Week 5 closes with integration and personal plan: each participant defines how what they learned becomes maintained habit after the program, and reviews with their manager or program partner.

Mission Guide and Cards

The Mission Guide is the physical-digital document that structures the program. Each participant receives an illustrated guide with the missions of the week, space to record reflections and observations, and operational tips on how to execute each mission in the context of real work.

The feedback cards serve as field tool. Instead of trying to remember the ideal feedback structure in the heat of a difficult conversation, the employee can use a card to guide the conversation. Cards have two uses: as individual protocol and as team dynamic.

Result and What We Learned

Specific quantitative details on adoption and culture-survey impact in subsequent rounds are subject to confirmation with SPIC before external publication. The case is documented in the SkilLab portfolio as an internal benchmark for gamification applied to organizational culture, distinct from gamification applied to sales or marketing.

Three structural learnings from the project.

First: culture requires distributed time, not single event. Five weeks with progressive missions move what 4-hour lectures do not move. The difference is not the content; it is the deliberate practice time with feedback.

Second: card games work as field tool, not just as event. Unlike simulations that live in training rooms, the cards travel to real work. That is the unlock that makes the practice persist after the formal program.

Third: climate survey is the best brief. When the symptom comes from the employees themselves via structured survey, the program starts from validated problem, not leadership guess. The SPIC case reinforces that culture initiatives gain legitimacy when the company documents the demand before commissioning the solution.

The Culture Sprint Pattern

In similar organizational-culture projects, we observe three recurring pillars that structure effective interventions. We call this pattern Culture Sprint.

Pillar 1: Documented diagnosis. Climate survey is ideal, but any rigorous documentation of the symptom to treat works. Programs that start from leadership “hunch” typically mistranslate the pain.

Pillar 2: Distributed time with progressive missions. Five weeks is the common interval in our implementations, but the principle is the same: habit is not built in a single event.

Pillar 3: Tools that travel to real work. Cards, app, pocket guides, anything that reduces the friction of applying the skill at the real moment, outside the training room.

[IMAGE 2, Culture Sprint diagram] Alt text: “SkilLab Culture Sprint: three pillars for organizational-culture interventions, documented diagnosis, distributed time with progressive missions, tools that travel to real work” Filename suggested: culture-sprint-skillab-en.svg

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To understand how we integrate gamification into broader corporate programs, explore our corporate gamification practice. For other Brazilian cases in our portfolio, see the cases section or read our post with 20 examples.

The SPIC Exploding Feedback case shows that gamification applied to organizational culture works when it respects three things: diagnosis comes from the employees themselves, time is distributed across weeks, and tools travel to real work. Simple recipe; rigorous execution.

By Ivan Prado · Founder, SkilLab · May 10, 2026