Why Escape Rooms are the Perfect Place for Team Building?
When was the last time you headed for an Escape Room experience?
If you have been to one, then you know all about the craziness that goes in there. It is exciting to be stuck in a room, trying to solve puzzles, meeting up with a goal, and fighting for the title of the “Record Breaker.”
Sounds exciting, doesn’t it. It is much more thrilling than you can imagine.
In all this fun, what we fail to realize is the agenda of such an experience. The entire concept was not just randomly built for fun, of course. It is set out to secretly brush us up. Quietly turning us into better versions of ourselves.
A game that puts us on a mission has a mission of its own. Interesting!
If you are looking for indoor team building activities, this is the place for you.
Escape Rooms build upon our analytical skills, logical thinking, reasoning abilities, and so much more. But more than these individualistic skills, what it contributes to most is the abilities we are subconsciously building by working as a team in these games.
The game is played in groups of six to ten people. Some game rooms allow for smaller groups too, though.
So while the team has fun, gets fully captured by the thrill of the game, and has no time to think of anything else, the game works on you in ways more than one.
Designed with the aim of giving you a fun corporate outing and ways to free the mind of regular stress, it is adding to your skillset in its own unique way.
Be it at school, corporates, or simply among friends. It creates a sense of team belonging.
Experiencing the game with some of my friends has made us a better team, in general. We are also colleagues at work, some of us in different departments though. The dynamics of the group have changed, and it feels so much better and efficient now.
Even in fun, we are making the most of all we have.
Everyone needs to be a team player at some point in their lives. From high school projects to corporate projects, there is no escape. To be able to thrive in a team, a sense of ‘I’ needs to change to the understanding of ‘We.’
Escape room team building activities push you towards the feeling of “My Squad.”
Team building is not simple and cannot be achieved overnight. But escape rooms are a fun way to break the ice and get you started. Hence it makes for one of the best corporate team building activities.
Especially if you have new people in your group. Make them feel comfortable instantly with this experience and get to know them too.
We noticed a few things that changed within the group for my colleagues and me after a few escape room corporate outings.
Sets a common target
In an escape room, all players have the same target, beat the clock, and make an escape. Similarly, in any other team exercise, as a part of a team, all participants need to have a common target, especially in a corporate structure. A shared vision helps to minimize the internal conflicts within a team.
Team goals, be it work or a game, work in the same way. The entire team needs to work together towards that one goal. It helps teammates reorient focus.
We as a team are not more focused on the group goals. No more, “Hey, I wanna do this.” There is more openness to the discussion to set a group goal of fun.
Who does what? - is finally sorted
An escape room is a game of many minds. There are so many things to be done in those sixty minutes like a plan, execute, seek, analyze, apply, etc. Hence the need for a team.
One person alone, even though capable of it all by himself, will not be productive when put under the clock. A team allows for all to take up a role, they are best suited for.
Everyone on the team has a different personality and cut out for a different responsibility. There is no role which is more important than any other. All are essential for the game to move in the right direction.
In a high-pressure clock ticking scenario like the escape room, one is often able to find their strength and capability towards a specific responsibility.
The fastest way to beat the escape room is by finding that strength each person has and then splitting up accordingly. Puzzles usually start with searches and then are solved either mechanically or analytically.
Knowing each person’s strength helps to divide the task efficiently, leading to saving precious time.
The roles people take upon in an escape room usually reflect their personalities and personal characteristics. This can be beneficial in an escape room, as teams that possess a wide range of skills are naturally better equipped to overcome the various challenges.
This builds on to the team, as before every task, they know who can do what. Execution happens more productively and efficiently.
Among us, we now know who is capable of pulling everyone up, and who is better at planning the outings. It feels so sorted and easy now. Thank god, I am no more in charge of planning the lunch. Not my forte.
Team Time Management
The escape room gives you sixty minutes on the clock. In this time limit, you must find the clues, solve them and win the game. This is the most excellent place to put your time management skills to the test and polishing them.
Without proper time management, the team can get side-tracked and distracted from the goal. This game polishes your time-management, which is extremely useful when working in a group. Deadlines become more natural, and time is used productively.
People awareness
Escape rooms instill awareness of your neighbor. As a team, when you play this game, the ‘I’ goes out of the window. This needs to be done collectively. So, listening to what others have to say, accepting and encouraging their ideas is a part of the process.
It makes you humble and aware of the different personalities around you.
Maybe you are more creative, but someone may be better at analytical reasoning as compared to you and arrive at ideas and solutions faster. Such interactive games help build on to this awareness and eventually respect for one and all.
Even if you get caught up in the stress of wanting to win the game, you need to remember that it is difficult to win the game without teamwork. An efficient team considers other people’s feelings and is empathetic towards one another.
Motivation
Being able to win together has a great sense of motivation to it. It instills confidence in the team that together they are unbeatable. This really helps achieve milestones when it comes to working colleagues.
A motivated team can move mountains just by sheer energy.
Escape rooms bring a sense of motivation when a team spends sixty minutes, trying to solve clues, guess riddles, analyze all codes, and eventually achieve their goal.
This is a pure magic moment, which subconsciously adds an indefinite sense of encouragement.
Creative problem solving
Escape rooms are full of problems. No, I am not criticizing the concept. I mean literally. It is a game of puzzles, clues, and riddles. Any team building activity will always have to face a problem that must be solved.
A team would feel less pressure participating in such fun activities than the complicated real-life ones faced in personal lives. Hence, escape rooms make for a perfect choice. Such activities grant creative freedom to rack their brains and reach goals by clearing obstacles. Such methods instill confidence in people of their ability to solve problems.
Being on a timer calls for quick wit and speedy decisions. Solving a problem as a team encourages creative thinking. If everyone just acted by the book, it will lead to a dull game. There needs to be room for out of the box thinking.
All heads put together can get very creative and analytical at problem-solving.
Being stuck together in a game room forces, in a pleasant way, the team to stretch their minds creatively. This not only helps revive the energy of the group but also makes working together fun, creative, and productive.
Clear Communication
Whether encrypting a morse code, breaking into a bank, or trying to run free from a serial killer’s basement, communication is an important element to win the escape room games.
It is the key to getting started and eventually heading towards the common goal. Two heads are better than one, and in a game like this one, it holds absolutely true. In fact, four heads are better than one here. This works only when there’s excellent communication.
With hesitation to communicate, success is nearly impossible. You cannot be silently working towards a common goal, without updating the other of the progress. How silly is that?
Team building exercises help bring about clarity in communication, which not only maintains the established lines of communication but also helps to bridge the gap among teammates if any.
Escape rooms are a fun way to address this gap if any.
Bonding over Victory
There is a feeling of extreme exhilaration when you figure out a clue together and move to the next one, in an escape room. With every clue you decode, the feeling keeps elevating by the minute.
Then there is the sweet victory, followed by Hi-fives, chest bumps, fist bumps, and victory energy.
This makes you feel good and together. Subconsciously, it is building onto your relationships with the people you just played the game with. It helps bond, get to know people, and just feel like a community.
At that moment, there is no senior or junior, friend, or acquaintance. The members feel connected and more accepted. It is just a happy team.
Is there a cooler way to know your family, friends, or your work team than through an adventure-filled game experience?
Isn’t it just a brilliant idea? The brains behind Escape Rooms definitely need applause on this one. Bringing people closer, in sixty minutes.
Being a part of interactive team-based games like the escape rooms, helps you know about the teammate’s interests, strengths, weaknesses, and way of thinking – and all in a fun manner.
Coordination
In an escape room game, the team is continuously at work to achieve the target. Naturally, what occurs is the team working in a rhythm. Without specifically instructing each other, players know what to do, who to help, and when to move to the next step. There is unspoken coordination in the way they work their way out.
This creates a picture in the minds of the teammates that they are well-coordinated and managed. They together know how the job needs to be done, and they are enthusiastic enough to get it done.
One added advantage of escape room team building activities, over enhancing all your soft skills as a group, is its availability for remote teams. With the recent introduction of virtual escape room team building activities, you can connect with your team from the comfort of your home.
So, the next time you pick a team to go play with, at a corporate event, you know what the outcome will be sixty minutes later. Get your gang in the game room. Tell me what really worked for you guys in those sixty minutes to hit the right chord?