Let’s face it. Regardless of how long you have been working with someone, chances are you rarely see that person outside of the office. Conversations are brief, and feeling motivated to pull together is a challenge in itself.
Team building is the answer. It is a chance to get everyone away from the usual office setting and do something fun together! But more than that, it can teach your team valuable and applicable lessons that they can bring back to your workspace.
An escape room is perfect for gathering your team and facing new and exciting challenges together. Here’s why we think your next team-building event should be at an escape room:
A united goal
When you first arrive at your chosen escape room, you’ll be greeted by the game’s master. They will take you through a run down of the game itself and reveal to you the final goal. This might be simply making your escape, finding lost treasure or even sacrificing a teammate!
With 60 minutes on the clock, there is a definitive deadline you all have to work towards to win.
Now, this is where the real test comes in. Your team has a clear objective, and the clock is ticking. This combination will help keep your team focused and motivated toward reaching your united goal. The catch? You need eachother to complete the task!
Regardless of whether you win or lose, how well your team pulls together under pressure will have a lasting impact after you return to everyday life.
Teaches you how to overcome challenges
Overcoming complex challenges is one of the best feelings in the world. Escape rooms don’t hold back. They deliver thrilling storylines that place you at the heart of the action. You become instrumental in the adventure or mystery, and you need to solve puzzles, crack codes and pull all the pieces together to make your escape.
The only way to win as a team is to conquer these challenges together. Relationships are improved, cohesion is achieved, and the feeling of team spirit is knitted into your crew’s consciousness.
But that doesn’t negate how difficult an escape room can be to crack. They make you use logic, creative thinking and all of your problem-solving skills in a very short amount of time. And when you are confronted with such a mammoth task, you have to make a choice: overcome the task together or watch as your team implodes!
Once you’ve reached the end, that sense of accomplishment and companionship shows on all our players’ faces. It’s a one-of-a-kind adventure that you won’t forget any time soon.
Communicate, communicate, communicate!
Communication is critical in an escape room. Every time you spot something, have an idea or want to draw your team’s attention to something, escape rooms force you to speak out. You need to link together all the information you find, after all, to be successful.
Certain puzzles also require collaboration. Decoding a cypher or finding your way around a crypt may need someone else to provide directions or the digits of a code, for instance.
The person with the loudest voice doesn’t hold the floor in an escape room. Instead, the players with the best ideas, even if they sound too out of the box, will help you succeed. This will instantly bring quieter team members out of their shell and boost their confidence in the long run.
Exposes natural leaders
Escape rooms may not seem like an obvious choice to find someone to help you lead a team, but due to the nature of the game, they bring natural leaders out of the woodwork.
Now, we all know the pros and cons of an interview. But imagine getting to see potential leaders thrown in at the deep end. How they manage their time, encourage creative thinking and ultimately bring the team together to work towards their common goal.
Escape rooms are, by design, naturally challenging environments. Those with an innate ability to lead teams are exposed as a result. And after you’ve witnessed how they respond to a high-pressure scenario, think about how instrumental they will be in taking your business to the next level.
You have to think on the spot
Working in a pressured business environment relies on people having the confidence to make difficult decisions quickly and often with limited information. But seeing this attribute in action is often hard to measure in the workplace.
Enter the escape room. No longer are you presented with hypothetical scenarios. Instead, you step into a realistic, fully immersive experience that makes you have to think on your feet and make decisions quickly.
What’s more, team players are no longer making independent decisions for themselves but ones that will affect the team as a whole.
Say hello to the movers and shakers
Problem-solving is a necessity in an escape room. You are faced with numerous challenges that encourage your employees to think outside the box.
Throw in the extra time pressure, and the creative process is naturally boosted. Innovative thinking is developed throughout the game, and problem-solving skills are brought to the fore. Stress levels aren’t even a consideration, as you are so focused on the creative process.
So what’s left? You see a collaborative team thinking creatively around the problem. And when you bring that powerful team back to work, they will be unstoppable!
Your team are amazing
One of the best ways to boost workplace morale and productivity is for your employees to know how valuable they are. And what better way to produce this feeling than go all out at an escape room.
Not only are they an affordable, unique experience, but they are a formidable team-building event that will leave your team feeling amazing. The sense of achievement, camaraderie and plain old-fashioned fun will change your employees for the better.
Do you think your team has what it takes to beat one of our escape rooms? Contact us today to book your next team-building adventure, and let the games begin!