We all know that escape games are great for friends and families. You play together, bond, and have a super fun time feeling like you’ve achieved something together. For these same reasons, escape room team building is a great option to entertain your employees on their next outing. Escape games present your team with challenges they have to overcome together. It forces players to communicate as a team, cooperate to solve puzzles, and bond by succeeding together. If you have a new team, it’s a great way to get everyone to get to know each other out of the office environment. Walls come down, people make fast friends, learn each other’s work style and personalities. No other team-building experience engages people quite as well as escape rooms and you’ll really see their personalities come out. Who’s the leader? Who gets along with others? Who thinks outside of the box? And how do they all work together?
Escape rooms are also a unique team-building activity and a new type of entertainment that everyone has been wanting to try. Many workers get bored of the same old office outings. Happy hour, bowling, and trust falls can only be done so many times without becoming monotonous and repetitive. So freshen up your next company get together with a new, fun activity that will have your employees and colleagues raving for weeks afterward. Check out this video from CBS This Morning that speaks about why Escape Rooms are perfect for team-building events.
Also, escape rooms are an affordable team outing so you won’t blow out the company budget. The cost is cheaper per person than taking the team out for lunch or dinner. You also won’t have to plan a trip to another city or travel far. There are probably many escape rooms within walking distance or a quick uber ride from your office.
An escape room team-building experience will teach you about yourself and your colleagues. What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they analyze problems? How well do they communicate and work together with others? Are they a good leader? All of this is valuable information to allow your team to get to know each other, appreciate differences and work successfully together on future projects. Getting answers to these questions about new or existing employees is like striking gold for any HR department. That’s why many companies have begun to use escape rooms during On-Boarding weeks for new employees or even during the interview process! A new employee may not be able to prove to you their work style in an interview, but observing them in an escape room experience will reveal a lot. You’ll see how they really think, how well they get along with others and how committed they are to succeeding. At our company, playing our escape rooms is a part of the hiring process, and the escape game becomes their final interview where we are truly able to see how they really work through tasks with coworkers in a stressful challenge.
To read more on using escape rooms as a hiring tool check out this article from our friends at the Society for Human Resource Management.
If you’re thinking about taking part in a team building escape room, there are plenty of reasons why you should consider doing so. The following offers a closer look at six of the top reasons why an escape room may be the perfect team building exercise.
For any team to be successful, communication is key. Whether you are about to start working on a long-term project or have a meeting scheduled for next week, it’s important that team members understand how to effectively communicate with one another. Without proper communication, one team member may be completing a task that doesn’t mesh well with the project as a whole. When you play an escape room game, communication is essential for success.
Even though the stakes in this game are low, the intensity is high. If you want to get out of the room in time, team members must communicate with one another to identify clues and determine how these clues help to solve the numerous puzzles situated throughout the game. Keep in mind that proper communication will allow you and the other members of your team to finish the game quickly since each member won’t need to waste time doing the same puzzle.
Likely the most beneficial aspect of playing a team-building escape room is that the game will reveal the various strengths and weaknesses that each team member has. It’s far better to gain this knowledge now as opposed to learning that your team has poor communication skills during the middle of a time-sensitive project.
During the escape room, you’ll find that there are five types of players, which include spotters, tinkerers, orchestrators, brains, and communicators. Communicators are great listeners and understand how to push everyone towards a common goal. As for tinkerers, these individuals are great at solving puzzles because of their ability to think outside of the box. You need each type of person in your team to succeed.
If performed correctly, an escape room should be able to build trust between team members. You should learn if you and the rest of your team members are able to work effectively and efficiently. It’s possible that two team members are at their best when working together to accomplish goals. Playing a team-building escape room now can help you build trust between team members that can pay dividends for future projects.
Escape rooms are fun, challenging, and rewarding adventures that practically everyone enjoys. One of the best aspects of taking part in a team-building escape room is that your team will be able to share their experiences and memories of the escape room in months and years to come. These experiences can create lasting bonds.
It can be difficult to get to know someone while at the office. When you’re not working, you likely have a routine that doesn’t involve your coworkers. Escape rooms put everyone out of their comfort zone, which can tell you a lot about your fellow team members. It’s possible that a different environment will bring out a personality in a team member that you didn’t know existed, which could benefit the team later on down the road.
Losing is never fun. However, when you lose as a team, you share the same experience and the same consequences with other team members. The same is true when you win. The elation that you feel is an emotion felt by everyone. It’s oftentimes important for team members to know what it’s like to be involved in something where the overall outcome is more important than an individual task.
Now that we know escape rooms are good for corporate team building, how can you host your next office outing? Here at Clockwise Escape Room Boise, we offer you our escape games and game lounge for the exclusive use of the entire venue. We can assist with catering food and beverage for your next escape event and host groups of up to 30 people. We also have a ton of other attractions around us so you can plan a day filled with activities. Check out our events page to review all options.
Come visit Clockwise Escape Room Boise for your next team-building event!