Google, Facebook, Apple, and Twitter are some of the corporates known to routinely use a real escape game for their team building exercises. But why the fascination with escape the room games? Is it just a Silicon Valley fad or does it provide real value for corporate teams? What benefits are HR managers seeing after sending their employees and managers to escape rooms?
Promotes Teamwork
In the office environment, teamwork can take a beating against office politics, internal competition, and petty jealousies. When participants are put in a high-pressure situation outside the workplace, all these feelings are put on the back burner as members work together to achieve the escape. Learning how to work together in the real escape game room can translate to team members learning how to manage each other’s’ strengths and weaknesses for the betterment of the whole firm.
Develops New Bonds
Do you know Stella from accounts? What about Robb from Customer Care? Employees usually group themselves in cliques that may close out everyone else. A retreat to a real escape game may create the right atmosphere for people to break out of their shells and get to know the other people who they never really get to talk to at the office. The fun and non-threatening space in an escape room can provide the environment for team members to learn about each other beyond what they know at the office.
Break Communication Barriers
Office meetings, summits, and conferences are formal, impersonal, and sometimes very boring. They can also feel too intimidating for newcomers and introverts.
The escape room game environment can spur the normally shy into speaking up. It can encourage the normally loud to take a step back and listen to others. It encourages players to utilize verbal and nonverbal communication to help each other crack codes and solve puzzles. Escape the room games have proven efficient in breaking down communication barriers.
Identifies Natural Leaders
Escape room games bring out different skills, reactions, and emotions in us that we may normally not display at the office. In such a situation, it may be easier to spot previously unknown strengths and weaknesses of team members. Escape games highlight our different skill sets and show areas where all members can contribute as leaders.
Improves Confidence
You find a puzzle and your team members don’t seem to know the answer yet it’s so obvious to you. A real escape game room can be a comfortable and non-threatening place to show others your capabilities and knowledge. It’s also a great place to encourage the less confident to shine.
Promotes Trust
You may be locked up in some claustrophobic space. Sometimes even shackled up and blindfolded. The best way to get out of this fast is to trust your team members and work together. Your team members handle different tasks for all of you to escape. Leaving them to their tasks as you perform yours helps you learn more about each other and builds trust all around.
Encourages Responsibility
The different tasks that players have to perform inside an escape room only work when each member takes responsibility for their assigned tasks. When you don’t contribute, the whole team fails. When you play your role, the whole team breaks out and beats the clock.
Earns Respect
Participation in an escape room adventure opens our eyes to each others’ talents, strengths, and potential. It builds new bonds and strengthens existing ones. And in that, it leaves participants with a new respect and appreciation for self, each other, and the company they work for.
Team Dynamics In A Real Escape Game
Real escape games have proven to be more than just a passing trend. They are so much fun and deliver many team building benefits. HR managers are seeing better cohesion and more synergy, leading to higher productivity after such exciting team building sessions.
Employees and managers are discovering new skill sets in each other and within themselves, and these can be positively transferred to the workplace. If your company is seeking team building activities, check out a real escape game room near you and book your adventure.
References
KYMA – New Main Street Attraction Helps Team Building Skills
Daytona Beach News – Escape Rooms Are New Craze In Volusia County