Corporate teams often spend their time outdoors during team-building activities or answering a few get-to-know-me questions in the office. These strategies used to be effective, but over time they became predictable and dull. Escape room team-building activities offer a fun, engaging way to improve communication, morale, and teamwork while facing exciting challenges.
As a team leader, you might wonder how to pull your team together and foster a positive atmosphere, especially when stress is affecting productivity. They might not even be coordinating with each other. A foolproof way to address this dilemma and be able to build strong relationships as well as know a coworker is by arranging an in-store team-building session.
Escape room games are more demanding than other team-building games in the sense that it challenges the players to think proactively and work together to achieve a common goal: escape. If you’re wondering why choosing escape room games as a team-building activity is a good idea, read on.
Escape Room Team-Building Activity Benefits
1. Why Escape Rooms Are Surprisingly Affordable
Booking a venue, providing lodgings, and covering food for a weekend-long team-building outing can be expensive. On the other hand, escape rooms cost way less and take little time. You won’t need to book a hotel; the team will spend about an hour solving puzzles. An escape room team-building session is a cost-effective way to bring your employees closer together.
2. In-Person and Virtual Escape Room Team-Building Options
For hands-on interaction with no distractions, play in-person. If your employees are from different locations, consider hosting a virtual event in the comfort of their homes. If distance is an issue, try a virtual escape room.
Playing escape room team-building activities virtually presents a different challenge than playing in a facility. As communication barriers may be harder to overcome, players are motivated to do their best to communicate more effectively with their team.
3. Many Escape Room Team-Building Themes To Choose From
Choose the right themes for each team to play. Consider your team’s common interests. For example, if the team enjoys medieval adventures, choose a medieval-themed room. This makes the experience more fun and engaging. Consider which skills you want to develop in your players. For example, if you want them to focus on details, book a mystery-themed room. Or, let fate decide and randomize the theme!
4. How Escape Rooms Reveal Strengths and Weaknesses
Additionally, escape room games force players to step up to the challenge. The person you expect to take the lead might end up cracking puzzles. They may even make sense of complex clues. Alternatively, someone you thought wouldn’t perform as well could solve the most complicated problems. Escape rooms reveal surprising hidden quirks in each player.
5. Improves Communication with Escape Room Team-Building
If your team is not used to sharing ideas and strategies, it’s crucial to help them bond for better communication. This improves their communication skills. During escape room team-building activities, players must speak up. Their ideas could be the key to solving the puzzle and escaping. No matter how unusual or silly the idea is, it is entertained. This in turn eliminates any inhibitions a person may feel about sharing their suggestions.
6. Escape Rooms Improve Problem-Solving Skills
No one can fully prepare themselves for an escape room. Sure, players expect to solve a lot of puzzles, but they have no clue as to what kind of puzzles those are! Players must solve problems they can’t prepare for beforehand. Solving problems in a low-stakes environment helps exercise the problem-solving skills needed in the office.
7. Escape Room Team-Building Helps Improve Time Management
Given that the game usually lasts for one hour, players must solve the puzzles quickly to escape. Due to the time constraint, players are motivated to make do with the time they have and do their best to finish the game before time runs out! They can’t afford to sit around for a few minutes because they have to quickly make sense of the clues they find scattered within the room. Players usually find clues individually and share them with the group, saving time.
8. Escape Rooms: Natural Leadership Skills Emerge
A team needs a leader to delegate tasks and split up into pairs to cover more areas and solve puzzles faster. The aim is to cover more ground and find clues faster. Because not all groups are well-oiled machines, one will feel the need to step up and take charge. This act will reveal the member who has hidden leadership skills that can be used even in the corporate setting.
9. Escape Room Team-Building: Boosts Creative Thinking
What the players will encounter in escape room games is far from their usual tasks. The theme of the room may be an office breakout, but instead of clients and paperwork, they have to solve cryptic puzzles creatively. In the office, players may quickly finish tasks due to their experience or established methods. So, if the team is used to a routine, this is a good way to encourage creative thinking, new perspectives, and innovative problem-solving.
10. Escape Rooms Boost Camaraderie
Let’s face it, no escape room – may it be onsite or virtual – can be solved by a single person all alone. Teamwork is of utmost importance. Everyone has a role to play. Even those having trouble keeping up with the gameplay can cheer for their team and try to help out by gathering clues from time to time. Everyone participates. Win or lose, they all did their best working as a team. In the end, they’ll feel the strength of their teamwork.
Escape room team-building activities offer many benefits to players. In fact, escape room team-building activities improve skills, foster growth, and boost morale. Boost motivation by setting up a contest for the fastest escape time. The possibilities for fun and engaging team-building activities are endless.
Ready To Play?
There’s no time like the present so why not book a schedule for an in-store session for you and your team? Create new and exciting memories while strengthening your relationship as a team.
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