For nearly all businesses, their profitability is key to their very survival. That means it’s the employees who have control and can either make or break the whole enterprise. You’ve probably all come across a business where the employees look like they're just dialing it in. They are merely going through the motions with one eye on the clock, appearing to be totally disengaged and bored. This is not going to ensure the customer has the best experience. The problem isn’t so much with the employees themselves, but rather a lack of motivating actors that management either fails to see, or doesn’t care about.
And this brings us to the subject of team building. There’s a reason why many businesses spend so much money on team building activities for their staff and management. Of course, it goes without saying that a happy workforce is going to produce better results than an unhappy one. These team building activities vary hugely in both scope and form. They can be anything from a coffee meeting to a full-blown business retreat. Nevertheless, the main focus of these is to create a team, that’s at ease with each other, communicating well and motivated to achieve results together. A team that’s optimised in this manner, will be nothing but a benefit for the organization.
Over the last few years we’ve seen the introduction of Escape Room games as a means of providing a team building exercise for businesses large and small. In fact, there’s been an explosion in their use. Their popularity with both the players and the businesses footing the bill has been on the rise since their introduction. And there are a number of good reasons for this.
Team Building and Escape Rooms
Though the concept of escape rooms has been with us since the early 2000’s, it’s only relatively recently that the genre has taken off as a group activity for passing an immersive and exciting time. The general idea is that you and your team/friends are placed in a locked room, which have a huge number of different themes and designs, and you all have a set time in which to solve a number of puzzles and clues in order to escape. The only way to escape within the time is to work together, as just one person alone would be totally overwhelmed.
Normally, most escape room companies will have a number of different rooms available,each offering a separate environment, with its own theme and decoration. In this way, you can play a totally different gaming experience from one room to the next. Every room normally comes with a story narrative which sets the scene, along with their own unique challenges.
If you’re a large group then you’ll probably be divided up, as there’s an optimal group size for most rooms, being around 8 persons max. But as a business, you can divide the employees up according to any number of factors to see how they all function together as a single group. This will allow any employer to see just how well a team can gel together when it comes to solving problems under stress. You’ll find that the whole escape room genre offers some excellent means of highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of any team.
Cost-Effective
If you were to stop and think about the costs of many team building exercises, in particular those involving going on location, then it’s easy to see why escape rooms for team building represent great value for money.
Improves Communication
We all know that smooth and clear communication is key to the well-being of any organization. In fact, the way in which employees speak to customers is going to determine the customer’s whole response to the business as a whole. You’ll find that due to the time pressures, along with new ways of seeing and solving problems will lead to a clarity of communication that can only prove beneficial in the long run. All team members must communicate clearly if the game is to be won.
Motivates Employees
Without motivation, then the working day will drag. And will the tasks and jobs. In an ideal situation, you want employees to have an environment that allows for a fulfilling and positive work experience. If your employees dread going to work, then you will have some pretty big problems coming up. It will show itself in an absolute lack of care for positive outcomes, as nothing will matter to the unmotivated.
Having played escape room games for team building over the last couple of years, it’s become clear that they offer a great means by which toi motivate and re-animate tired and disinterested personnel. Though it’s really just a game, for the players it takes on something more. They become motivated to succeed within the vever closing time limit. You’ll find a huge motivational spike if the clock has but a couple of minutes remaining, and yet there’s just one more clue to solve. It’s this sheer rush to successfully complete the room that will also bring all the members of the team together for one final push.
Promotes Creativity
In truth, you can’t solve all the puzzles and clues within an escape room without learning how to look at problems from a new angle. Many of the puzzles will be totally new to the participants. Thanks to the use of both old fashioned thinking as well as new technology, the puzzles to be solved will have everyone stumped at the beginning. So solving them will require a new way of thinking. This will increase creativity as well as the use of lateral thinking. This is one of the most rewarding aspects of the escape room game genre, and it’s full of unexpected “Eureka” moments.
Develops Problem Solving Skills
Lateral thinking is going to help develop problem solving skills outside of the escape room and in the workplace. Not only will this bring newbeefits to the business, but also allow the employees to experience the rewarding feeling of satisfaction and excitement, all things that should motivate.
Improves Bonding
Today, in the age of social distancing and work from home, many people are working more or less, alone. Add to this that many of the general tasks can be both repetitive and routine, then you have a recipe for zoning out and choosing a life of general disinterest. If the work loses its ability to remain challenging, then it will lead to boredom and a questioning as to what the employee is doing with their lives.
If there’s an escape room game organised every couple of weeks, whether in a brick and mortar building or virtually playing online, it’ll certainly help perk up everyone, by providing both a sense of challenge as well as the all important social aspects of bringing people together for a shared cause. We would suggest that the mental well-being of employees should be at the forefront of any team building exercise.
In Summary
We feel that escape room games are one of the best means of building your team’s production values through group motivation. Keep in mind that they don’t cost a fortune, though the benefits are huge. They really should be part of every businesses regular schedule. Because each escape room is crafted completely differently, with each having their own unique puzzles and cues, then this will give your team new challenges and obstacles every time they get together to play. Each team member can find their own niche for solving particular types of problems. And as the game is played within a fun and immersive social context, each team member will feel needed and a valuable asset to the whole experience. Being good for the individual, translates as being good for the business.
