An escape room can be the solution if you’re seeking a creative team-building exercise that’s successful and enjoyable.

Escape rooms can improve communication, project management, problem-solving, and handling difficult situations when played in person or online.

They are frequently utilized to improve team dynamics as well. The abilities you gain in an escape room can be applied in the real world even though the situation is made up. In this post, we’ll look at a few escape rooms and discuss how to determine whether they’re a good fit for your group.

To make sure you get the most out of every escape room you try, we also describe the essential procedures to follow before, during, and after the activity.

An escape room is what?

Players work together to uncover clues, complete tasks, and solve various puzzles in an escape room, sometimes called an escape game or puzzle room.

The purpose is to accomplish a certain, time-limited objective, typically to flee from somewhere. Yet, nobody is ever genuinely confined, and any dangers you experience are fictitious.

A Game Master is present in escape rooms, setting up the environment, outlining the rules, and providing any necessary clues. Escape rooms frequently occur in castles, space stations, Victorian homes, and Egyptian pyramids.

The traditional plan is to unlock the door and escape in the allotted amount of time, often 45 minutes or an hour. However, some escape games have other objectives, such as resolving a crime, rescuing a captive, discovering hidden riches, or fending off a fictitious attack.

Escape rooms Mississauga are increasingly well-liked as gathering places. These are frequently planned by businesses as occasions or prizes. They are also widely used by corporations to foster teamwork and the growth of specific team abilities and qualities.

Do Escape Rooms Fit Your Team’s Needs?

For members of new teams, an escape room may be a fun and thrilling way to get to know one another.

Your team can benefit from escape rooms to develop important skills, including stamina, cooperation, communication, decision-making, and problem-solving. They can also be an effective tool for a team to practice how it would react in stressful situations.

If there is a large conflict on your team, an escape room might not be the greatest idea because of the intense pressure and close teamwork.

The team members should also be taken into account as individuals. For example, will everyone like and gain from a task with a deadline that requires them to work closely with other players and think rapidly under pressure? Could it cause any of them to feel awkward, excluded, or uneasy?

Consider whether some characters or your organization would not be suited for certain settings or narratives. For example, for several personal reasons, some team members might not be appropriate for a crime or horror game.

It’s good to consult with your manager or HR department before hosting an escape room event.

The Before, During, and After of Effective Escape Rooms

Here are some further suggestions on what to do at each stage of your virtual escape room event if you’ve determined that an escape room is the best option for your team.

The Escape Game before

Ensure everyone at the event understands why you chose this particular team-building activity. Is it solely a social event, for instance? Is it intended to hone essential abilities or to put the team to the test somehow?

You don’t want your employees to think that their skills are being evaluated in secret. And it’s crucial that nobody feels coerced or even duped into participating.

Publicize your intentions early enough to ease people’s worries while generating interest and excitement. You will also need time to design and build everything, test it thoroughly, and set it up on the day if you are making the challenges yourself.

To strike a balance between collaboration and competition, you can also decide on some game behavior rules!

During playing the escape game, everyone should be completely focused.

Make it obvious that individuals can seek assistance if necessary. Players may lose interest or miss out on other aspects of the activity if the team becomes stuck on one specific challenge. When it’s vital to keep things moving, encourage them to reference the Game Master or the hint sheet if you’re using a kit.

Try to identify anyone who isn’t engaging and find a suitable approach to engage them, whether you participate or assume the role of the Game Master. Encourage the team to experiment with various problem-solving techniques while maintaining attention to their main objective.

Following the Escape Game

Regardless of whether the task is successfully done, allowing everyone to unwind, converse, and congratulate (or mourn) afterward is crucial.

Urge them to discuss the experience while it is still recent in their memories and to concentrate on its positive aspects, especially any newfound understandings they may have about themselves or the team.

Give the team members a chance to think more deeply about the task later. For instance, they might meet with their line manager to assess how well they did in the escape room while identifying improvement opportunities.

Determine any training requirements that may have arisen, and use event feedback to inform your ongoing team-building program. (For additional information on this, see our page on maximizing the effects of training.)

In this manner, the advantages of your escape room will last long after you and your crew have achieved freedom!

• Should we play it in person or online? The ideal situation for playing escape rooms is for everyone to be there. Nonetheless, the additional difficulty of playing remotely might improve the experience because it forces you to use your imagination and think of creative solutions to any problems brought on by the limitations of technology. The Games Master may need to participate more frequently if you participate remotely. Be sure to assist the team in getting back on track if they become disoriented or communication breaks down.
• Would the advantages outweigh the expenses? Consider the costs of venue rental, transportation, catering, and other expenses if you’re hosting an escape room away from your place of business. People’s time and effort, as well as the number of hours missed from work, are included in the total expenditures. You may focus on what’s important and the best way to achieve it by performing a cost-benefit analysis. Also, it might make it simpler to persuade people of your goals.
• What should you do next? Hold your activities offsite for team outings or social functions.. This might also make it simpler to match the exercises with some of your team’s unique difficulties.
• Is it preferable to design your own challenge or to use a pre-made one? Most escape room businesses own their own locations. Many companies sell ready-made escape room kits that you can download and run yourself. Some can create temporary escape rooms elsewhere. Although the majority of these services are fee-based you will receive enough problems that have been professionally written to keep everyone interested and challenged. The cost will be lower and simpler to customize your event if all the challenges are made in-house. It can, however, also be difficult and time-consuming. And if the activities aren’t up to par, you risk disappointing or frustrating your employees.
• Which theme would be most effective? First, it’s crucial to consider your escape room’s theme. It establishes the event’s mood and allows you to focus on particular talents and skills. A very inventive theme works great if your main goal is for people to unwind and have fun. For instance, you may decide on an escape room on an exotic planet or in a mythical realm. This can inspire original thought in addition to being entertaining. Problem-solving and decision-making skills can be practiced through mystery-themed activities (such as finding the culprit or thwarting a jewel thief’s schemes). They frequently place a higher value on attention to detail and tend to appear more serious and concentrated. Several escape rooms are set in a technical or scientific environment. These realistic settings can aid teams in honing skills like strategic planning and delegating. And using horror-related themes is a well-liked method of encouraging pressure-relief teamwork. Although they may not be appropriate for every business, when implemented wisely, they may foster adaptation and quick thinking while also putting people’s resiliency to the test!