Your team has a tight deadline to work to. There is currently no capacity for outside help or additional resources so you have to work with what is already in the room with you. This is going to be a real test of collaboration as you overcome all the obstacles foreseen and yet to arise. Communication is going to be the real key here.
Where are we talking about? Is this crisis central at your workplace: a botched shipment, customer meltdown, surprise review or even worse: Barry has called in sick and he’s got all the access codes. Or is this your next teambuilding event in an Escape Room?
Escape Rooms are a great arena to put your team’s communication skills to the test in a safe yet competitive environment where being removed from the usual workplace tasks can bring great benefits to how your team communicates in a hurry while adapting to new obstacles.
So what are the key focus areas you can improve in an Escape Room?
Learn To Talk, Learn To Listen
In a smaller area with immediate feedback required, there isn’t the option of hiding at your desk and doing everything by email. Learning how to communicate with the team by expressing your thoughts right then and there is a must in this form of problem solving, and will help boost confidence to convey your ideas back in the office. Being willing to listen to your teammates, arguably even more important, is necessary for escaping in time just as much as it is for synergy in the workplace.
Improved Strategising
When there is a set goal to work towards (be it finding the treasure, apprehending the criminal, or just escaping that room) having an effective strategy is fundamental. With no time to spare, your group will need to cast aside distractions to focus on planning how you will go about achieving your goals. Method not working? Develop a better one quickly and watch it be tested immediately.
The puzzles you will encounter are not designed to be solvable by one person working solo. Getting your ideas across to your colleagues to get the team heading in the same direction is important for avoiding repeating the same mistaken efforts and wasting precious time. The time management factor means that all communication value has just increased.
Communicating Under Pressure
Collaborating in a small area as quickly as possible will produce two irregular occurrences: distractions on focus that lead to participants controlling what of their visualised emotions is no longer held back; and being able to observe this non-verbal communication from their colleagues. There’s no time for Doris to maintain her professional workplace demeanour when she is rushing to punch in Morse Code to open a secret door.
As ASAP As Possible
When you take all of these components and put them together in an Escape Room, the physical distance (i.e. the lack thereof) allows for ideas to be conveyed all the more more quickly. See the problem, discuss the problem, find the solution, all in a minute. No back and forth over email or meetings and lengthy procedures. When you can practice better functionality here it will give an advantage to coordinating tasks back in the office and help productivity rates.
Hurry Back To The Office
Having completed your Escape Room, in either joyous victory or being agonizingly close to breaking out, it is important to take the improved understandings within your team back into the office
