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Why Escape Rooms are Great for Team Building

You Enter Your Conference Room and It’s Been Transformed…

Puzzles and props are scattered throughout the space. A host hands you a badge and promptly begins to explain your mission. You look around, moving toward the teammates that will be part of your journey. The clock is ticking and clues abound! This is not your average team-building experience.

Non-work-related interactions are vital to developing positive team dynamics, but too often icebreakers feel more like pulling teeth than forging connections.

Escape rooms change the script by scaffolding interaction that is natural and fun. No more trust falls or conversations about the weather! Through gamification, they provide a unique interpersonal experience that is both engaging and ripe for learning.

Are you new to escape rooms? Click here to see our page for more info

Our escape rooms can be set up in any event space!

Gamified Team-Building Activities Help You Learn:

Do you remember being a kid? Chances are, whether you played board games, video games, or make-believe, your child-self thrived at the intersection of structure and creativity. The rules set a scene that allows you to explore, interact, collaborate, problem-solve, make mistakes and try, try again – without the fears, self-consciousness, or mundane imposed by “regular” life.

Your adult self is no different. When we play games with other people, we are uniquely able to source collective intelligence, hone non-cognitive skills like patience and discipline, and learn without feeling bored or afraid of failure. It sets the stage for some potent team-building experiences.

Don’t take our word for it – experts at Stanford tell us it’s true!

Escape Rooms are Guaranteed Fun for Your Entire Team:

Escape Rooms are an Immersive Experience…

Beyond your average board game (or board meeting), escape rooms immerse you in a new world by situating you in a unique plot – you aren’t just playing the game, you are in the game. A multi-sensory experience, escape games require you to get even more curious and engage actively with the environment and people around you. By fostering resourcefulness and awareness these games expand the mind to making new connections – a skill equally crucial to successful escapes as they are to innovation at work.

…that will be Inclusive of Your Entire Team…

Escape rooms are built from many interlocking mini-puzzles. Each one is unique and calls on different faculties to be solved. Any industry or department can play, no prior planning or knowledge is needed, and most importantly, everyone will find their niche: a math whiz might notice a numerical pattern; your teams’ resident musical genius might decode an audio clue. Problem-solvers, organizers, high-fivers and devil’s advocates alike will find their way to contributing meaningfully to team play.

…so that Everyone Wins!

Escape rooms are filled with moments of celebration for your entire teamAs teams move through the game, they are faced by a series of intelligently designed puzzles. Each one provides an optimal challenge that motivates and bonds the team. Many small wins result in ongoing team celebration as they unlock ever more clues, culminating in a race to the finish that brings the ultimate reward.

Especially at Breakout IQ, skilled facilitators and intentional game design ensures that every person, every team, and every group is guaranteed a sense of accomplishment at every step of the way.

Escape Rooms Illuminate Team Dynamics:

But escape rooms are more than just immersive, inclusive and energizing. While a game of monopoly might best identify which people are truly your friends or your foes, an escape room highlights nuanced team dynamics in an environment of both collaboration and competition.

Elements of an escape room include team play with a common goal, many sources of often incomplete information, and complex, interlocking puzzles. These elements simulate workplace deadlines, collaborative and independent tasks, while the unknowns require individuals and teams to expand their awareness, get curious, explore, take risks and work together.

In this context, escape rooms illuminate team dynamics – sometimes worn habits, other times surprising new insights. On one team, Morgan, usually quiet and reserved, may prove an escape expert, acting confidently as both problem solver and leader during the game. On another team, Blake’s need for control is challenged when a realization hits that by relinquishing it, a more productive and organic team process emerges. And on yet another team, Alex’s constant positive attitude, often overlooked in the office, may find itself celebrated when the team finds itself struggling.

Team play allows for new connections to be built. The most successful teams will always be those that are best at delegating, strategizing, sharing information, and making unique connections to solve elaborate problems – just like in the workplace.

 

Interested in an Escape Room for Your Team?

It’s no wonder that escape rooms are so popular for team building. Not only are they fun and engaging but they also provide a potent allegory to better understand yourself, your teammates, and your team as a whole.

If you’re interested in booking an escape room for your team, BreakoutIQ is the perfect fit. Our games are designed specifically with corporate teams in mind, and can cater to any group size at the same time, from 10s to 100s. We’re based in both the San Francisco Bay Area and New York Tri-State Area, and can also travel across the country for larger groups. Our pop up escape room games pack in everything you get from a brick and mortar escape room, and allow us to bring the fun to your office, off-site location, or another space near your group that we can coordinate for you.

To learn more or book a BreakoutIQ escape room, click here

We hope you’ll join us soon!