Are Escape Rooms Good for Team Building?
Escape rooms have exploded in popularity over the past decade, but are they more than just a fun activity? There’s a growing recognition of how escape rooms can contribute to team building and group bonding.
In this article we’ll take a deeper look at what escape rooms are and how they can improve communication, collaboration, and problem-solving as part of an ideal team building experience.
Read on to discover if they’re right for your next team night or corporate away day!
What is a Team Building Escape Room?
First, a quick definition as the term “escape room” can be a little confusing... It’s generally a catch-all for a range of immersive, in-person group activities where participants work together to achieve a common goal.
While this may or may not involve physically “escaping”, you could also be solving a murder, unravelling a mystery or finding a long-lost object. The group’s actions progress the narrative and directly influence the outcome of the experience - a bit like a real-life video game!
Team building escape rooms share a few common features:
1. Puzzles! These could be physical or more cerebral in nature and usually test a wide range of skills and abilities.
2. Immersive environment. Escape rooms transport you from the everyday to somewhere extraordinary. They typically have strong theming and a story to draw you in, sometimes employing special effects and live actors to enhance realism.
3. Time pressure – usually just 1 hour to avert some form of calamity!
Why Escape Rooms Work for Team Building
Escape rooms are designed to challenge groups to complete exceptional tasks in ways that mirror real-life. The best escape rooms contain a wide variety of puzzles that will require numerous different individual and inter-personal skills. Some of the benefits for teams include…
Fostering Collaboration
Almost every puzzle in an escape room demands a degree of teamwork. No single person can solve it all, and different individuals possess different strengths. Progress is only achieved when participants share information and ideas, work together effectively to combine their various abilities.
Promoting Effective Communication
The format of an escape room, with its clear goal and ever-present time pressure, forces teams to communicate clearly and efficiently. It’s a crash course in getting your point across fast! Plus, many puzzles are intentionally designed to force communication between multiple individuals who may be physically separated or have access to different information that they need to share.
Developing Problem-Solving Skills
Escape room puzzles will test a variety of cognitive skills. These could include the need to think logically through multiple steps, to analyse information from multiple sources, or to think laterally. Puzzles aren’t always straightforward - they often require players to be creative - perhaps using an object in an unusual way or making connections they wouldn’t normally consider. Skills that transfer well to real-world problem solving.
Promoting Leadership Roles
The intensity of an escape room environment always reveals a lot about a group’s working style. Leaders will emerge naturally, and to succeed, they’ll have to delegate roles effectively while keeping the whole team focused and motivated.
Real-World Team Building Benefits
The benefits of taking part in a team building escape room with colleagues extends well beyond the experience itself, many of these are directly relevant to the workplace…
Breaking Down Barriers
Escape rooms are the perfect icebreaker. Everyone is in the same situation, on the same team and working toward a shared goal. Close physical collaboration is becoming a rare commodity with the rise of remote working and geographically disparate teams. The challenge of an escape room is a great opportunity to work together face to face. Plus, the nature of the task at hand (helped by some effective immersion!) forces people a little out of their comfort zone and encourages even the shyest of team members to engage.
Boosting Morale
Escape rooms are fun. Genuinely fun! They’re a great way to let off steam and reward a high performing team. Sure, there may be challenging and stressful parts, but the simulated pressure of the escape room environment helps forge lasting bonds among the team members. There’s nothing like succeeding together and the associated endorphin rush. Plus, there are sure to be hilarious moments and unexpected surprises that you’ll be talking about long after the experience ends.
Identifying Strengths & Weaknesses
Endorphins aside, the experience should also provide valuable insights into how well the team works together. There’s nowhere to hide in an escape room, and your colleague’s individual working styles will be revealed along with how they conduct themselves under pressure. Escape rooms are like a real-world litmus test for understanding team dynamics and you’re likely to return to the office better informed.
Choosing the Right Escape Room for Your Team
While escape rooms can be extremely valuable as a team building activity, there are some important considerations to ensure you’re picking the right one for your team.
Check Reviews
Not all escape rooms are created equal. Check reviews in advance to ensure you’re booking your team a 5* rated experience with excellent customer service. In particular, look for reviews posted by other corporate groups.
Pick the Right Difficulty Level
While somewhat subjective, most escape rooms give an indication of the difficulty level on their website. You want a room that will present a sufficient challenge, but one which your team will ultimately overcome. Account for both your team’s ability and their prior experience with escape rooms in general. At Escape The Past, both of our rooms have a “moderate” level of difficulty and our experienced Gamesmasters are always on hand to provide extra hints when needed.
Theme
Find a theme that’s of interest to your team and will keep them engaged. While some escape rooms can be rather generic, at Escape The Past we build our rooms around real stories from Edinburgh’s history. This makes it the perfect Edinburgh team building activity for those who live or work locally. It will also provide visiting colleagues with an immersive introduction to Edinburgh.
If your team are active and outdoorsy, why not consider an outdoor escape room to get them out of the office and onto the streets in search of clues.
Group Size
Think about the size of your team and check that your chosen room is appropriate. Escape Rooms will typically give a range of possible group sizes e.g. 2-8 people, but the “ideal” team size for any particular room usually exists somewhere in the middle of this range.
We find that for teams of more than 8 people, you’re usually better splitting into multiple smaller groups rather than trying to find a room to accommodate you all together – teams larger than this often struggle to work together effectively and keep everyone fully engaged in the experience. At Escape The Past we can accommodate groups of up to 14 people across our two escape rooms, the Anatomist and the Deacon's Cabinet.
How to Book a Team Escape Room Experience
Hopefully this article has convinced you to book an escape room team building experience for your next company event! To see what we have to offer here at Escape The Past, view our Edinburgh escape rooms.
At Escape The Past, we offer high quality escape room experience, loved by corporate groups. All our rooms are directly inspired by Edinburgh’s dark past and offer a thrilling and challenging 60 minutes as you attempt to solve a grave-robbing era medical mystery, or outsmart the infamous inspiration behind Jekyll & Hyde…
Booking for a large corporate group?
We can offer bespoke time slots and discounts for multi-room bookings. Feel free to contact us and we’ll do our best to accommodate your group’s unique requirements.
