Team Buildings Opportunities at ExitTheRoom
First things first…what exactly is “team building”? Over the last twenty years or so the idea of team building has been gaining ground, and it appears to have become the corporate buzzword de jour. That, and “synergy”, but let’s not go there.
So What is Team Building?
Essentially, it’s a process of turning individual employees into one cohesive unit. So, getting a group of workers to take part in some activity that’ll strengthen their bonds. By doing so, the business hopes to benefit from having a workforce which, on a personal level, can understand and share common work goals. The general idea here seems to be that be encouraging the formation of stronger bonds within the total workforce. Then everyone can rise to greater heights than if there was no team bonding activity at all.
It’s a hard truth, but most jobs can become laborious and even tedious. The workers feel disconnected from both what they’re doing as well as the purpose behind it all. It’s all to easy to become lost and rudderless with no wind in the sails. So it pays dividends to periodically motivate your staff. Each and every tiny piece of the working machine needs to feel appreciated and useful. Ideally, that’s how you should value your workers. And team building helps everyone to feel the love. A lot of the working day is spent interacting with others. So anything that can improve this interaction must be a positive gain, both for the business and for each individual person involved. It’s important to focus on both the business aspects and the personal one’s if you really want to create a more productive and happy workforce. As most of us have little choice, but have to work, then why not try and improve the job situation and overall experience.
Today’s team building exercises can be something as small and insignificant as some children’s games. Or they can involve pushing boundaries in both a physical and mental way. For example, playing paintball or jumping from an aircraft. A more recent arrival on the scene are Exit Rooms. These provide a fantastic opportunity for team building, and once a game has started, this will become instantly apparent.
How To Organize A Team Building Exercise
In larger businesses or corporations, this is the job of HR. On the whole, it’s already built into the initial interview process that they’ll be looking for someone who can “fit in” and add value to an existing work team. So it follows that the task of building better relationships will fall at their feet. They’ll think of a practical team building exercise and then get all the staff together. There may well be different activities depending on both the required outcome and the make-up of the players. For example, a dynamic and aggressive sales force might benefit more from an equally aggressive approach to team building. So something like paintball or speed climbing would have enough adrenaline to satisfy their needs. Like wise a group of hipster programmers might prefer a day of vegan cooking classes or urban exploring or beard gardening (OK…we made this last one up!). And this is where escape rooms come in. They are able to satisfy the needs and wants of a whole spectrum of players and their corresponding attitudes and outlooks.
What Can ExitTheRoom Provide?
On the whole there are a number of points that any business is going to be keeping in mind when it comes to choosing a team building exercise. One of these, in fact maybe the major factor, is going to be about price. Most businesses are looking at the team building itself as a the way of being an investment. Obviously, if it’s possible to achieve all the desired goals and keep the guys in accounting happy, then all the better.
ExitTheRoom ticks all the boxes. First off, it’s not going to break the bank. Apart from the premises, there’s no special equipment required. Just the rooms and the players. And now with Escape Rooms being played remotely over the internet, there’s even less for the players to do in order to play. This certainly makes the organization of such events much more trouble free, as there are no peripheral parts to go wrong. Secondly, the games themselves are both difficult and yet entertaining at the same time. Unlike many other team building exercises, there’s no possibility of dread or fear or discomfort. It’s not like para-gliding or white water rafting. You’ll not be cold and wet, with the ever possibility of crashing or drowning to the sound of breaking bones!
Another important point is that it really is about “the Team”. Many other team building events quickly turn into enforcing the same hierarchy as can be found back at the office. The guy in charge assumes their given role as the team captain and barks all the orders. Then the subordinates, follow their well trodden path of, well, just being subordinates and doing what their told to do. It’s not encouraging to witness and defeats the whole point of the exercise. ExitTheRoom is all about finding solutions as a bona fide team. And that requires real co-operation. Because the very nature of the puzzles, enigmas and clues are so varied, there’s certainly something there for everyone. Some require practical skills, others a head for numbers, and let’s not forget that oh-so-rare quality, common sense! For example, a person that’s more spatially aware will find the hidden visual clues faster than the mathematics boffin, who might be looking for patterns and ciphers.
Playing via ExitTheRoom, you’ll discover a number of different story lines you can choose from. These narratives are designed to add some both spice and backstory into the proceedings. And to that end, each room is styled in conjunction with the story. The same goes for all the clues and head scratches you’ll encounter. If you happen to be playing online, then there’s a cheerful “game’s master” situated in the room and he’ll be following your online directions as you view everything via the camera he’s wearing. But however you decide to play, you’re all locked in together. And each player has the chance to prove themselves as both an individual and as a team player.
And that’s probably one of the greatest benefits of Exit Room games. The fact that there’s something for everyone. The games have been especially designed to incorporate puzzles and conundrums that’ll be oblique and frustrating at first, but with many minds put to work, will eventually lead to that wonderful “eureka” moment. Of course, in order to proceed, everyone needs to be involved, as all the clues are essentially leading to the one solution. That is to escape from the room. It’s this input from across all members of the teams that adds a sort of democracy to the proceedings. Like the Three Musketeers, “All for one and one for all”. It also means that once the game is complete, everyone involved has a sense of achievement. That their contribution was equally important to the eventual outcome.
The bottom line is that we feel by far the best team building activities are those which are inexpensive, great fun, and easy to partake in. And that sounds like all the ingredients to be found at Exittheroom!