What if playing an escape room as a team building activity could be more than just a fun time? What if coworkers could learn about themselves and their colleagues so that they can work together more effectively – while having fun?
Since we opened our first location in 2014, we have watched tens of thousands of people work together (or not!) as they attempted to get out of one of our rooms. It didn’t take very long before behavior patterns started to emerge. At first, we noticed the obvious: who stepped up to be the leader and who was content in doing what they were told to do. However, other roles, relationships and patterns also became evident.
While many companies coming to Exit Strategy for team building are satisfied playing “Just for Fun“, we were getting more and more requests from organizations who were looking for a way to improve their team’s performance. So, we put our heads together and designed a unique and transformative team building option: Boost Your Game.
In Boost, teams work with an expert trainer/educator for an hour on top of playing Mansion at the North location. The formal debrief that takes place goes well beyond who did what and what worked well. The dynamics and relationships that are set in motion during the game are also examined. By understanding how such dynamics help a group be successful in a fun endeavor like an escape room, work teams are better able to support each other in the workplace during challenging moments.
From the very beginning of the 60-minute countdown, escape room players take on different roles. Without any planning, players will naturally gravitate to a role that suits their personality or others’ expectations. Whether they start looking for clues, try to roll the first lock they see or simply stand back to take it all in, players find their purpose. It might not always be useful or productive, but everyone will eventually find their role or play the one that is expected of them. Will someone take the lead or will everyone refrain from sticking their necks out? If there is a leader, is he or she the leader of the team in the workplace as well? All these observations are made as participants are playing but aren’t there fascinating correlations to be made with the workplace?
An escape room is also a great opportunity to see how well the group flows (or not) between working together and setting off to work individually on different tasks. While individuality or teamwork can both be key assets in the workplace, how can we best utilize them to be productive?
Want to know more? We would love to help you plan your Boost Your Game session. Call us at 980-859-4482 or email info@exitstrategynorth.com to learn how you can help your team achieve more while having fun.
Everything under the sun has its own day except for Escape Rooms! So, we decided that the 4th Thursday of October would now be National Escape Room Day, aka N.E.R.D. To celebrate, come play with us on that day at either location and pay only $5/person. Yup: $5/person!
Book online and use discount code NERD to get this sweet deal. (Promo code was only valid on 10/26/2017)
Fine print: up to 2 rooms played that day/person; regular cancellation/no-show policy still applies; cannot be combined with any other promotion.
The time has come – The Final Sacrifice will be retiring soon! The final… Final Sacrifice will be on September 17, 2017.
We’ll have special Do-Over Days where you can play the room again for $10 off the regular price. You must call us at 704-837-0515 or email our South location at info@exitstrategyus.com to schedule a Do-Over.
Final Sacrifice Do-Over Days – 9/07/17 and 9/17/17.
So you have a little under 2 months to play our hardest room for the last time!
You reserved The Mansion for 6 people and you and your crew are really excited to see how well you can work together. You’re going to beat this room, you can feel it! When you arrive at the North location to your surprise you are playing with 2 other people. Strangers! They are sitting right there and seem to be nice enough but they are still strangers! You don’t want them to ruin your plans…
You express concerns of playing with other people to the person at the front desk: “The website showed there were only 6 spots available. We wanted to be in the room by ourselves. We didn’t know we’d be playing with other people…” The staff explain The Mansion has a max of 8 people and 2 spots were taken when you made your reservation. Despite your disappointment, you put on a happy face, meet your new partners in crime and go to play the room anyway.
Does this sound familiar?
We understand that it can be disappointing or even frustrating to realize that you’ll have to spend an hour working in a room with strangers but here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. Most times, when people play with strangers they have a wonderful time and everyone is working together well. We’ve even had instances when people exchange phone numbers and email addresses!
2. Many of our record holders are strangers who were combined. How can that be? We think there are a few reasons. One is that people might be on their best behavior, trying to impress strangers. It could also be because strangers will look at things in a way that is different from how you and your group would look at things. Finally, it’s likely also because in any room that’s not fully linear, there are more than one task that can be worked on. Oftentimes, the smaller groups will divide naturally and work on simultaneous tasks.
Are there instances when strangers didn’t work out well? Indeed, there are and that’s always unfortunate. Our briefings do mention playing nice with strangers and our game masters are always watching for the quality of interactions when strangers are concerned. But if a group chooses to not play nice, the only thing we can do is make things right by the group who was overpowered.
Now, if you absolutely do not want to play with strangers, here’s what you can do: book all the spots! Look at the room description to see how many spots there are in the room you want to play and make sure to book all of them. When you check in, you’ll pay the regular $25/person and you’ll also pay $12.50 for each spot that you booked but are not using.
Ready to book your adventure at either our North or South location?
On July 19th, Sheri (Bob & Sheri) and Matt (Matt & Ramona) from 107.9 The Link along with some listeners competed in Exit North’s Spy Trainer room. If you know anything about Sheri and Matt, you know that they like to talk smack! See the before and after videos and yes, Matt’s team won!
Once in a while, someone comes out of one of our rooms and says “I didn’t like that room”. As much as we want to say: “What do you mean you didn’t like our room? How’s that even possible?” we know that not everyone will like every room. And that’s OK!
Escape rooms are like movies.
Not everyone likes the same movies and it’s the same with escape rooms. I’m not a fan of horror flicks but my hubby loves them! For myself, I much prefer a good drama. Him, not so much!
Escape rooms are exactly the same. That’s why for us, we always make sure that all our rooms are going to be different. No two environments are going to be the same and we will stay away from using the same type of puzzle more than once. If you didn’t like Final Sacrifice because it was too dark and scary, Quest of Honor might do the trick for you!
Playing styles are like learning styles.
I was a teacher in my previous life and always had to keep in mind the students’ learning styles. What we’ve come to realize with our Exit Strategy customers is that playing styles are very much like learning styles. Although no room only caters to a single playing style, they usually have an underlying feel.
Abstract thinker vs. Concrete thinker
Some players love to have things magically happen through magic spells or incantations while others cannot stand to not understand why “it worked”. For them, there’s nothing like a good old combination lock. They figured out the combination/found the key, used it on the lock and it worked! Throwing a concrete thinker in Quest of Honor might not be a good idea. However, put him in Cabin in the Woods and he’s more likely to be happy. On the other hand, an abstract thinker in Lost in Space might not be ideal!
Linear player vs. All-over-the-place player
One of the warnings we sometimes give first time players about a room like Subject Zero is that it’s not going to be like a scavenger hunt: linear, one step at a time. For an all-over-the-place player, the ideal is to have many things to find and many puzzles to solve. If they get stuck with one thing, they’ll transition to another easily. Murder Mystery also fits that bill. However, a linear thinker might get confused and frustrated if things seem to be too scattered. They much prefer to have an environment that is stripped of distractions and where puzzles are going to be more streamlined. Spy Trainer might be a room to consider for them. Doesn’t mean the room is easy! It simply means that what you just found is probably the only thing for you to focus on.
Predictability factor.
Last but not least is how predictable you want things to be. For some players, they want to know what they’re playing with. They much prefer to see all the space they will need to conquer. Cabin in the Woods, though very challenging, would offer that predictable environment. Most players however much prefer to be surprised by what’s to come/what’s left. Ever tried Bank Heist? Or most of our newest rooms, like Mansion for that matter!
We like to think that if you tell us about yourself, we’ll be able to recommend a room for you to play. Might we get it wrong? Sure. But I guarantee that with the new rooms still to come in 2017, we’ll design one that you’ll love!!
Are you ready to master an escape room now? If you’re up for the challenge, Exit Strategy has six rooms at our South location and three (soon to be four) at our North location. Book a room today if you’re up for the challenge! You’re not sure which room to book, give us a call and we’ll help you pick!
