Escape, As A Team!

[Peter Van de Voorde]

It's been a couple of months, but I'm finally back with another gaming post!

Here are my previous ones about Dixit and Pandemic.

So, how many of you have done an escape room as a team?

I believe it can be a great way to figure out and analyze team dynamics (who's the natural leader, who's keeping quiet, who's pushing their opinion to hard, who isn't being listened too, and so much more).

But while going out and doing an actual escape room is awesome, it can also be expensive and time consuming.

That's why I wanted to introduce this group to the Exit series of games. These are escape games in a box you can just play wherever you are.

They give you the same team insights as full immersive escape rooms but without the cost in time and money.

I've played a ton of these and have been frustrated (in a good way) by a lot of them.

Even though they seem small and easy they are actually pretty well put together and fun to explore together.

And if you want a true team "Building" exercise I can recommend the Escape Puzzle series from Ravensburger. These are puzzles that turn into an escape room once you've completed them. Fun to build and fun to play.

If you want to turn this into a full on learning exercise for the team you could also record the entire game play and go over it together afterwards to see how the team dynamics play out. I would recommend doing this together with a coach or moderator so you can all come together and learn as a team.

Have you ever tried an escape game (or puzzle) with your team? How did it turn out?
Did you notice the team dynamics at play? And did this knowledge help you in the future?

Let me know in the comments!

[Dániel Ballabás - EverIT]

I love escape rooms as a team exercise (and I'm also heavily into board games), but for me, these small box "escape puzzles" fell flat. Tried the Pharaoh's Tomb from the Kosmos line, and a few others by other publishers.

My main problem with them was that they are anti-teamwork in the sense that the puzzle is usually going on in one track (vs in good escape rooms, you can spread out, try stuff with the physical objects, etc.), and since the components are small to fit in these small boxes, only one person can effectively read them, access the information, work on their clues. I admit I've yet to try the ones that come in Ticket to Ride box sizes, maybe those solved this issue. So for this reason, our sessions usually turned more into a reading exercise, where one person just read out the clues - but we all ended up asking for the card to read - and usually running out of time because of "not accessible UI" :D 

For a similar puzzle-solving-in-a-box feeling, but for better options for teamwork, I recommend the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective series, where, after an intro readout, you can even start to work simultaneously. 

PS: Please keep up this amazing series!

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Are you talking about these Sherlock Holmes games, @Dániel Ballabás - EverIT? They sound interesting, I guess, I need to look into them 😁

[Peter Van de Voorde]

You make an excellent point @Dániel Ballabás - EverIT , these ones aren't at the same level as an actual escape room with multiple different threads you need to figure out and plenty of things to do for everyone in your team.

But from a time/budget perspective these can give you a lot of insights and fun for their money :)

Thanks for suggesting the Sherlock Holmes series, I didn't know about those yet :)

[Amanda Barber]

We did an escape room virtually in small groups last year. It was fun and challenging! Would love to find similar activities for remote engagement. Love this series!

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Thanks @Amanda Barber !

Codenames can be a cool game to play virtually with your team. We used to play that a lot during Covid times.

[Walter Buggenhout]

As it happens, we just did one as a team building activity last week. Quite cool, as the location had 3 exact copies of the same room, so it was possible to play with 3 teams at the same time.

While I am not the most competitive person at this, I do want to get out in time - obviously. But that was the case here - all teams made it in time and had a blast doing so.

We have started doing escape rooms with the family some time ago and did about 7 or 8. At first, the idea was to find a new hobby that we could still do as a family, with now 2 teenagers who are starting to have very different interests than their parents. And while the first one was just pure fun, we then noticed that by the 3rd or 4th room competition kicked in and it started to become a stressful experience. After that, we sat together and talked about how switching or mindset to having fun and letting everyone have the space to participate and contribute to the best of their abilities might bring back the fun. And that effectively helped.

It's much more fun again when we pick one to play. And I can imagine similar things may happen in work teams, although it may take a while to discover and establish a similar dynamic.

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Showing some excellent parenting skills here @Walter Buggenhout , I agree that is should always stay fun and not pure about the competition.

Your story also shows the power of reflection and communication as a team/family.

Thanks for sharing.

[Matthias Gaiser _K15t_]

Great to read one of your posts again, @Peter Van de VoordeI'm a big escape games fan - and love to solve riddles of all kinds.

Doing an actual escape room in-person is always more interactive and more of an experience than the board/card games. We've done multiple rooms with our team. For the last time we were in two different rooms which were connected to each other and we had to exchange some items - so you need to communicate in a good way with the other room - and also have the eyes and open ears for your teammates.
I also think, it's good if a team member (or a coach) has a special eye towards the interaction - so they can ask better reflection questions later.

Having said that, I really do like the Kosmos EXIT series. They don't cost a lot, you can play it on an evening with some friends - I haven't tried it with my team yet. I think the main reason is related to what @Dániel Ballabás - EverIT said, it's hard for these games to keep everyone activated. In my experience, these games are ideally for 2-4 players.

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Thanks for sharing your insights @Matthias Gaiser _K15t_ .

And I'll try and keep working on building this out into a more regular series :)

[Esther Strom]

Oh, how fun! Pre-pandemic, a bunch of us from work (not a single team, just people who wanted to play) did an escape room. We picked the most difficult option at the location; it was more than a single room. We started in two separate jail cells; after escaping from those (which we had to work together with people in the other room to do) we had to navigate down a dark hallway and figure out a bunch of clues to open a hidden door. That led us out into a police station, which we then had to figure out how to get out of. 

When we got out, the employee playing Oversight via video told us that only 2% of teams manage to escape from this setup within the allotted time. He was also totally surprised at how we did it; apparently we were hacking the clues and solving problems in ways they weren't designed to be solved! That's what you get when you lock up a bunch of engineers 😂 

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Well done @Esther Strom !

I've had similar experiences with escape rooms and engineers :)
I once bypassed half the puzzles by "engineering" myself a hook to grab a key. Only using materials available in the room, they had never seen anyone do that before :)

[vikram]

Hi 

3 months ago we had this game but it was challenging,

with Regards

Vikram P 

[Markku Miettunen]

Escape rooms are great fun! Our whole service area of 30+ members spent a day in Prison Island in Helsinki, Finland. They have dozens of small cells from where your small team tries to escape and beat the competition. Photos and more info here: Prison Island Helsinki - ei perinteinen pakohuone tai Escape Room 

[Peter Van de Voorde]

That looks super cool, thanks for sharing @Markku Miettunen 

[Summer.Hogan]

These puzzles look awesome @Peter Van de Voorde! Thanks for sharing! I love puzzles and I think I'll give one of these a try. My go to is typically Galison puzzles, but I'm open to trying new things. 

I went to an escape room (somewhat similar?) and did not like it at all! I don't like being trapped places. I think I'll try something like this with my team! 

[Aaron Geister]

I have never tried this but it seems very valuable for team building. Thanks for the share.

[Peter Van de Voorde]

You're welcome @Aaron Geister !

Enjoy it!

[Hind Kadiri From Jaanga]

Hey! What an awesome idea, We never tried this with our team, but I'll surely invite them to do it sometime.

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Good luck escaping!

[Laurie Sciutti]

@Peter Van de Voorde ~ thank you!  These look really cool and provide much easier means to engage teams.  I'm definitely going to look into these!

[Peter Van de Voorde]

That's great to hear @Laurie Sciutti let us know how it goes.

[HIMANSHU KUMAR]

Thanks for sharing!!

Great to read one of your posts @Peter Van de Voorde . Please keep up this amazing series!

[Noah - Devsamurai]

Thank you @Peter Van de Voorde ! These options seem really impressive and offer simpler ways to collaborate with teams. I'm definitely interested in exploring them further!