Certainly not your average teambuilding event, the above scenarios, offered by Fargo Escape Room (www.fargoescaperoom.com), take your team through a live-action game in which they are locked in a room full of clues that must be found and puzzles that must be solved in order to get out of the room. And you have one hour to do it.
“Escape Rooms take you out of the office, and your comfort zone, and put you and your team in a situation where you can really build on communication and trust,” said Sarah Deutsch, Co-owner of Fargo Escape Room.
According to Home2 Suites General Manager Adam Gangl, like most teambuilding exercises, his leadership team went in with a game plan on how they were going to solve the puzzles and find the clues (without asking for any hints!) and the minute the doors were locked behind them, that all went out the window.
“From a teamwork aspect, the exercise is interesting as you see people very quickly fall into roles they have a natural proclivity towards,” said Gangl. “Whether it’s note taking or being able to stop and think and work something out, you see what each team member’s own personal dynamic is.”
Gangl also said that this experience allows you to see how people work in a natural environment. The time constraint seems to put this rushed nature on people and, as a result, they’re not really thinking about how they would normally conduct themselves in a business setting.
So how did the teamwork aspect evolve for the Home2 Suites team? Gangl noted that for about the first 10 to 15 minutes, everyone sort of did their own thing. Then people started to hit dead ends, and this is where the teamwork evolved. “You start to see brainstorming sessions and by about halfway through, the team has naturally fallen into group dynamics,” said Gangl. The most progress for the Home2 Suites team happened in the 30 to 45 minute window, where everyone was working together seamlessly. The Home2 Suites team managed to escape with just a couple minutes left