Character Flaws in Your Team that an Escape Room Typically Highlights and how it can help correct them.

Reluctance for Help– Everyone wants to be the Hero, but sometimes everyone just needs a little help. In Escape Room scenarios we often see groups fight over accepting help in the form of clues within the experience. Typically, we see this barrier broken before the time is up, as once the team is humbled into accepting help, they realize that a little help is not a bad thing.  Beyond just clues, a reluctance for help also translates into how the members of the team behave with each other. If you are part of a team, you need to eventually realize that the company could not be what it is, if everyone was on a solo mission. We need to come together and help each other so that we can become more efficient. Our Escapes tend to force collaboration, highlighting the need for multiple skill sets.  

Give up on an idea without following through on execution– At Trap Door we actually have a question on our job application that asks what is better, the idea, or the execution.  For us, the answer is always, Execution! Escape Room puzzles highlight this very well as we always see members of a team have an idea, but only a small percentage of players actually carry that idea to execution. Usually ideas are given up on well before they have the chance to materialize into something useful.  By the end of an experience, people usually start carrying through on executing ideas as they find that some ideas, are worth pursuing.

Inability to let go of bad ideas or useless information– Oh boy does this one plague the group. Discarding useless information is incredibly important in the workplace. We like to call those who cannot ‘Mental Hoarders’, as they just hold onto pointless info for no reason other than an inability to accept the inevitable, they were wrong.

One of the most important parts of business is recognizing when an idea is wrong, and pivoting into a new direction. As an Escape game progresses, teams typically become trained by the narrative to let go of content no longer relevant.  It trains their brains to operate in a more streamlined fashion; only holding onto the information and ideas that are moving the team forward.