We all know that team building exercises are essential to ensure that you have a cohesive team. But let’s be honest, when you’ve been to one corporate retreat, you’ve pretty much been to them all. Everyone is welcomed and told that everyone is to be treated the same.
Your staff gets to call you Marv and act like you are just one of the guys. The next day some “fun” team building exercises ensue, maybe an “honest” chat around the campfire and, finishing off the evening with copious amounts of alcohol to take the edge off, some skinny dipping, etc.
When Sunday rolls around, everyone is grumpy because they have a hangover and all they want to do is to go home. It’s a case of let’s get these team building exercises that Marv is making us do over and done with so that we can go home and enjoy what’s left of our free time.
The traditional corporate retreat usually only does one thing successfully – the staff feels that their free time is being wasted and you go back to being the big boss on Monday morning.
Shake Things Up a Bit
Why settle for an excruciatingly boring retreat with relatively mediocre results? Why not do something fun, something that forces your team to actually work together and something that gets their adrenaline pumping.
An escape room can test your team to the limits. It allows them to have a completely immersive experience that requires them to pull out all the stops to make it through. It might not literally be a life and death situation, but it can feel as though it is to the people living through it.
Create Real Bonds
If you are looking for bonds forged by fire, this is a great place to start. The adrenaline gets pumping – you need to work together to find the way out and potentially beat the other team to the end.
It Is Totally Different
This is the full experience. It’s fun; it makes people think, and it is something that they will never forget. Forget the rousing, motivational speeches that no one really listens to anyway, focus on something completely new by having your next corporate retreat in an escape room.
Do You Tell them it’s Not Real?
Logistically, it might be difficult to con them into thinking that they are in the situation for real. You could stage a hijacking or kidnapping, perhaps – we’ve all seen those horror movies where the people wake up to find themselves trapped and having to find a way out.
Unless you really know your executives, though, and know that they will see the humor in the situation afterwards, it’s a pretty risky tactic that could leave you open to liability issues.
A good compromise would be just not to tell them what the team building activity is. Perhaps they can show up at the escape room and be given instructions when they get there.
Whatever way you decide to go, one thing is for sure – people will be talking about your corporate retreat for a long time to come. And there will be plenty of volunteers for the next one.
Looking to get your company in on the action? Check out our escape rooms in Chicago and in Berlin, CT.
Before you go, check out these 5 escape room tips and tricks!
