Working From Home

5Team Building, Collaboration, and Leading Remote Teams

“That green elf was a liar,” Hanna explains.

She's part of a team that just solved the mystery of the Grimm Escape. Do you know what that is? According to Fast Company, and Hanna, it's not a video game. It's an online version of an escape room, from Seattle‐based game maker Puzzle Break (https://bit.ly/wfh-escaperoom).

In case you're not familiar, an escape room is a game where a team of players assemble and agree to be locked in a room together. The objective is simple: to escape. Typically, the space is a themed chamber that's full of oddities and curiosities: mysteries needing to be solved. The players have to cooperate to discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in a specific amount of time, so that they can (wait for it) escape the room. However, with the arrival of the coronavirus, most live escape rooms were placed on permanent lockdown.

Luckily for Puzzle Break co‐founder and CEO Nate Martin, online escape rooms are open for business. Companies found out that remote workers can still get in a game together. Players don't have to physically be in the same room in order to participate. The online escape room, he says, is a great team‐building tool. Hanna nods her head in agreement.

“You interact online with ‘fairy godparents,’” she explains, with a straight face. Puzzle Break staff members – aka fairy godparents – serve as guides to the groups, offering answers to players and providing hints to the perplexed. ...