Having watched literally thousands of escape room games being played at ExitTheRoom.,  So today we thought we would have a look at the theme of “team cohesion.” It's a concept that is often discussed by both Games Masters and players alike. So what exactly is “team cohesion?”  Well, we defined it as the extent to which members of a team will stick together and continue to remain united as they pursue a common goal. The concept is simple enough and you can see how important it will be for any team wishing to complete the escape room game successfully. The first half of the definition deals with the “sticking together.” It's much more than just having a regular meeting or going out for lunch together. It means that there is a real connection between people.

And it’s this connection that allows the team to operate as a single cohesive unit. This requires clear and precise communication in order that each member of the team may understand each other's responsibilities. We have seen many games played where there was a complete absence of cohesion. From the very beginning we can see duplicated efforts, lack of responsibility,  infighting and even resource hoarding. Sometimes a player will feel they are built of leadership material, but fail to understand that leadership is not just about being the loudest or being a bully. Although the symptoms of lack of cohesion are clear, so are the results. Some players are going to feel unwanted and therefore isolated.  They will feel that their actions contain no value for others. In some ways there are aspects of ego involved in the game. After all, it does have a competitive element to it. But some individuals fail to understand that the competition is not between members of an individual team. It is simply that you are competing against a clock which is counting down the minutes remaining. 

As a Games Master, it's a pleasure to see a team that works well together. They have no problem sharing resources and openly communicating about any clues or puzzles they may be stuck on. Everyone in the team is prepared to pitch in and help each other, so that the team as a whole, will complete the escape room within the allotted time limit. 

Most escape rooms will have carefully formulated puzzles which, for a person who has never come across them before, will involve complex problem solving. Many of the larger riddles and puzzles will also have multiple smaller objectives that need to be completed in order to solve the main puzzle. As individuals will be working in different parts of the escape room, it's important that they are willing to share information as soon as it comes to light. Any new discovery needs to be highlighted for the whole group. If an individual is stumped, then they must be prepared to not see the lack of success as a failure. That sort of thinking needs to be left at the door when they enter. If a puzzle is blocking the road, then all team members need to change their priorities and help figure out a solution. In some ways, this is proof that a well-oiled team will always function better than a single individual.

If we look at the second half of the team cohesion definition we can see that it's about “remaining united” in the face of problems and in the effort to reach a common goal. So, though everyone in the team will have their own individual jobs to do, they all have in the front of their minds the idea that the whole team has an overarching  goal. In other words, there is the ultimate objective of escaping the room together as a team. In a work situation this may mean completing the design of a product or working out an advertising strategy.  But in an escape room, full of difficult and mind taxing puzzles, everyone needs to help lift everyone else up. This means that each personal task needs to feed into the whole team's approach.

On an individual level, there will be multiple smaller puzzles and tasks that need to be solved in the escape room game. But with each one of these solved, then the whole team moves a little closer to their desired objective. Once again, a great deal of a team’s success will come down to the channels of communication. We have seen many players who, for egotistical reasons, are unwilling to share their findings with other team members. As you can imagine, this had disastrous results. Escape room games represent a sort of democratisation of gameplay. Yes, they may well need a leader, but their role is more about corralling information, as opposed to leading from the front. It's important that all the participants keep the goal of escaping the room in sight. And do not get too bogged down in individual puzzles or looking for whose which they feel are alluding  tham. In the same way that a business has many employees working towards a common goal, so it is with an escape room game. That's why it's super important that each individual member of the team never takes their eyes off the eventual prize.