A curiosity question of mine includes how to build an escape room experience for the purpose of team building during the on-boarding of a new remote team. Well, I began a new position this week and am in the middle of an on boarding experience with a new remote team. An inquiry based scenario presented itself that resembled the elements of an escape room. We had a task with challenges/road blocks and could not leave the room until the task was complete.
I joined a team of 4 people in a web conferencing pod using Microsoft Teams:
Our team was tasked with completing a set of tasks using virtual phone system to complete a warm transfer. Individually, our team faced multiple challenges that would not result in each of us completing the task alone.
1. None of us completed a learning module design to give our team the learning context needed to know the definition of a warm transfer.
2. Only 2 of us had full access to the virtual phone system due to the typical issues of slow setup procedures when joining a new team.
Together, we had everything we needed to complete the task:
One team member explained the definition of a "warm transfer" from prior knowledge and shared the definition with us. We then understood one team member needed to make 2 phone calls and complete the transfer. The team member shared his screen with all of us and together we tried the options. He successfully called one of us on the team member's personal cell phone and then called the other team member with access to the virtual phone system. Together we stepped through the process using mutual curiosity and successfully completed the warm transfer.
Even bigger bonus: We completed the task in half the time and were able to enjoy and extended break before our next learning session. I felt like we should have spliced a picture together with positive affirmations like the completers of a typical escape room.
And there is more:
The team developed a deeper understanding of the Microsoft Teams collaboration tools like commenting and sharing screens.
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