There’s no escaping the power of a creative team

Over the last couple of years, my friends and I have made a habit of catching up for a meal and an ‘escape room’ challenge for our birthdays.

As childhood gamers and absolute nerds, we believed this kind of catch-up was perfect for us. Immersive, entertaining and engaging, it certainly beats going to the movies (where you can’t actually speak to each other for two hours!).

And of course, trying to organise a group of adults to be in the same place at the same time can be practically quixotic, so we aim to make the most of it when it happens.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of an escape room, it involves being locked in a themed room and solving a series of puzzles to unlock the door and escape. Each member of the team brings their own expertise and perspective.

Our recent catch-up got me thinking about the nature of teams and how people work together to solve problems.

There is a general process to solving an escape room:

• Identify the obstacles – the locks, where are they are and what kind of combination is needed to open them
• Search for insight – clues in the room
• Piece the clues together to open each lock
• Solve and open the final lock and escape.

However, one of the most important elements in beating an escape room is communicating well with your team – sharing clues and ideas, checking in with each other as you find key items, and bouncing ideas off each other.

You also need to be willing to take risks, like putting your arm through a hole in the wall, walking into a pitch-black room, or trying ideas that may be incorrect and will temporarily lock you out of that puzzle.

This takes vulnerability, as you need to be willing to put even the wildest interpretations out there, admit when you can’t solve something, and trust that your team-mates have your back.

But as a team you know the ultimate objective – and that all of you will need to work together to win.

This is much like how we work as an agency, both internally and in our client partnerships.

We bring collective expertise to solve each unique problem. It takes the combination of our individual skills and experience to identify the key insights that allow us to develop creative solutions.

This requires good communication every step of the way, but also faith that our colleagues have the expertise to solve their part of the puzzle. Plus it’s important that people feel comfortable to venture bold creative ideas.

And of course, we also approach each project armed with the benefit of our prior experience. As I’ve discovered from escape rooms, knowing what has worked before (or not) makes it progressively easier to find solutions to new problems.

So in essence, our work involves a blend of collaboration, communication and continuous improvement.

That’s how we help you unlock your marketing challenges.