Salt Lake City — Confirming research that company teams that play together, stay well together, the Best of State Awards® selected Mystery Escape Room® (www.mysteryescaperoom.com) for three awards in the Corporate Wellness, Interactive/Multimedia, and Recreational Attraction categories. Best of State judges have now honored Mystery Escape Room with 14 awards during the past six years, including wins for best entertainment and recreation venue.

Whether online or in-person, live facilitators guide teams of four to twelve people to discover clues to escape different-themed rooms-like Sherlock Holmes, Nancy Drew, and Downton Abbey. Mystery Escape Room is partnering with Carnegie Mellon University and taking observations from those experiences to create the world’s largest database on team performance research.

“We are grateful the Best of State Awards judges are recognizing our efforts to keep people connected during this past year of isolation,” said Les Pardew, president and founder of Mystery Escape Room. “These awards validate research showing corporate wellness programs–including fun ones like ours–can reduce absenteeism, improve productivity and grow positive morale.”

So far Mystery Escape Room has collected data from extensive observations involving more than 5,400 teams. Here are some of the initial findings from the research:

1. The more hierarchical the relationships between team members, the more reserved the teams tended to be. They were slower to share ideas.
2. Teams of strangers had less to fear from judgment by other team members, so they shared ideas with less hesitation.
3. Teams of strangers were made up of people who tended to be less fearful of joining with people they didn’t know. They were more open and self-assured.
4. Teams from families and work teams tended to remain in their accustomed roles. They were more hesitant to step forward. 

More than half of the Fortune 100 companies have had their employees participate in Mystery Escape Room experiences. The adventures are helping promote corporate team building, strengthen family relationships and providing a forum for everyone to have fun.

Mystery Escape Room

Mystery Escape Room was one of the first escape room companies in the U.S when it began in 2014 and has become the global leader for in-person and online interactive games that inspire audiences to go on adventures to solve a mystery. Founder Les Pardew has created experiences to inspire, enable and empower participants to reach new heights of teamwork and cooperation. Mystery Escape Room has hosted employees from half of Fortune 100 companies and installed escape rooms in 20 Air Force bases around the world. The company has won 14 Best of State Awards. Participants can attend online or have on-location experiences in Salt Lake City and St. George, Utah, and Tucson, Arizona. More information is available at www.mysteryescaperoom.com.