Blog

Keeping teams engaged while working remotely can be tough. And chances are they’re already getting sick of online bingo! Today we’re sharing our tips for how to mix it up by setting up a virtual Escape Game team building, using our new print-at-home escape game Print+Cut+Escape!

Want to win your free ticket to the next episode of our new print-at-home escape game, Print+Cut+Escape!? Following the success of Episode 1, which was released in April, we have recently unveiled a second edition, and will soon be launching a third. All you need to do to win a free copy is post your team selfie while playing Episode 1 or Episode 2.

We never thought we’d be sharing tips on how to play a virtual escape game with your friends from your living room! But that was before the current times called for it. 

So Easter is going to be a little weird this year, right? First thing’s first, the most important thing right now is that we all stay safe. In the clueQuest family, we will all be celebrating at home with our families. For now everyone is fit and healthy, and we’re so grateful for that. But still, it’s going to be strange...

We’re happy to announce that Ubisoft’s latest VR title is coming to clueQuest in May!

Welcome to the 2nd month of the year! The long weeks of January have finally ended and we can start looking forward to the rest of 2020!

Everyone who has worked as part of a team at least once is guaranteed to have heard the title phrase of this article at least once. Where it once induced a sense of unity, it does little more these days than induce groans. But is its endurance not a signifier that its message is richer than it may appear? We certainly think so, and the following breakdown is my take on the meaning behind the cliché.

The countdown to Christmas has begun!

It's that jolly time of year again agents, which means you should be getting your advent calendars ready… Don’t worry if you haven't, Mr Q and the rest of us at clueQuest have got you covered!

The term ‘closure’ is often-used in popular culture - certainly in popular psychology - in reference to a sense of completion. But its meaning and usage seem to have become increasingly less tangible, and its origins vague. What can delving into the main theoretical texts - such as Webster and Kruglanski’s seminal ‘cognitive closure’ papers - tell us about our own behaviours and the effects those can have on our decision making? 

If you’ve been keeping up with our staff interviews, you may know that we’ve been working closely with Lindsey, whose MSc research at The London School of Economics set out to observe the effects of labour division and leadership on group problem solving. As it’s something about which we care so much, it was a no-brainer to bring her on-board and offer up our space and services. But in carrying out her research, it was the effectiveness of escape rooms as a space to capture such data that proved so valuable to her; and thus priceless to us.  

Congratulations dear agent, you are the lucky finder of a wealth of once confidential information. Acoustically engineered kittens; blueprints to nuclear moon missiles; the information could soon be at your very fingertips, courtesy of Vince Houghton and his non-fiction book Nuking the Moon. But that’s not all. clueQuest secrets have since been uncovered too. Follow these simple steps to get the book plus £30 off an escape experience, completely free of charge…

Halloween is here once more! Much to the delight of Professor Blacksheep, who spends every year waiting for it as if it were Christmas. And let’s face it; Mr Q wouldn’t wish for even his worst enemy’s favourite celebrations to be cut short. That’s why you can Trick or Treat at clueQuest right up until Sunday.

The last year has been one of great change for the marketing team at clueQuest. In August last year it gained Keith, who brought with him a wealth of digital experience and an unmatched warmth which has found its way into both the employee culture and even the branding. Shortly after, his team grew and is now a modest trio of in-housers with support from our out-house designers. Keith let us in on his experiences, current projects, and important lessons in the spy agency.

It’s October, and you know what that means! Paint your faces; cut holes in your sheets; get ready for a sugar-rush, Halloween is here! But fear not… Well, no more than you should this time of year. By Mr Q’s orders, our mission this month is to make sure we stay family-friendly.

Alexis’s background in both sales and escape rooms was well established by the time he joined us in 2017. His passion for people is evident to anyone who has booked through him, and he himself attests to the importance of respect and empathy that his role has taught him. We caught up with him to discuss his route into his current role, the misconceptions he’s regularly met with and the positive changes he’s witnessed clueQuest make for companies.

It’s been a week since this year’s CIPD People Management Awards, and as proud supporters of human resource innovation, the clueQuest team was in attendance. Not only were we supporting the nominees in the category we sponsored though, but also one of our very own team members…

Is it by pure coincidence that Alex came to us around Christmas-time? We think not! He’s exactly who we’d been asking for, so staying on the nice list must have paid off. Alex was President of the Adventure Gaming Society at the University of Kent, where he also completed his Mathematics degree before joining us in a front-of-house role. So when the clueQuest Assessment Programme (CAP) required a head for numbers and a heart for adventure, we were lucky enough to need look no further than right under our noses...

In a moment of serendipity, Lindsey first joined us while at LSE studying the use of escape rooms to observe group dynamics, just as we were developing what is now the clueQuest Assessment Programme. In our brief chat she elaborated on her findings which have been instrumental to the programme, as well as her feelings towards the role she has since moved in to at clueQuest.

For better or worse, everyone’s management style is different... Which can make it extremely hard to assess your own. You may find common ground in the styles of your peers or idols, but without set labels, how will you develop a consistency to your methods; an ethos that feels complete? Luckily, the work of social psychologist Kurt Lewin boils it down to just three styles, complete with each one’s observed effects on a team.

A self-confessed perfectionist, Eszter has an eye for detail and a keen interest in people. As a result, her impact on the company in the past 18 months is visible in anything from staff morale to the imminent launch of the clueQuest Assessment Programme (CAP). We caught up with her to discuss her balancing of multiple roles, from our head of HR to the leading force behind CAP, as well as the rewards of laying out our core company values.