The escapeletes (escape – leets) were on an incredible adventure in some ancient ruins. After taking time to look around at the set-like quality of the room that made us feel like we indeed were on an Indiana Jones adventure, we located what looked like a potential entryway into a secret passage or room. We noticed six indentations in the wall and soon after were able to find six bricks that fit neatly in them. Each brick had symbols on each side, and it appeared that similar marks were within each indentation. One team member reached in and noticed that the indentations contained several characters (one on each side of the block-like indentation). The other team member only saw the symbol on the back of the indentation. Each team member didn’t think to communicate what they found, assuming that the other teammate found the same thing.

We spent several minutes of our precious 60 minutes escaping the adventure, trying to get the symbols lined up correctly, with one team member lining up what they thought was a single symbol and the other team member trying to line up all the symbols. After a few minutes, one team member [finally] asked the other, “what do you feel in the indentation?” That simple question led to a better alignment of how to solve the issue. A secret passageway soon opened up, allowing the team to access a chamber of statues and the next step in their multi-room adventure. Another valuable lesson learned – how often are we in a conversation with another person, assuming that we are discussing the same thing, only to find out that we weren’t truly on the same page because of our assumptions? Always check your assumptions!