How 'Jungle Escape' Helps Teams Work Better Together
Bradford R. GlaserLearning how to work as a team can be difficult. Not only is teamwork challenging, but the actual act of learning can be hard. Information is easily ignored, and training can be ineffective.
Typical training sessions may drag on too long, often leaving learners distracted and unfocused. When they walk away from a training, they may find that they didn’t learn very much. How can this be fixed? With team building activities.
Engageli found a 62.7% participation rate in active learning sessions versus just 5% in lecture formats, with 13× more learner talk time and 16× higher non-verbal engagement in active environments.
- Practice 9 elements of teamwork
- Discover the impact of individual behaviors
- Establish action-planning steps
Table of Contents
Why Hands-on Learning Sticks
There's a reason we remember how to ride a bike long after we've forgotten most of what we read in a textbook – actively doing something is different from just hearing about it. The same principle applies in the workplace. When employees learn by actually performing a task, making decisions, and experiencing the consequences in real time, the knowledge moves from short-term memory into something they can genuinely draw on when it matters.
Passive training formats – slides, lectures, recorded videos – have their place, but they put employees in the role of audience rather than participant. Research backs this up: active learners in workplace training retain up to 93.5% of information, compared to 79% for passive learners. That gap might not sound dramatic, but in practice it's the difference between an employee who remembers the training six months later and one who needs a refresher every quarter.
Hands-on team building activities also build something stats can't fully capture: confidence. When someone has actually worked through a scenario, they walk away knowing they can do it again.
The most effective training programs treat hands-on practice not as a bonus add-on, but as the core of how learning happens.
The Case for Learning Together
Individual skill-building matters, but some of the most valuable workplace learning happens between people, not just within them. When employees learn alongside their coworkers – working through problems together and sharing what they know – the result is often more effective than anything a solo training module can produce.
This isn't just about team-building in the feel-good sense. The best team building activities mirror the way real work actually gets done. Most workplace challenges aren't solved by one person in isolation – they require people to share knowledge, negotiate approaches, and adapt to each other. Training that reflects this helps employees build not just skills, but the habits of working well with others.
Team Development with Jungle Escape
Jungle Escape is one of the most effective team building activities to introduce the basic elements of teamwork, energize mature teams, uncover team blockages, or improve productivity between work groups. What makes it so powerful is that participants get to experience group-process skills firsthand through a fun and adventurous survival scenario. When learners perform activities themselves, they absorb information and leave the session with fresh knowledge.
During Jungle Escape, teams are challenged to work together to build a makeshift helicopter using limited parts and each other. The game’s hands-on design allows players to discover and practice critical group-process skills such as:
While playing the game, the team will directly experience the differences between a connected team and a fragmented or divergent one.
The Jungle Escape Setup
Stranded in a jungle after surviving an airplane crash, teams are challenged to build a helicopter to exact specifications using only toy parts, limited access to an assembled model, and teamwork. Starting with a planning phase, they discuss how to execute the project, and then the construction begins.
When the team believes they've properly built their aircraft, the facilitator checks the helicopter for accuracy and records the time dedicated to planning and construction. The winner is usually the team that spends the most time planning. Following the activity, team members discuss team dynamics, share insights, and create an action plan for improvement.
Who Should Use Jungle Escape?
Jungle Escape can be used as a standalone team-building game or as part of a more in-depth training program. It was developed specifically for new and intermediate workgroups, but it's also an excellent refresher and energizer for more mature teams.
You can also use the game to introduce the elements of effective teamwork, kick off a team-building workshop or seminar, improve productivity between multiple work teams, identify group issues or concerns that block team performance, and energize established work teams.
Jungle Escape Takeaways
Jungle Escape helps participants:
- Understand the difference between Cohesive, Fragmented, and Divergent teams.
- Learn and practice the nine elements of effective teamwork.
- Experience vital group-process skills.
- Demonstrate the balance between planning and execution.
- Recognize the effect of individual behavior on group productivity.
- Establish action-planning steps for improved team performance.
Get Started Today
If you’re ready to elevate your team performance and dynamics while ensuring the learning sticks with team building activities, Jungle Escape is for you! Available for in-person training, the deluxe game kit comes with everything you need to train. Shop today!
