Zoltan Jakab, Founder of Thinkout Events

Zoltan Jakab, founder of Thinkout Events, shares his advocacy on using immersive gameplay and escape rooms as a great platform to enhance teamwork and facilitate communication and leadership skills, exclusively on The Leaderonomics Show, together with host Audrey Tong.

Hungarian-born Jakab, who draws creative and fresh ideas from blogs and online spaces (like 9gag!) when designing escape rooms, believes in bringing people together in a fun and exciting way in the real physical world (as opposed to the virtual/digital space).

Here are some key takeaways from the interview:

• Being confined in a time-sensitive environment with goals to achieve uncovers your natural self, where you are tested on how you would communicate, lead and solve problems in a team, authentically. How you respond in the alternate reality world would reflect how you respond in the real world too.
• Experience is golden, so start collecting them. One day, you will be able to put your experience to good use.
• To grow yourself creatively, you need a constant flow of ideas. Do not let your one ‘better idea’ becomes an assumption and your only ‘solution’ to a challenging task. Beware the ‘assumption trap’.
• Whenever you are stuck, take a step back and see from a ‘big picture’ lens. Re-assess the whole situation and try something new to avoid getting looped in the same cycle again.
• Be aware that everyone has different strengths in a team, so expect people to contribute and play their roles differently.