Christmas is always such a fun time of year around our office.  While we are busy getting year-end tax planning done, we plan our annual party and bonding time for our team.  This team building always comes with great timing – as we hit the ground running on busy season projects typically just after the Christmas trees are being taken to the curb.

This year, we ‘Escaped the Office’ and got locked into a mystery room at ESCAPE THIS – and if you haven’t been involved in an escape room experience, it should be added to your bucket list.  It was so much fun and such a different experience than we expected.  Our task was given to us by Thomas Gardner, the in-house counsel of ISG Corporation, who has been accused of stealing millions of dollars and wants our team to clear his name.    

The room itself contained pictures, books, trinkets, drawers, furnishing, papers, and SO MANY LOCKS!  We were charged with sorting through so many clues to get combinations which opened the locks and led to more clues and evidence.  We did a good job of assigning tasks to our team and working through problems in smaller groups, but we probably should have used our ‘phone a friend’ lifeline sooner than we did – because we did NOT meet our goal of beating the fastest time to complete the room (which was under 43 minutes!) but we did finish successfully and we ESCAPED!

Our important takeaways from this fun experience:

• We are a competitive bunch…
• Being locked in a room with a problem to solve is a great way to spend an afternoon.
• We are better at finding actual stolen funds than stolen ‘gemstones’ and our training is better suited to looking at actual debits and credits than missing volumes of 1975 encyclopedias! 
• Growing closer as a team makes us all more productive!

This holiday season, we are thankful for so many blessings – and our clients and business partners are at the top of that list.  We are always trying to find interesting and creative ways to serve our clients better.  The old model of the disappearing accountant who is only seen on April 15^th is not one we love, and we are thankful for our clients unfailing support of our vison.  We wish you a wonderful and prosperous 2018!