Luke Ross • 17 November 2025

Not all team meetings should start with a whiteboard ...

Team in an escape room.

For the McDonald's South East Leadership Team, their session began with eyes closed, three people chained to the walls and total darkness. Not your usual Monday morning, but an unforgettable way to build trust quickly.


From there, it was straight into The Great Escape Melbourne’s Walking Undead, where surviving zombies became a crash course in team functioning.


🧟‍♂️ Trust: relying on your colleagues to unlock your chains before the undead shuffle closer.

🧟‍♀️ Healthy conflict: debating what to focus on.

🧟‍♂️ Commitment and accountability:  sticking to the plan when panic sets in.

🧟‍♀️ Results:  a team that escaped stronger and more connected.


The image shows Kelly Nardella, Joel Questel, Megan Robinson, Stephanie Devereux, Jonathan Y., Michael Dominish ,Tamika Wood and Anna Galluzzo working side by side on the many puzzles required to escape. A clear demonstration that cohesion and trust grow when challenges are shared. This was also just before a zombie jumped out behind them!


At SIG, we call that leadership development with bite! 🧟‍♂️

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