Holy Teamwork! 4 Ways Lego Batman Is Terrible at Team Building

“Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you’re part of a team!” So said the hyperactive theme song to the Lego Movie, the animated hit based on little plastic bricks. In the movie, a group of Lego characters band together to save their city in some of the most literal team building you’ll ever see.

Fast forward to the Lego Batman Movie, and the hero of Gotham City really did not get the message. For all its bright colors, crazy energy, and constant jokes, the Lego Batman Movie has a lot to say about how not to treat your teammates and co-workers.

Bat-Flub 1: Trying to Do it all Yourself

“How many times I gotta tell ya: Batman works alone.” Again and again throughout the movie, Batman insists he can do everything himself. The Joker’s attacking the city? Batman’s on it. Wayne Manor is a lonely place? Batman doesn’t need a family. The Joker’s attacking the city again? No, really, Batman’s got it all under control.

Thing is, he doesn’t. No one, not even Batman, can handle everything on their own. And no one should try. Whether it’s in the office or on one of our corporate team building scavenger hunts, a good teammate learns pretty quickly that going it alone is at best inefficient and at worst dangerous—no matter how many Batarangs you have in your utility belt.

Bat-Flub 2: Not Trusting Your Teammates

So you’ve accepted the idea of needing a team to save the day or solve the clues, but do you really trust them to help get the job done? If you’re anything like Batman, the answer is no.

Flying over Gotham City, under attack by super villains, Batman is forced to leave the controls of his Batplane. Given the opportunity to trust one of his teammates and let them fly, he…ties a rope around the controls instead. “Till I get back,” he says, “rope’s in charge.”

Bad job, Batman! Later we see that he definitely should have trusted his team to fly the plane, and to use their unique skills in other ways too. Don’t take on your next project or scavenger hunt game by yourself. Lean on your team and have faith that your teammates can contribute just as much as you can.

Bat-Flub 3: Belittling Others

It’s never enough simply to trust your teammates—you have to treat them well, too. Things can get hectic come crunch time on a project, or as time runs out and you’ve got one question left to solve on one of our corporate team building scavenger hunts, but that’s never an excuse to put anyone else down.

Batman has a bad habit of doing that—there’s actually a montage of his worst moments—and his Bat Good Ideas Tracker takes the cake. He pulls it out a few times in the movie to remind everyone that Batman has all the good ideas, roughly 6 million of them so far, while everyone else has had…none. That’s not nice, Batman.

Bat-Flub 4: Faking It to Take the Credit

You know what Batman stands for? “Best at Teamwork Man,” according to the Dark Knight himself. Yeah, right. This is just him pretending he was helpful to the team so he could take credit for their hard work.

No one likes a glory hog or a faker, but combine the two? Instant disaster. The boss, or the hunt host scoring your corporate scavenger hunt, might not realize you’re bragging about success you didn’t help achieve, but your teammates will. They’ll do their best to not work with you next time, and then you’re stuck back at the start, trying to do it all yourself.

The Bat-Moral of the Bat-Story

Watson Adventures Lego Batman Movie Team Building

The message of a lot of the Lego Batman Movie is something we never thought we’d say: Don’t be like Batman. Being aloof, untrusting, demeaning, or fake is a straight path to failure, in the office or on a team building scavenger hunt. Your team needs a supportive team player to help save the day. Take it from Batgirl: “You can’t be a hero if you only care about yourself.”

Find More Fun

To ask us about arranging a corporate scavenger huntcontact us online or at 877-946-4868, extension 11. Visit the Public Scavenger Hunt schedule to find an upcoming scavenger hunt in cities around the country.

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