Patrick Ryan C.

Perez
143139 3 BS Management
LS 100 - E

Breakout Reaction Paper

Mr. Carlos Ycasiano
17 October 2016
Acting Under Pressure

As soon as our blindfolds were removed, the team immediately started to scan the
whole room to look for clues. One member of the team suddenly found a hidden drawer and
we rushed to see what was hidden inside. The set of letters and numbers we found seemed to
be useless because we could not find out the purpose of those symbols. We looked for clues
again, only to be hopeless in the end. One of us scanned the hidden drawer again, only to find
out that we have missed a key that was deep inside. A screen displaying the time showed us
that at least 6 minutes has already passed since we started the game. It was during this
moment that the team realized that our time is running out, and time seemed to be running
faster.
Decision making under time pressure is tricky. The time constraint narrowed the
groups line of thought. At one point, we were overthinking about how we should interpret
certain in clues in the rooms. For example, one of the situations we encountered was to count
different clown masks attached to the ceiling according to their color. The uneven lighting
and the ambiguous color of the masks made us think that there was more to it. One of the
approaches we tried was to count the clown faces that were smiling. In the end, the solution
was to just count the masks according to its color. In one of the puzzles, we were having
trouble in decoding the answer to the riddle. What I did was to look for more clues from the
room adjacent to the current room. It turns out that all the elements required to solve the
puzzle was in the initial room. I wasted precious time doing so.
As our time limit approached, the group became more frustrated. As the speakers
announced that there were only a few minutes remaining, I panicked into looking for more
clues. In one puzzle we tried a solution over and over again but still did not work in the end.
To improve the decision making, I think being calm and collected is an important
trait. Being able to assess what is important and what is not is crucial to solving riddles.
Disregarding irrelevant clues can save the team a lot of time and will help focus on the real
problem. A starting point can be to identify which objectives have to be met in other to
proceed into the next room. Staying composed, each member can propose a solution and be
improved by the others simultaneously.
Another habit to provide quality decisions is to ignore the pressure itself. While being
aware of the time constraint is important, the stress from the pressure will narrow the line of

thinking of the group. By ignoring the stress provider, the groups creativity can be enhanced
and help find the solution.