In a world where Slack never slacks and your phone is basically a second brain, team bonding can feel more like screen sharing than soul sharing.
But what happens when you strip away the tech and drop a team into nature—no chargers, no chimes, no distractions?
Ashley Wilson of Edith Macy Center has seen the answer firsthand: stronger connections, deeper conversations, and teams that return to the office not just recharged, but rewired for success.
Let’s unpack how unplugging can actually power up your team.
Unplugged Collaboration: The Secret to Team Bonding
The Problem: Notifications Are Killing Collaboration
We’re all guilty of it—mid-brainstorm, someone hits a wall, and out comes the phone. “I’ll just Google it.” And just like that, the collaboration train derails.
“It definitely gives people a break from reaching to their phones,” says Ashley. “If they have a task at hand, they have to put their actual heads together and brains to connect and think.”
That constant tether to tech might help with productivity, but it doesn’t do much for creativity or connection. Teams wind up defaulting to quick answers instead of building ideas together. When face-to-face time is reduced to a series of Zoom boxes, you lose the nuance that fuels trust, humor, and real camaraderie.
Surface-Level Bonds Don’t Build Strong Teams
When teams operate in hyper-digital environments, conversations often stay on the surface.
And while digital tools are efficient, they rarely lead to “I never knew that about you!” moments—the glue that builds high-trust teams.
Ashley sees this play out with the New York Department of Education groups, who retreat to the Edith Macy Center.
“They’re in an environment where everything is technology… But when you’re able to take yourself out of that environment, you can connect and get to know your colleagues more,” she says.
Translation? When deadlines, devices, and digital distractions are out of the picture, people show up as humans, not job titles. That’s where team dynamics begin to shift.
The Solution: Unplug to Reconnect
Edith Macy Center’s unplugged approach is not a gimmick, it’s a philosophy. Nestled lakeside and surrounded by nature, it sets the perfect stage for teams to disconnect from tech and reconnect with each other.
“There’s something different about being around nature and a body of water,” Ashley explains. “It gets ideas flowing naturally… collaboration feels less like a task and more like a shared adventure.”
From guided discussions to hands-on challenges, everything at Edith Macy is designed to foster real-time, real-world interaction. And without the buzz of incoming messages, teams are free to actually listen to each other—something increasingly rare in the age of multitasking.
But this isn’t just about warm fuzzies. It’s about lasting impact. “That real-life connection creates actionable takeaways that feel effortless when you’re in that environment,” Ashley adds.
In other words, what happens at Macy doesn’t stay at Macy. It shows up in meeting rooms, Slack threads, and project plans long after the retreat ends.
Strip the Tech. Build the Team.
Tech has its place. But so does silence, eye contact, and the occasional lakeside brainstorm.
By pulling the plug—literally—Edith Macy Center gives teams space to rediscover the kind of collaboration that can’t be downloaded. It’s connection by design, not default. And in a work world flooded with screens, that kind of analog magic might just be your team’s greatest digital strategy.
Ready to unplug and reconnect? Edith Macy Center is where real collaboration begins. No charger required.