Bring Human Interaction Back

Have you ever heard the song “Reach Out of the Darkness”? Probably the most important message in the lyrics comes in the third stanza:

I knew a man that I did not care for
And then one day this man gave me a call
We sat and talked about things on our mind
And now this man he is a friend of mine.

How often do we actually sit or stand or walk and talk with people anymore? Compare that to the amount of time we spend texting, checking our emails, cruising through YouTube, browsing Facebook, tweeting, zoning in on TikTok and other social media. Perhaps we have to be on our computers for work, but does that mean we have to give up all personal connections with people?

It’s a shame and unhealthy if it does. You have the best chance of raising production levels if your employees or co-workers, or bosses, for that matter, feel a human connection, feel that they matter to others and are not just a number or seat filler. This often can be a challenge in a busy work day, which is where we come in. Our most popular corporate retreat, to Yosemite National Park, allows busy workers to slow down, re-connect and find both outer and inner peace through communing with nature and a camaraderie with fellow participants. We also can hook you up with a once-in-a-lifetime self-driven vintage VW bus caravan up the California coast or through the picturesque desert, which has achieved the same results.

With all its obvious benefits, technology can sometimes get to sound like a big buzz in our heads. We need to regroup, re-energize and bring meaningful human interaction back. It’s not one or the other—smartphones, laptops and iPads or human connections. It’s all about a balance, and right now it seems the scales are tipping toward technology, leaving people unsatisfied, sometimes without knowing why.

We don’t have all the answers, but we’ve seen some great results when people step back from technology on our corporate retreats and find that human connection again.