The Power of Resonance: Why the Best Offsites Transform Us
What if the most powerful kind of learning doesn’t come from being taught - but from being moved?
At Elsewhere, we’ve always known that the magic of a great offsite isn’t found in slide decks or team-building exercises. It’s found in something harder to define, but impossible to forget: the moment a team shifts. Opens. Feels something. And then… changes.
This isn’t accidental. It’s resonance.
What Is Resonance?
Resonance is the feeling of being moved by something and responding in a way that changes you. Sociologist Hartmut Rosa describes it as a kind of vibration - one thing responding to another, not with passivity, but with aliveness.
In the context of learning, leadership, and team dynamics, resonance isn’t a bonus. It’s the whole point.
Resonant Learning vs Traditional Learning
Most corporate training and team development treats learning as a transaction:
Here’s the content
Here’s the method
Here’s the takeaway
But real change doesn’t work like that. Resonant learning is relational, emotional, and unpredictable. It happens when:
Something captures your attention
You’re given space to feel, reflect, and process
A deeper insight crystallises
You return to the world changed, and you act differently because of it
This mirrors David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle, but adds something deeper. Soul. Emotion. Humanity.
How Elsewhere Creates Conditions for Resonance
You can’t force resonance. But you can create the conditions for it. And that’s exactly what we do.
Here’s how:
1.
Disruption by Design
We take teams out of the everyday and into environments that break patterns: secret gardens, riverside halls, repurposed manors, creative labs like Hill House. The moment of arrival begins the shift. People feel different. That’s step one.
2.
Emotional Architecture
Every Elsewhere retreat is crafted like a film score. Moments of silence, crescendo, play, and reflection. Teams don’t just work - they feel, speak, laugh, struggle, connect. We build rhythm into the offsite so resonance has room to unfold.
3.
Real Encounters
Our facilitators aren’t lecturers. They’re stewards of resonance. They hold space, ask the right questions, invite reflection. We prioritise emotional honesty over performative alignment, because resonance requires realness.
4.
Space for the Unexpected
We leave time unscheduled. Not as an oversight… as an invitation. Resonance often arises in the unscripted: a walk, a late-night firepit conversation, a shared silence. These moments aren’t side notes. They are the work.
The Four Phases of Resonant Learning (and Why They Matter at Work)
We love this model by Charles White and Lawrence Wilde, building on Rosa’s theory of resonance:
Engagement – Something stirs. A landscape, an idea, a provocation.
Reflection – You process. Not just mentally — emotionally, somatically.
Illumination – Insight breaks through. The “a-ha.”
Application – You return with something real. Different energy. Different clarity. Different you.
At Elsewhere, we see this every week. A team arrives disjointed. They leave in rhythm.
An individual shows up burnt out. They leave lit up.
Not because of content, but because of resonance.
Why Resonance Matters Now
In a world where teams are overstretched, AI is everywhere, and the future feels uncertain - people are craving something real.
Not another workshop. Not another performance review.
Something that moves them. Something that reminds them they’re alive. Together.
That’s what Elsewhere offers.
Not just a retreat. A return to what matters, to each other, to ourselves.
A New Chapter in Learning and Leadership
The future of work isn’t just about upskilling. It’s about resonance.
Helping people come alive again - so they can lead better, build better, and live better.
At Elsewhere, we’re honoured to be part of that story. One offsite at a time.
Want to Feel It?
Come see why London’s most forward-thinking teams are heading Elsewhere.
Because when the experience resonates, everything changes.