Fireside Chats: from the living room to the garden

Since the health crisis we have been experiencing, we need more than ever to soften our working conditions and adapt them to our basic needs.

Alternating indoor and outdoor work sessions is a new standard, both to create breaths in long working days and to generate dynamism and creativity.

Certain meeting formats such as Fireside chats or Stand-up meetings lend themselves well to this in & out alternation, and do not necessarily take place anymore … by the fireside!

Fireside Chats: chats between friendliness and efficiency

The concept of Fireside Chats was created with American President Roosevelt who, from 1933 to 1944, addressed his compatriots via the radio, in the evening, to explain his policy in a fairly informal way. At this time of day, citizens listened to him quietly by the corner of the stove or the hearth of the fireplace.

The corporate world has since taken up this concept to offer these friendly and interactive working sessions. Because the objective of these Fireside Chats is the interaction between a leader and staff members. The question-and-answer model around a specific topic is often the most widely used.

The atmosphere of these meetings must be friendly. Scheduled at the end of the day, at aperitif time with free drinks, the cozy decoration will encourage relaxation and speaking out.

To punctually remove hierarchy and establish an intimacy with the leader, it will be necessary to forget slides or presentations. These oral meetings will take place without taking notes.

A concept that has now moved outside

Once confined indoor, modeled on discussions around a roaring fire, these Fireside Chats now cross the threshold of meeting rooms and take place in the open air.

Creating warm outdoor atmosphere is very easy. With an appropriate set-up, in a quiet place, without exceeding 20 people, these informal meetings will benefit from taking place in a natural environment, contact with nature greatly promoting the feeling of well-being and the emergence of new ideas.

These meetings can therefore be organized outdoor, on a roof terrace, a patch of greenery, at the edge of a pond, on a meadow, etc. Also consider the blurred indoor / outdoor boundaries in rooms with large bay windows open to the outside.

This inside / outside concept is also perfectly suited to other meeting formats such as stand-up meetings or walk & talk sessions.