Welcome to the sixth newsletter from fireside.rs, ‘unlocking creative productivity by gathering humans effectively.’
This month, Te Uru Tāngata Centre for Workplace Inclusion, in Auckland, NZ, hosted the third ever fireside.rs workshop:
And less than a week later the fourth was hosted at Steelcase WorkLife Center, London, UK:
After four workshops in four cities some themes and lessons are emerging:
- clever humans relish the rapid switching in gathering modalities as a way of sharpening direct knowledge acquisition;
- using elements such as darkness, time, surprise, delight, emotional framing etc. elevate the understanding through novelty;
- the participants evident laughs and smiles plus lightness and ease are outcomes of an effective learning experience.
Going back to the first point above and the different modalities of gathering shapes experienced in these workshop, I should add that the participants also move between groups / formats which means connections are accelerated along with social ties through shared space and practice.
In a little over two weeks I’ll be in Leeds delivering a closing keynote at the AMA Conference 2026: Together, in Leeds, UK—sharing for the first time my multi-year research findings, those insights from others via the podcast plus the direct lessons learned from the above workshops, in a presentation format. Will share what I learn in the next newsletter!
If you’re interested in bringing this unique offer to your community whilst it’s still a ‘no-fee’ workshop experience (just cover my expenses), please do get in touch and I look forward in collaborating with you in the future,
DK
fireside.rs Founder and Creative Gatherer
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
Where we feature, celebrate and learn from those who craft spaces for humans to actively belong and be, introducing:
SHOW NOTES & PULL QUOTES
- Yarrow Kraner LinkedIn
- HATCH website / Catskills Summit September 2026 + registration
- My own HATCH experiences / write-ups: 2024, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2023
- my first ever podcast with Yarrow 20 years ago via MediaSnackers
4.21 : “Well, there are things that we say when we’re inviting people that are true, and then there are things that we don’t say. That they discover along the way. And I think that one of the things that we’ve noticed over the last couple of decades is that people sort of realize that hatch is a verb and that it’s happening to them. They’re cracking…”
5.09 : “So when you’re sitting between an astronaut and a Grammy-winning musician and a 17-year-old that’s got two patents on turning human waste and electricity, everyone is learning something new from each other and realizing that someone has solved for something in a completely different industry that would actually be relevant to their own work. So that’s a component of it is de-siloizing expertise from all these different perspectives.”
6.43 : “And so I would say that one of the things that Hatch is designed to solve for is bringing leaders, industries, perspectives together, but offering those people an elevated view of not only what they are capable of individually, but collectively.”
7.49 : “You know, it’s a problem that not really everyone is naming clearly, but there’s this missing infrastructure for large scale systems change or even small scale small scale change. And that’s human connection and the human connection as missing infrastructure. It’s not just a nice to have. It’s literally the wellness benefit of how teams and organizations will be productive and effective. And so we really, over the years, we’ve iterated and learned and tinkered and dialed on, you know, different levers and so on. And like trying to figure out, like, what is the top thing we’re trying to accomplish? And ultimately, the authentic connection is at the top of that and everything else sort of cascades down below that.”
16.00 : “…we’re not going to ever take over half of a venue where there’s others kind of roaming around. And nobody is leaving early or coming early. So that container: don’t break the yoke, we call it; becomes one more thing that you can build trust just knowing that you’re in this bubble and everyone there is with you and for you in that environment.”
16.15 : “…i think we’ve tried to scale too quickly at one point in time then i had the realization that bigger is not always better and scaling is not necessarily, even though that’s what we get hammered into with business school and startup world, that does necessarily mean that that is the case with everything. Especially when you’re talking about authentic interpersonal relationships and building trust amongst leaders. The scale is not going to help that. The intimacy is going to drive that.”
28.12 : “…I have this sort of visualization that when you find people that are working intentionally on making the world a better place, you know, beyond just themselves, but into a larger ecosystem, they, they, they hum at a different frequency or vibration. And when you put that kind of intention in the same place, it’s palpable.”
29.46 : “Well, after 22 years of watching various different leaders in rooms together, a few things have really become unmistakably clear. And the hunger for real connection has grown and not shrunk. And that’s why we have started to refer to the missing infrastructure as the relational aspects of humanity.”
Podcast music attribution: All I Did Was Wait For You: The Upbeat and Positive Track for Podcast or YouTube by kjartan_abel — https://freesound.org/s/543781/ — License: Attribution 4.0
Some creativity, productivity and gathering related content for the brain / heart:
“It offers a set of bold policy proposals, including hefty wealth taxes on billionaires, sharp reductions in working hours, a change in diets and a shift of investment from materially intense sectors like industry and mining to education and health. If these and other measures are taken, the report says 89% of the world population would see their incomes double by 2100 and global heating would be kept below 2C above the preindustrial average. The authors say their vision provides a positive alternative to the grim projections from far-right techno extractivists, nationalists and billionaires who claim the future will inevitably bring more fossil fuels, climate disruption and inequality.”
‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival | Environment | The Guardian
“I’ve been running my website Follow the Crypto since 2024, tracking the cryptocurrency industry’s influence on our democracy. The industry spent more than $130 million buying the 2024 elections, and the strategy worked. Pro-crypto politicians have proposed or passed industry-drafted legislation that threatens to open the floodgates to even more predatory crypto products, regulatory agencies were gutted, and crypto executives bought direct access to the President and positions in the White House. Now the artificial intelligence industry is following the same playbook.”
I’m launching Tech Influence Watch as AI follows crypto into politics
If you’re artistically inclined and like to travel, try a Vacation With an Artist | VAWAA (although no artists in Oceania yet).
A site to check ‘Is AI Profitable Yet?’.
Thank you again and please do get in touch with any ideas / comments / insights / suggestions etc. plus encourage others who care about ‘unlocking creative productivity by gathering humans effectively’ to subscribe also: