Welcome to the fourth newsletter from fireside.rs, ‘unlocking creative productivity by gathering humans effectively.’
There’s an uncomfortable tension in the world—scarcity blankets simple interactions and collaborative considerations.
And yet, the space(s) between any human encounter / interaction is always heavy with positive promise.
If ‘humanity moves at the speed of trust’ then a way to achieve this is to match or exceed the expectations of the communicated intentions between those involved. This needs a literacy-set which is wide-ranging, from creating and delivering clear, agreed approaches with forging the appropriate conditions that moves the potential into a ripening actual.
Which is why I’m ecstatic to announce the first fireside.rs evening workshop experiences:
“Through immersive activations and in an environment of kindness and curiosity, participants will experience a direct understanding of a variety of assembly forms and how they impact creative / productive outcomes.
Huge admiration and appreciation to our wonderful host partners Goodlife Collective and Unchatter:
Am also in Queenstown and looking for an opportunity to collaborate on 17th, 18th or 19th May, so if you’re an organisation / company / community collective / human-focused entity and would like to host a no-fee workshop, then please get in touch via fireside.rs/contact.
Will be reporting back next month on what we’ve learned together, until then, enjoy the rest of the newsletter below!
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:
Topaz Adizes, Founder,
SHOW NOTES & PULL QUOTES
- Topaz Adizes LinkedIn
- The Skin Deep studio website
- {THE AND} via The Skin Deep YouTube Channel
- Topaz & IChak (his Dad) session
- 12 Questions for Love book
- {THE AND} card games, digital products, postcards, and more
- Getting Under The Skin (GUTS) podcast
- The Science Of Human Connection web-series playlist
1.37: “And the idea there is that by seeing both the speaker and the listener, you’re getting a deeper sense of what connects them. You’re getting a better sense of the threads that bind them. You’re getting a better sense of their relationship because you’re seeing both how they speak and listen to one another, how they interact with another.”
4.46: “…the long-term purpose is that we’re creating an archive of human conversation that illuminates the experience of what it means to be alive right now at this point in history. We’ve been going for 13 years and we’ll continue going. And in two or three generations, there’ll be an archive where they can go back and say, I wonder what it was like in the year of the great pandemic. What was happening in Black Lives Matter and how does that affect relationships while people are in quarantine and whatnot?”
13.18: “So we do a lot of things to implicitly, explicitly hand over the space to them, such as having them count from one to ten, from a whisper to a yell. At the end, I say it’s for sound, but also if you yell in a room, you start to own it. So even before recording, they yell and then they’re starting to own it.”
18.09: “…the great line I have that I like to use is, you know, you don’t sleep in the kitchen and you don’t cook in the bedroom. The space already tells you what is the action that’s expected and allowed and permissible and invited. How often do we do that in our conversations right so if we do that in our conversations…”
18.37: “…that’s part of the thing that people miss and what they also get confused with is the difference between safety and discomfort, just because you’re uncomfortable does not mean you’re not safe, matter of fact you want to be safe but you want to be uncomfortable because uncomfortable is where you don’t know, where you’re exploring, where you’re growing, where you’re stretching.”
21.03: “So there’s both the construction of the question, which is important. There’s a lot of things there. And then you get exponential or compounded synergies if you do the sequence in a certain way.”
23.31: “However, the nuanced ones, the ones that will deepen your relationship, that will give you a more fulfilling one, an even more resilient one, are the ones that have an intention, have a starting point, and not an outcome.”
29.38: “Even though I know the architecture of conversations and how to create the space and how to construct good questions, I’m even hesitant of like, oh, my God, I don’t even want to have these conversations because they’re uncomfortable. But I know, like emotionally, I don’t want to have them, but cognitively, I’m aware like, well, on the flip side of that discomfort is a lot of growth.”
31.54: “I think being seen is a fundamental desire that every one of us has, and a form of being seen is being heard and really fully listened to.”
32.12: “And there’s different forms of vulnerability which we can get into because it’s not just the one who’s sharing. It’s also we often overlook the vulnerability of the one who’s listening.”
40.29: “…because I feel that feeling is the closest thing I feel to humanity. Humanity is not within us. It’s what’s between us. And when I see an and conversation what I’m seeing is, I’m seeing the humanity between people illuminated.”
45.29: “…there’s an opportunity anytime you feel constrained because you’re feeling scared or fearful and uncomfortable breathe and lean into it because on the flip side of that is growth I know that for sure.”
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:
“Beauty tells people: we believe this moment matters.
It shows that someone thought about how you would feel.
It tells staff that the small things are part of the big story.
It tells students: this place has standards, care and imagination.
Don’t tell me Creativity matters as a word on your values poster, and then not give a thought to the beauty of the everyday.”
Don’t just tell me you value creativity…
“What are people doing instead of shooting each other in this ravaged world? Many are teaming up to take down the robot monsters, which range from flying drones to spherical balls that blast fire. Others try to sneak quietly around them to scavenge rare resources. Grøndal says players also hold spontaneous rave parties, where people play music through their microphones. But often, players are just talking. A YouTube video called The Humans of Arc Raiders, inspired by the photographer who interviews strangers in New York City, includes conversations with randomly encountered players. They talk about family struggles, work lives, depression, autism and, in one case, a lung collapse. In one conversation, a heavily armed player in green armour named Poopy candidly asks another raider: “What’s it like having kids, dude?”
‘Seeking connection’: the video game where players stopped shooting and started talking | Games | The Guardian
Write Your Name in Landsat via NASA Science.
Simply, WOW, check out Every train, a note to listen / watch.
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: