Using Fire Pits in Workplace Communication Exercises

Campfires can be used as a novel and stimulating method of improving communication in the workplace. No matter how attractive and challenging a particular line of business may be, the truth is that it’s all too easy to get stuck in a rut when working in an office environment that makes it difficult to communicate effectively in the workplace. Even the most intelligent and open-minded managers and employees seem to get stuck in playing a certain role over the months and years. At the same time, employees gradually begin to take a very two-dimensional view of their co-workers instead of seeing them as the dynamic, evolving human beings that they are. This is why it is so important to hold occasional workplace communication exercises, and incorporating the use of fire pits into your workplace communication exercises can help these events have a much greater impact. on your team.

If you put away our laptops, smartphones, and business attire for a moment, you can begin to draw some interesting parallels between the modern workplace and the indigenous tribes that made up the human family for nearly all of our time on earth. In both cases, we work as teams with the group recognizing the unique skills and experience that each team member brought to the table. We worked together to survive, whether it was hunting wild boar in the bush or trying to get a big account. One of the most basic differences between now and then is how we communicate. While we are now in constant contact with one another, we rarely get the opportunity to sit back and gaze into each other’s eyes the way our ancestors did over the campfires of yore.

Campfires remind us how little has changed on an interpersonal level throughout the evolution of society. By taking the time to prepare workplace communication exercises around a contemporary campfire, your team members will be forced to remember that we are all human beings with an inner and outer life that is much bigger than job titles. Our jobs. Spending some time interacting with each other over a campfire can often lead to much more effective and organic solutions than any best practice flowchart you can create. Once everyone has returned to their usual duty stations, they will remember that their co-workers are the human beings they interacted with during the workplace communication exercise, not a two-dimensional stereotype.