Want a barrier-free group conversation? Want to “put your stuff behind you?” In this on-site video Craig explains the benefits of “chairs in a circle.” And some nuances.
This video has captions. To see them, click CC on the video screen.
Here’s what Craig says in the video
Hi everybody! Hey, it’s Craig Freshley here. I’m about to start a meeting down here. We’re doing kind of a unique room set-up for this meeting. I want to show you what’s going on. Let’s go take a look.
Today, this group needs to talk about some hard stuff. We talked about sitting around a table. We talked about “boardroom style” or “classroom style” or “hollow ‘U’”, but instead we’ve decided on “chairs in a circle”.
The reason is because this group wants to have some intimacy. Everybody wants to be able to see each other, and they don’t want to have the barriers of tables between them. You can see my set-up here in the front of the room – this is going to be where I’m going to put my projector, my laptop here, and my table for supplies and what not. By the way, I’ve got a projector that I can offset to the side, shine on the screen diagonally, and I can make it look really nice, even when it’s off to the side.
Notice how we have put tables behind the chairs – because I know that people want to bring papers and laptops and drinks into the meeting room, and they’d like to have a place to put those. So in this meeting you put the stuff behind you. You’ve got no barriers in front of you. Every person can see every other person. We can all see the screen and we’re going to have a great meeting today.
I hope this helps your group make good decisions.
Thanks a lot everybody!