How did you get started in your industry? If someone wants to enter this industry, what are three pieces of advice that you’d give them? If you could change anything about your career path, what would it be? If you could change one thing about this industry, what would it be?
The Q&A or fireside chat has become a popular format at events like conferences and employee town-halls, replacing more-formal presentations and panels. The one-on-one format can create a more conversational, interesting, and intimate experience, and has the added benefit that the CEO or luminary being interviewed theoretically doesn’t have to prepare as much.
Despite how effective interviews can be in theory, however, they are often difficult to execute in practice. As a result, audience members are often left feeling disengaged and unsatisfied while guests struggle to inform and engage in a way that resonates.
In our Essentials of Strategic Communication at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, we’ve begun including advice on how to handle this format effectively to help our students become more confident and compelling communicators. We offer four steps — easily remembered by the acronym FIRE — derived from our teaching and coaching experience.
Framing. In preparing for interviews, most guests ask “What do I want to say?” But the most effective guests ask “What does my audience need to hear?” Since the time of the Greeks, we have known that the best communication is that which is in service of the audience — it answers the questions they have and provides them with the specific insights they’re looking to acquire.
Customizing your content based on your audience matters. Therefore, before any fireside chat or other one-on-one interview, take time to do some reconnaissance and reflection about your audience and frame your content accordingly. Ask the following questions:
If you can’t confidently answer these questions yourself, ask them of the interviewer, event host, or consult the social media of those who will be attending.
You will also benefit by having a clear speaking goal. A good speaking goal is about information, emotion, and action. It answers the following questions about how your audience will leave your fireside chat:
Your answers to these questions will help inform your content and how it is framed. By understanding your audience and having a clear speaking goal, you can tailor your content for maximum impact — leaving your audience walking away with exactly what they were hoping to acquire and you with what you were hoping to achieve.
Inclusion. The effectiveness of the interview format lies in the sense of intimacy and familiarity they create. We know from research and our own experience that audience inclusion is powerful, leading to more positive perceptions of a speaker, greater motivation to future action, and better recall of content.
A good Q&A invites the audience into the experience. Two effective ways to do this are by (1) using inclusive language and (2) polling the audience.
For inclusive language, consider referencing the audience directly and using “you” and “we” when possible. For example you might say…
For polling, consider in advance what questions you might want to ask the audience. For example, “How many of you have had X experience…?” or “Who can tell me…?” In the former case, be sure to raise your hand as you ask the question so you signal to the audience how you’d like for them to respond. Be sure to comment on whatever answers you get to validate the audience’s involvement and encourage future participation.
If your audience feels included in the conversation, they will be more engaged and responsive to your message.
Rails. To keep a train on track, you need strong rails. Similarly, to keep your content on track, we recommend using a structure to guide you. While many structures exist, such as Problem-Solution-Benefit and Comparison-Contrast-Conclusion, one of our favorite structures is the What? > So What? > Now What? structure.
You start your response by providing your point and giving an example to support it (The What?). Next, you explain why your point is important to the conversation at hand and potentially beyond (The So What?). Finally, you end by explaining the implications, ramifications, or applications of what you just said (The Now What?).
Using a structure will make it easier for you to develop your content when speaking in a spontaneous manner, make it easier for your audience to follow your response, and allow for clear, concise answers in place of rambling, unfocused ones.
Examples. Chip Heath, a colleague of ours at Stanford, has conducted extensive research on what makes ideas “stick” — that is what makes them memorable, engaging, and inspiring. His number one piece of advice? Make your ideas concrete. That is, take abstract concepts and bring them to life with concrete stories, details, and examples.
During fireside chats and other one-on-one interviews, guests tend to speak at a general level — to offer concepts and conclusions — without concrete examples and stories (including personal ones) that will help make their content more engaging, understandable, and relatable for their audience.
As you prepare for your next interview, we suggest the following: make a list of all the key points, themes, best practices, etc. you’d like to be prepared to share with your audience. Then go back through that list and for each item, write down a concrete story or example you could share to support it and make it “stickier.” Stories and examples can be real or imagined as well as about you or a third person.
What’s most important is that you make your ideas and messages as concrete as possible by adding vivid details. Doing so will make your content not only more engaging in the moment, but also more memorable and motivating in the days and weeks that follow.
Google Leadership Fireside Chat with Shimona Mehta
Make the setting comfortable and casual
The main point here is to produce an environment that makes the speaker feel more comfortable. The hope is that he or she will open up, share more information, and relate to the audience.
No better way to do that than to make someone stand up on a stage all alone and present 30 minutes of original content, right? Not exactly.
Instead, try a mimicking the feeling of lounging around a friend’s living room or a local coffee shop. These settings are more conducive to organic discussion. (The only difference here is that a bunch of other people are watching.) You could set up a cozy armchair for each person, or, like in the Tech Inclusive example below, you could place a few chairs around a table.
Prepare, and share, questions ahead of time
Informal does not mean unprepared. People are here for a reason — and it’s not to hear you and your guest struggle through an awkward conversation.
They’re looking for knowledge and information. They want to leave feeling inspired. Figure out what you think it is they truly want and then formulate some questions that will help deliver that. To do this successfully, you’ll need to do your research. Be informed about the latest trends in the industry. Listen to podcasts or read articles that the guest is featured in. Scroll through his or her Twitter feed.
And before the event, send your interview questions to the guest so she can review and provide feedback. You don’t want to catch her off guard by asking a question she’s unprepared for. Nor do you want to venture into how-dare-you-go-there territory. It’s just safest (and most respectful) to include her in the process.
In the example below, the moderator is well-versed in energy storage (the topic of the day) and has a predetermined list of things to ask. Because of this, the conversation is jam-packed with high quality content and flows smoothly.
What are the Benefits of Fireside Chats?
The conversational approach of a fireside chat format means it is naturally more engaging than a traditional speech. The aim is to enliven audiences in a conversation that merges stories with succinct questions and answers. It goes deeper than the average chat, is more unpredictable, more on-the-spot, it is live entertainment at its purest. Lets take a look at some of the benefits of fireside chats.
What is a Fireside Chat?
The notion is far from new. In fact, the concept of fireside chats is over 80 years old. But we will come to that in a moment.
Today, we define fireside chats as an informal conversation between a speaker and n interviewer. The unique format allows those in attendance to feel immersed in a discussion. Asking the questions that everyone wants to know the answer to, the interviewer and audience themselves have a say in the takeaways they experience. In simple terms, it is a conversation, a Q&A, a discussion led by the interviewer, moderator or facilitator (whatever you wish to call them) involving the audience too.
Think Question Time, the current affairs classic on prime-time television which, either side of debates allows audience members a chance to input their ideas, opinions and questions. Think, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, where Jonathan Ross converses intimately with his guest, asking leading questions that prompt entertaining anecdotes. Lets say its a mix of both, and that is in a nutshell, is the meaning of fireside chat.
Looking for less of a nutshell? Lets take a little trip back to 1933. President Franklin D Roosevelt was using the radio as a means to get his message across to the nation. Just eight days after taking to the office he was speaking candidly, openly and in direct response to the rumours and uncertainty around his policies. The fireside chats significance was monumental. It proved extremely effective and “redefined the relationship between President Roosevelt and the American people” according to the Library of Congress.
FAQ
How do you prepare for a fireside chat?
- Choose interesting guests. Well duh! …
- Do your research. …
- Send a summary of your questions to your guest prior to the event. …
- Make it their story. …
- Make it personal and conversational. …
- Ask the questions your audience will be thinking of. …
- Be Socratic. …
- Make it interactive.
How do you do a fireside chat interview?
- Create an informal setting.
- Have a well-prepared moderator.
- Determine the key points and structure ahead.
- Engage the audience with poll questions.
- Provide added value for the participants.
- Be conversational.
What was the main topic of the fireside chat?
What is considered a fireside chat?
