Most of us authentic sauna enthusiasts have appreciation for the Forgotten Sanctity of Sauna where “silence implies respect of holiness (although originally its purpose was to not disturb the sauna spirits or the ancestors).
We have all resonated with our share of solo saunas, or quiet hot room sessions with family, friends, or strangers, but a wonderful dimension to sauna is the ability to gather together, much like communal dining, as Mikkel Aaland observes during this episode of Sauna Talk.
As we gather together, conversation can flow naturally, organically, and unstructured.
On a side, perhaps this is yet another reason why Sauna is gaining so much steam? Are we wrought with too much artificial, manufactured, structure conversation in our busy lives, where everything starts to sound like a marketing campaign or a political ad on TV? Optimize robust disruption has no place on the sauna bench.
Most of this was bouncing around my subconscious mind the other day as a friend brought this over to my backyard sauna:
Three of us are “getting serious” about starting a venture together. Being corporate foot soldiers, we have been around our share of this vibe:
Corporate soldiers ideating and iterating and using other impressive jargon.But our approach is different, and with a twist. No business casual or We Work conference room reservations for us.  While hanging out in the cool down room with just a towel between sauna rounds, our ideas were flowing, and endorphins were rushing. We began sketching out our ideas and next steps. After awhile, we agreed that it was time for another sauna round.
Our “meeting” leader simply tore off the current page from our self stick table top pad, and off we went back to the hot room.
Bringing in a self stick note paper for more collaborating whilst on the sauna benchThere we were, three of us on the sauna bench, welcoming the constructive thinking and sharing of ideas. Is this too geeky? Is this too structured? Is this a blatant slap in the face to the sanctity of sauna?
No. This is awesome.
Anywhere people can gather and collaborate freely is a great thing.
I recommend a Post-It Self Stick Table Top Pad as part of the sauna tool kit. Not for every sauna, certainly, yet possible times for sketching things out with this tool could include:
- A father and son in college reviewing plans for the summer.
- A husband and wife talking out a home remodel project.
- A group of friends menu planning for their canoe trip.
- Business partners hashing out a design build.
For those that want to keep their meetings to the board room, fine. There will always be plenty of these. Yet for me, I welcome the Self Stick Table Top Pad in my backyard sauna hang out cool down room. I have submitted to 3M to add the burst: “works great in sauna!” to their packaging. (we came up with this idea while on the bench).
This is Sauna Talk. We need more Sauna Talk.