In Praise of the Walking Meeting

I always appreciate a well-run meeting, and, these days, many of the meetings I attend are not only well run, but well-walked too.

I’ve recently become a devotee of walking meetings, and I join an ever-growing contingent dedicated to getting up and out of the office to meet on-the-move.

Feet First, a website that promotes walkable communities, traces the walking meeting back to Ancient Greece and Aristotle’s peripatetic teaching-while-walking methodology.

Steve Jobs was known for walking meetings; Mark Zuckerberg is often seen doing walk-and-talk meetings around the Facebook campus; and innovation consultant and Silicon Valley trailblazer, Nilofer Merchant, is a proponent of the walking meeting as well.

In her 2013 TED Talk on the subject, Merchant points out that Americans sit an average of 9.3 hours a day – which is surprisingly more than the 7.7 hours of sleep she reports that we’re averaging a night. “We are killing ourselves little by little everyday by sitting,” Merchant says. “Sitting is the smoking of our generation.”

Based on feedback from the women I’ve talked with in my travels around the country, walking meetings seem to be catching on more and more. Thanks to company wellness initiatives and well-publicized statistics correlating health and exercise, the need for more physical activity in our workdays seems to be becoming more top-of-mind.

In my own practice, walking meetings have gotten to be such a regular occurrence that I keep a pair of sneakers in my bottom desk drawer – ready to go at a moment’s notice. In addition to feeling refreshed, I often return from walk and talks, feeling like it was exceptionally productive. As it turns out, that feeling is backed up by scientific data.

A recent Stanford University study found that a person’s creative output increased by an average of 60 percent while walking – regardless of whether it was indoors or outdoors. So, not only is the walking meeting advantageous to your health – it promotes new ideas and problem-solving as well.

Here are five good reasons to incorporate walking meetings into your workday from Ronnie Citron-Fink of Planet Green:

• Walking and talking side-by-side cuts through hierarchical work distinctions and sets people at ease – enhancing a positive working spirit.
• Getting out of the office offers more confidentiality and fewer interruptions.
• Different environments inspire new ideas and stimulate creativity.
• Walking burns calories and stimulates oxygen flow around the body. This increases brain function and the ability to solve problems faster.
• Connecting with nature – getting fresh air and light – improves overall well-being.

In her TED Talk Merchant says, “Getting out of the box leads to out-of-the-box thinking.” …and “Fresh air leads to fresh thinking.”

So these days, when someone says they want to meet, my first inclination is to grab my sneakers and take it outside.

More and more meetings are being convened on the walking trail…and that’s good for all of us.