Why Walking Meetings Work
forge.medium.com
forge.medium.com
The only downside is that someone has to take notes, which can be hard while walking, unless you can remember everything.
For some reason, walking meetings tend to work like a memory palace for me.
Though I walk down a pretty specific set of landmarks and write notes afterwards, which is usually ordered by the walk trail landmarks & a follow-up would usually not need a set of notes either.
There was a time when the smokers used to be the ones to do this as a matter of habit - these days it is much healthier to do walk-talks.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/secrets-sherlock...
But sometimes they can be from one task to another, especially if both people are going to another task (usually another meeting) in the same building.
Perhaps this is a good situation to use something like Voice Memos[0]. This way the scribe can speak the notes and transcribe later.
If not (and the grossness of sticking someone else's earbuds in your ears aside), I wonder if both people could wear an AirPod from a pair.
If Voice Memos does implement sharing, then you could potentially have 4 mics and start a walking podcast with guest appearances and all.
If your office is near a forest or something, then it makes more sense.
Heck, we don't even always have privacy in office meetings due to lack of space.
I doubt it does. Everyone wears a smartphone these days. There's security cameras everywhere. Mics are everywhere.
Not recommending that everyone try to learn this, but Wolfram has rigged up a laptop so that he can walk and work at the same time (scroll down to the photo of him w/ a hat in the woods and a walking desk to see what I mean):
https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-prod...
Half of it has.
Chorded keyboards are great, head mounted displays are still meh, but a typical smartphone is a wonderful display to strap to yourself.
Shameless plug: https://github.com/andrey-utkin/wearable-computer/
How fast can you type with it? Can it be easily used for key-combinations using modifier keys and such?
I'd say it's OK. It's not even remotely on par with typing speed on laptop-size keyboard, but I'd say it provides a reasonable trade-off. And it has enough keys to use desktop software without much pain one way or another.
It would probably be easier to use a digital recorder or even a phone.
I find it easier to think things through while I walk so I added a recorder app to my phone so that I could verbally take notes while I was walking in order to not forget things that I had thought about or thoughts that came to me on the walk.
It has been a very productive change, not to mention it helps with managing me weight so definitely a win.
I used to do many/most 1:1s as walks but I found that if you have a serious piece of feedback to deliver etc it's often not as good on a walk and if you always do a walk and then send an email saying "let's do it in the office today" it sends a signal which makes people immediately defensive.
Separately I'm a very rigorous note-taker (using a paper book) and one of the big benefits of walking meetings (from my pov) is that people are not sitting with a laptop and are actually intellectually present at the meeting. I just make sure to recap the actions/takeaways as the very last thing before we wrap. Then it's easy for people to remember them and take them back to the desk with them. You can also send a followup email to ensure you're in 100% sync.
* Need to do some convergent thinking? Caffeine.
* Need to do some divergent thinking? Walk.
Each of these helps with one type of thinking but not the other.
Or is it caffeine + walking = laminar thought flow ?
I wonder how much more effective talk therapy could be if delivered while walking, at the driving range, over table tennis, etc.
“A schizophrenic out for a walk is a better model than a neurotic lying on the analyst's couch.” —Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze
I would love for walking meetings to become the norm. Though, I'm aware that there's a lot of folks who are the exact opposite.
I can easily walk in circles a few hundred times when thinking, sometimes hours at a time if there's a particularly big thing to think about, and do it with other people around if I forget not to.
I would love a workplace with long distances to walk around and to have walking meetings.
In fact, what a great idea. I'll try to ask people for walking meetings in future. (With sensitivity to the fact some people find walking hard, even painful (back problems, knees, energy levels etc.), especially if it's for a long time.)
I used to go to a therapist who would hold walking sessions along a trail or path in a park. The best thing about it, besides forcing me to get out of bed and be in nature, was that I could remember exactly what we talked about and when, based on landmarks along the trail (e.g. "we were discussing X when we walked over this bridge). Similarly, I find that if I have a phone conversation while driving, I can remember it much better because parts of the conversation correlate to locations I passed as I was driving.
I do this a lot and pretty much forget I'm walking, can do it for hours if a call or series of calls needs it. As a result, it's probably my main exercise, and I much prefer this over a phone conference or chat while stuck in a chair.
Video doesn't fare so well when walking, I agree.
On aside, I'm also (genuinely, not snarkily) curious to understand the "Naturally" part in front of "wearing high heels". Don't get me wrong - I personally think they're a fabulously attractive if completely impractical article of clothing, but it feels like in many places in the world they are far from the norm/regular/Natural assumption.
"opportunity" here sounds kind of crappy because of the boss/employee power dynamic and the man/woman thing to boot, but if she's not offended by the implication that she should bend to meet the demands of her boss, it could be seen as a plain savvy thing to do.
edit: just noticed I assumed the boss was a dude, maybe that's not the case, but the boss/employee power dynamic is the main bit
Keeping a spare pair of shoes at work would solve this problem.
I guess checking whether all participants are fine with a walking meeting is an essential part of the process. CEOs demanding a certain style of favourite meeting does not go well with that.
We aren't allowed to wear flip flops to work. I don't see why heels are tolerated, either.
Work isn't a fashion statement.
The best you can do is apply statistical approaches to arbitrary abstractions, and the main thing we learn when we do that is that return to the mean is the only thing we can really be sure of?
That needs proof
(btw thanks for the tip! i work at home and will use that)
I admit that I was aware of the original interpretation but not the novelty/disruption effect.
I really wish people would think about this. And not only in terms of their current workplace demography, but also their prospective future employees.
The key is to be cognizant of the people on your team. It may be possible to take a "walk" in a wheelchair-accessible location or do some similar activity. The only way to address this is to ask your team and build a culture of trust on this issue.
The issue can of course be solved by only have walking meetings when all participants are okay with it, but that does not go well with CEOs insisting on this type of meeting. And anyone preferring walking meetings may end up having less meetings involving people who have trouble walking.
At the same time, banning walking meetings is certainly not the solution; walking is clearly healthy for our bodies, and apparently also for our minds. Just be flexible about it and considerate about all participants.