Take a Walking Meeting

I had a 6:30 coffee meeting and there was only one coffee shop open that I had never been to. Well, turns out it was just a grab and go kind of place and didn’t have any chairs or space to meet. Instead of looking for another place, I made the suggestion that we go for a walk, and the meeting went great!

Funny enough, I got back in the car and in a podcast episode of Humans 2.0, Mark Metry began talking about the value of walking meetings! He talked about some of the benefits of it that I hadn’t realized and want to share.

First, the light physiological activation of physical activity warms up your mind to higher cognitive processing. In that way, you can be more sharp and perform better in the conversation. Second, walking side by side means you aren’t looking directly at each other, reducing the confrontation and pressure in the conversation. This helps for more guarded points to come be brought up because it is a more welcoming setting. And last, choosing to go on a walking meeting means there is commonality between you and your walking partner. It implies you are both health conscious, and having that similar emphasis might build rapport.

So, give it a try. Take a call while your walking to leverage that first physiological point, and book a walking meeting just to see how the conversation goes!