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The dappled June sun is peaking through the conference room blinds. The muffled sound of laughter on the street can just be perceived through the hum of the air conditioning. You, meanwhile, are trapped listening to Stuart from Compliance drone through his 16th slide of the meeting. Is there anything worse? I’ll wait.
It doesn’t have to be like this: take it outside with a walking meeting.
This is not the impromptu “walk with me!” aside that Very Busy People must do in corridors en route to their next meeting — as exemplified by The West Wing TV show. Neither is it the leisurely stroll of the flâneur, designed as an opportunity to observe and inspire.
Rather, this is an intentional meeting expressly scheduled outside. There is something about an uninterrupted walk from Point A to Point B with a colleague that is particularly conducive to creative thought, tricky conversations, and strategic plotting.
The health benefits are obvious. So too is its central advantage — and I cannot stress this enough — of not being in the office. But the point of the walking meeting is not to bunk off or get your steps in.
Great minds have been fans: the late Steve Jobs was a staunch advocate of the walking meeting. And a Stanford University study in 2014 found that walking boosts creativity both in real time and also afterwards.
I was introduced to the concept by my external mentor, James Walsh, a very patient and wise partner at accountancy firm BDO (intercompany mentors being another great idea; mine came to me via the Mission Include programme, which aims to support under-represented groups, including women, up the career ladder). We meet at a designated coffee shop then march along the South Bank for an hour every six weeks.
“It’s a means of doing what needs to be done anyway, but it has added benefits,” he says. “I come away from walking meetings with both clients and colleagues and find that we have got into topics in a much more free-flowing way than if we were stuck in a meeting room.”
It works: I find that I am able to think and articulate Big Thoughts — amid the stream-of-consciousness workplace moans and finer points of FT intrigue to which I otherwise subject James — far more readily than if I were across a desk or on a Zoom call.
He advises: “Where you go helps; we’ve been helped by a riverside route. I like to point out monuments along the way if the conversation starts to get a bit tricky or if I need a distraction.”
Suddenly, I am trying to remember all the times James has remarked on the splendid vista of the Houses of Parliament.
He got into walking meetings during the pandemic, when park walks à deux were the only lockdown-approved way of IRL corporate interaction. And there is something to the sloughing off of workaday shackles that appeals.
But there is science behind it, too. A University of Hong Kong study in 2020 found that even just walking together in silence helps foster connection in less than five minutes. Conversations held side-by-side rather than face-to-face or across a desk are naturally less adversarial: just ask any parent of a recalcitrant teenager who has discovered that a car is an ideal venue for delicate discussions (also: they can’t escape easily).
The walking meeting replicates that set-up. So if you have someone on your team who is acting like a teenager and needs some constructive performance management — or even just some sympathy — try a walking meeting.
There are a few things to bear in mind. Planning ahead helps resolve clothing issues: a brisk 10,000-step walk may not be ideal in normal workplace attire if you typically wear heels/smart pinstripe suits/wigs and ermine robes. More fundamentally, not everyone can or will want to do such a meeting.
As I am based in the UK, weather is also a consideration. James and I have been relatively blessed with sunny days for our outdoor meetings. Except once recently. But even that had its own diluvial charms, as it meant fewer foreign-exchange students by the London Eye to swerve. The weather had “the added element of invigoration”, according to James, rain streaming down his spectacles.
There are some situations where a walking meeting won’t be appropriate. Slide decks will be tricky. As will note taking. More than three people will make for unwieldy exchanges and angry interjections from fellow pedestrians trying to dodge your group.
Personally, I take all of these points as yet more ticks in the “pro” rather than “con” column. As we progress into summer, perhaps it is the ideal time to try moving from al desko to alfresco.
As for James, he has even begun cycling meetings. With clients. Do keep up!
Caroline Binham is the FT’s UK companies news editor