Postcard 036 - Walking and Talking
I was first introduced to walking meetings at Facebook.
My family had gone on evening walks for many years growing up, but I had never really considered them in a professional setting until I started working in Menlo Park.
The main campus (at the time) was a set of buildings that together created an inner courtyard of sorts, spanning something like a third of a mile (or at least what felt like that). For most of the year, given the weather patterns in the Bay Area, it was pleasant enough to walk outside during most of the work day, so meetings that didn't need a laptop or whiteboard were often held as walking meetings.
I'm told that there's research that shows walking meetings create a less adversarial conversation than a traditional face to face meeting, since you and the other person are oriented in the same direction, rather than opposed to each other. I personally felt like the walking meetings went better because you opted into looking at each other at various points rather than opting out of it.
In the last decade of walking meetings, and probably many hours of personal walks with close friends (not to mention running being my main method of "working through problems"), I've realized that when I'm walking, it's become really easy to open up. Somehow I'm less shielded on a walk, which feels counterintuitive since there is less opportunity to escape should things go south as compared to a conference room or a call.
This also means that instead of sitting around for coffee or a drink, I often invite people I'm meeting for the first time to go on a walk — wanting to dive right in. This has had reasonable success so far in Seattle, but I'm cognizant that the weather will be changing soon and some people may be less amenable to these proposals.
For now, I'll be getting my steps in, personally and professionally.
(The photo above is from a walk around Little Island in New York.)