Ever you ever thought about having a meeting while walking instead of sitting?

Possibly not.

Well, there’s research that might convince you that it’s a great idea.

A 2014 study by Stanford researchers found that walking boosts creativitywhile you are taking your stroll and for a short time thereafter.

And it didn’t really matter whether you were walking indoors or out.

One of the experiments found that whether you are getting your exercise on a treadmill (facing a blank wall) or out walking in the fresh air, you produce twice as many creative responses compared to a person sitting down!

Is that why Apple’s Steve Jobs was known for walking meetings? Especially when he was meeting someone for the first time?

Or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg took walks with people he was thinking of hiring?

Or Twitter’s Jack Dorsey told Forbes in 2012 that “The best thinking time is just walking.”?

Sounds like they might all have been onto something.

And they aren’t the only ones.

Nilofer Merchant suggested this concept in a 2013 Ted Talk entitled “Got a meeting? Take a walk.”

Ms. Merchant says that people are sitting 9.3 hours per day. That’s more than we are sleeping!

“Sitting has become the smoking of our generation,” according to Ms. Merchant.

Now, I’m not writing to get you on the exercise bandwagon, but after having listened to Ms. Merchant’s presentation, it got me to thinking.

Next time I’m planning a meeting with someone at Starbucks and sitting with a tasty 300 calorie drink, perhaps I should suggest that they bring some comfortable shoes and we take a walk instead?

As Ms. Merchant says, “Fresh air drives fresh thinking” and we can all use more of that – especially when the discussion will be difficult or we are in conflict.

Jeanette