The latest talk of the town in the corporate world these days is meeting while walking. I was surprised to read this as this was not something new. One of my bosses uses to take me for a walk in the busy street of Gurgaon after lunch to discuss official issues. I too use to enjoy and liked the idea as this use to be very informal discussion and was an opportunity to get close to him. A lot of times we had really had very good outcomes of these discussions and few of the best plans came out of these discussions. What surprised me was the seriousness of this and really how few of very senior executives have used this. The path-breaking idea was to give this a formal format and inviting outsiders (like your clients and vendors) for these meetings. Going out for a coffee, lunch, drink or for that matter ‘smoke’ has been common. Only lunch (or breakfast, dinner) meetings have been formal in these formats. So what was new was a formal meeting while walking where the objective was the meeting itself. As in my case, my meetings with my boss were part of his afternoon walks after lunch it was not that we went out for a meeting and walk was part of it. It was a walk where the meeting was part of it.
Few things that should be kept in mind for these meetings –
Planning – one must plan in bit detail for these meetings or else these meetings will become an informal chitchat and your clients or meeting partners will start avoiding them. The outcomes of meetings should be effective. This will only come when proper planning is done for these meetings. It should be kept in mind that all meetings will not be suitable for a walking meeting. To be on the safer side for the first few meetings is to keep the agenda of the meeting that needs creative outcome. There should not be a long list of agenda for the meetings for sure.
Execution – the most important part of execution; is the place where you are walking. How long is the walk? And who has made the route? So pick the walking route very wisely. It should not be the bosses’ decision for the place of the walk. Obviously, the place has to be open and ‘walk-able’. Decide a route in advance select few interesting places where others want to go for a walk. It is strongly advised to avoid surprises to others so everyone is papered for it as few may need to change shoes or clothes. Now the most important part of this; select a team size. It is usually 2 to 3 but what is more important is where you are walking and how busy that place is.
Outcome - One most important issue is to keep the record of minutes of the meeting. The purpose of the meeting will be lost if the discussion is not documented as in creative discussions or brainstorming sessions one tend to come out with various ideas and only a few of them are workable. So it is very important to keep a record of it. Use of technology is recommended rather than using a notepad. Discussion can be recorded or voice notes can be taken on a handheld device or simply your mobile phones.
Hope this helps in planning your next walking meeting.
Happy waking! :)
Happy waking! :)
