Walking Meetings: How to Make Them Work

The conference room meeting is one of the most hated rituals in modern work. Too long, too many people, too little accomplished. Half the attendees are checking email under the table. The other half are waiting for their turn to speak while pretending to listen.

Walking meetings fix most of these problems, and they add something no conference room can offer: movement, fresh air, and a change of scenery that genuinely improves the quality of thinking.

But walking meetings only work if you set them up properly. Done poorly, they’re just awkward outdoor conversations with no agenda and sore feet. Done well, they’re one of the most productive meeting formats available.

Why Walking Meetings Work

The research on walking and cognition is consistent: walking improves creative thinking. A Stanford study found that creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when people walked compared to when they sat. The effect held whether people walked outdoors or on a treadmill, which suggests the movement itself (not just the scenery) drives the benefit.

Walking meetings also compress naturally. When people are moving, they get to the point faster. The rambling preambles and political positioning that pad conference room meetings tend to disappear when everyone is in motion. Most walking meetings accomplish in 20 minutes what a seated meeting takes 45 minutes to cover. The walking creates a pace for the conversation, not just for the feet.

The side-by-side posture helps too. Sitting across a table from someone is subtly confrontational. Walking beside them is collaborative. Difficult feedback lands softer. Honest opinions come out easier. The shared forward motion creates a sense of partnership that rectangular tables undermine.

And then there’s the obvious benefit: you’re walking. A 30-minute walking meeting covers roughly 1.5 miles. If you replace two seated meetings per week with walking meetings, that’s an extra three miles of walking with zero additional time commitment. The meeting was going to happen anyway. You just changed the venue.

When Walking Meetings Work Best

Walking meetings are ideal for certain types of conversations and poorly suited to others.

Perfect for: One-on-one check-ins, brainstorming sessions, problem-solving discussions, mentoring conversations, feedback delivery, strategic thinking, and any meeting where the goal is to generate ideas rather than review documents. If the meeting is fundamentally a conversation between two or three people, it’s a candidate for walking.

Not ideal for: Meetings that require screens, documents, or visual aids. Large group meetings (more than three people makes walking logistics difficult). Meetings that require detailed note-taking. Formal presentations. Any meeting where someone needs to share their screen or reference a spreadsheet.

The sweet spot is the meeting that’s currently scheduled for 30 minutes in a small conference room between two or three people. That meeting almost always works better as a walk.

How to Set One Up

Limit the group to two or three people. Walking meetings with more than three people fracture into sub-conversations, and the group struggles to maintain a consistent pace. If your meeting has five attendees, it’s not a walking meeting candidate.

Set a clear agenda. Walking meetings need more agenda discipline, not less. Without a whiteboard or shared screen to anchor the discussion, conversations can drift. Agree on one to three specific topics before you start walking. “Let’s discuss the project timeline and the vendor decision” gives the walk structure. “Let’s just catch up” often produces 20 minutes of pleasant conversation and zero outcomes.

Choose a route, not a destination. A loop that returns to your starting point works best. Know roughly how long it takes at a conversational pace. Use the walking time calculator to estimate: a 30-minute meeting at a moderate pace covers about 1.5 miles. Pick a route that matches your meeting length so you’re not standing in a car park trying to wrap up the last agenda item.

Match the pace to the conversation. Walking meetings are not fitness walks. The pace should be comfortable enough that everyone can talk without getting winded. If one person is significantly less fit than the other, slow down. The meeting is the priority; the exercise is the bonus.

Handle note-taking intentionally. You can’t type notes while walking. Options: one person takes brief voice notes on their phone at key decision points. Or, immediately after the walk, both parties spend two minutes writing down action items while they’re fresh. The second approach is often better because it forces clarity. If you can’t remember the decision five minutes after the meeting, it wasn’t a clear decision.

End with a clear summary. As you approach the end of your loop, spend the last two minutes verbally summarising what was decided and who owns what. This replaces the “next steps” slide in a conference room presentation and ensures both parties leave with the same understanding. Walking meetings that end without a verbal summary tend to produce misaligned memories of what was agreed.

Making It Normal

The biggest barrier to walking meetings isn’t logistics. It’s culture. In many workplaces, suggesting a walking meeting feels unusual, and unusual things require social capital to introduce.

Start by proposing it for a low-stakes meeting. “Want to do our one-on-one as a walk today? The weather’s nice.” If the other person agrees and the meeting goes well, you’ve established a precedent. Most people who try a walking meeting once want to do it again. The experience sells itself.

If you’re the manager, you have more latitude to set the format. “I’m going to start doing our one-on-ones as walking meetings when the weather allows” is a reasonable statement that most direct reports will welcome, especially those who sit at a desk all day.

For remote workers who take meetings by phone, the walking meeting is even easier. Put in your earbuds, walk out the door, and dial in. Your meeting partner doesn’t even need to know you’re walking (though telling them often inspires them to do the same). A one-mile walk during a 20-minute phone call happens completely in the background.

The Weather Question

Walking meetings are weather-dependent, and that’s fine. You don’t need to walk in a downpour or in freezing temperatures. But the window of acceptable weather is wider than most people assume. A light jacket handles drizzle. A brisk pace handles cold. Only extreme heat, heavy rain, ice, or severe wind genuinely prevent a walking meeting.

In climates with harsh winters or summers, walking meetings might be a three-season practice. That still covers eight or nine months of the year. During the off-season, revert to indoor meetings or walk the hallways of your building (less scenic, but the movement benefits still apply).

What You’ll Notice

After a few walking meetings, certain patterns emerge. Conversations feel more honest. Ideas flow more freely. Meetings end on time (often early) because the walking creates natural momentum toward resolution. And you’ll find yourself dreading meetings less, because at least some of them now involve being outside and moving rather than sitting under fluorescent lights.

You’ll also notice the steps. Two walking meetings per week at 30 minutes each adds roughly three miles to your weekly total. Check the steps to miles calculator to see how that translates. Over a month, it’s meaningful mileage that required zero extra time.

The best meeting you’ll have this week might be the one that doesn’t happen in a room. Suggest a walk. See what happens.