Why Walking Meetings Improve Thinking

You’re stuck on a problem at your desk, making no progress. You stand up, walk around the block, and suddenly the solution appears. This isn’t coincidence—it’s neuroscience.

Yet most of your meetings happen in conference rooms or on video calls, sitting stationary while trying to solve complex problems. You accept this as normal even though you know from experience that your best thinking often happens while moving.

Walking meetings aren’t just pleasant alternatives to sitting—they fundamentally improve cognitive function, creative thinking, and collaborative problem-solving in ways that stationary meetings can’t replicate.

The Problem

Your calendar is full of meetings designed to generate ideas, solve problems, and make decisions. You sit in rooms or stare at screens, trying to think clearly and contribute meaningfully. But the conversations often feel sluggish, the ideas derivative, the energy low.

Meanwhile, you’ve noticed that your most productive conversations with colleagues happen during informal walks. The cafeteria, the parking lot, the hallway between buildings. Something about moving together makes discussions flow differently—more honest, more creative, more productive. Yet you rarely schedule formal meetings this way because it seems unprofessional or logistically complicated.

You’re also experiencing the physical consequences of too much sitting. Your back hurts, your energy drops by mid-afternoon, your ability to focus degrades throughout the day. You know you should move more, but fitting exercise around eight hours of meetings and focused work feels impossible. The choice seems to be between being productive and being active.

The static nature of meetings also creates attention problems. You’re supposed to focus for 30 or 60 minutes straight, sitting still, maintaining engagement. Your mind wanders, you check your phone, you think about other tasks. In walking meetings, maintaining attention feels effortless. The movement naturally supports focus in ways that sitting fights against.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that the research on this is clear and has been for years. Walking improves cognitive function, enhances creativity, supports problem-solving. Yet corporate culture continues to default to seated meetings as if movement and serious work are incompatible. You’re left choosing between following convention and optimizing for actual thinking quality.

You’ve tried suggesting walking meetings and gotten mixed reactions. Some people love it immediately. Others seem confused or uncomfortable, as if walking together is somehow less professional than sitting in a conference room checking phones. The cultural inertia around seated meetings is strong enough that even when people agree walking would help, they rarely actually do it.

Why movement enhances cognitive function

Walking increases blood flow to the brain, which improves oxygen and glucose delivery to neurons. This isn’t a minor effect—studies show that even light walking can increase cerebral blood flow by 20-30%. Your brain literally has more fuel available for thinking when you’re moving than when you’re sitting still.

Research suggests that walking also activates the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex—brain regions critical for memory, learning, and executive function. The bilateral rhythm of walking (left-right-left-right) may help synchronize brain activity in ways that support integrative thinking and problem-solving. Your brain isn’t just getting more resources; it’s operating in a more coherent mode.

Movement also regulates neurotransmitters that support cognition. Walking increases dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine—all of which improve mood, attention, and cognitive flexibility. This is why you often return from a walk feeling more optimistic and capable than when you left. You’re not just clearing your head; you’re chemically optimizing your brain state for thinking.

Many people find that walking breaks the rumination patterns that plague seated thinking. When you’re stuck on a problem at your desk, you often circle the same thoughts repeatedly without progress. Walking disrupts this loop—the changing visual environment, the physical rhythm, the sensory novelty all help your mind approach the problem from new angles rather than grinding on the same stuck pathway.

The bilateral stimulation of walking may also support what psychologists call “divergent thinking”—the ability to generate multiple solutions to open-ended problems. While seated, focused attention tends toward convergent thinking: evaluating options and narrowing to the best answer. Walking seems to support the opposite mode: generating possibilities, making unexpected connections, exploring alternatives. This makes walking particularly valuable for creative work and complex problem-solving.

Walking also reduces the physiological stress response in ways that support clearer thinking. Sitting in a conference room facing people across a table can activate subtle status and threat responses that consume cognitive resources. Walking side-by-side removes much of this social threat, creating a more relaxed physiological state where your brain can focus on the problem rather than social positioning.

The collaboration dynamics that walking changes

Walking meetings shift power dynamics in ways that improve candor and creativity. In a conference room, physical positioning often reinforces hierarchy—who sits at the head of the table, who speaks first, who has the largest office nearby. Walking side-by-side neutralizes much of this. Everyone’s moving together with no fixed positions or territorial markers.

This physical equality seems to create psychological safety that translates to better conversations. People share concerns they might not raise in a formal meeting. They propose half-formed ideas without the fear of looking foolish. They disagree more directly while somehow also being more collaborative. The informality of walking creates permission for the kind of honest, exploratory conversation that generates actual insights.

Research suggests that walking together also creates unconscious synchronization—your steps align, your breathing patterns coordinate, even your heart rates may start to match. This physiological synchronization appears to enhance empathy and mutual understanding in ways that seated conversation doesn’t trigger. You’re not just talking together; you’re literally moving in sync, which seems to support cognitive and emotional alignment.

Many people find that walking conversations flow more naturally than seated ones. There’s no awkward eye contact management—you’re looking ahead, occasionally at each other, at the environment. Pauses feel comfortable rather than awkward because you’re doing something (walking) even during silence. The conversation can ebb and flow more naturally without the pressure to maintain constant verbal engagement that seated meetings create.

Walking also provides natural conversation cues that conference rooms lack. When you reach a corner or landmark, it’s an organic moment to shift topics. When you pause to appreciate something in the environment, it creates a natural break for processing. The physical journey provides structure for the conversational journey in ways that feel intuitive rather than forced.

What Most People Try

The standard approach is to stick with seated meetings but try to make them more dynamic. Stand-up meetings, walking around the room while presenting, collaborative whiteboards. These inject some movement but don’t fundamentally change the static nature of the interaction. You’re still essentially stationary, just standing instead of sitting.

Some people try to fit walking into their existing schedule without changing meeting formats. They take calls while walking, use a treadmill desk, walk between meetings. This adds movement to their day but doesn’t capture the collaborative and cognitive benefits of walking meetings where multiple people move and think together.

Others suggest walking meetings but implement them in ways that undermine their benefits. They try to walk while taking notes on a laptop, or they walk so briskly that conversation becomes difficult, or they choose routes so noisy or crowded that focus is impossible. The logistics defeat the purpose.

Many people also limit walking meetings to casual one-on-ones, assuming they’re not appropriate for “serious” work. They’ll walk for coffee with a colleague but would never suggest walking for a strategic planning session or problem-solving meeting. This arbitrary boundary prevents them from using walking for exactly the types of conversations where it would help most.

A common barrier is the assumption that walking meetings require perfect weather or specific environments. “We can’t do walking meetings in winter” or “we don’t have anywhere good to walk.” This eliminates the option for most of the year or in most locations, when really any weather-appropriate route—even loops through office hallways—provides cognitive benefits over sitting still.

Some people try walking meetings but give up after one awkward experience. The first walking meeting feels weird or logistically challenging, so they conclude it doesn’t work rather than recognizing that it takes practice to do well, just like any other meeting format.

Others want to make walking meetings “efficient” by doing exactly what they do in seated meetings—agendas, action items, presentations—just while moving. This misses that walking meetings work best with different formats: exploratory discussions, brainstorming, strategic thinking, relationship building. Trying to replicate seated meeting structures while walking usually feels forced.

Many people also avoid suggesting walking meetings because they worry about accessibility or fitness differences. They don’t want to exclude people who can’t walk easily or who might be uncomfortable with physical activity. This concern is legitimate but often leads to defaulting to seated meetings for everyone rather than finding inclusive alternatives or simply asking about preferences.

The most damaging approach is accepting seated meetings as inevitable and never questioning whether movement could be integrated into work conversations. The default becomes the only option, and opportunities to improve both thinking quality and physical health are lost simply through lack of imagination about what meetings could be.

What Actually Helps

1. Start with one-on-one walking meetings to build the practice

Walking meetings work best when you start small and build competence before expanding to larger groups. Begin with regular one-on-one walking meetings where the logistics are simpler and the social dynamics easier to manage. This lets you develop the practice without the complexity of coordinating multiple people.

Choose one recurring one-on-one meeting—with your manager, a direct report, a peer, a mentor—and suggest converting it to a walking meeting. Frame it as an experiment: “I’ve read that walking meetings can improve focus and creativity. Want to try it for our next few check-ins?” Most people are curious enough to try once, and if it goes well, they’ll typically want to continue.

Start with 30-minute walks for meetings that don’t require screens or documents. This length provides enough time for substantive conversation without fatigue. Choose routes you know so navigation doesn’t require attention—loops through your office park, around a few city blocks, in a nearby park. Familiar routes let you focus on conversation rather than directions.

Many people find that walking works particularly well for certain types of one-on-ones: career development conversations, strategic thinking, giving or receiving difficult feedback, brainstorming solutions to persistent problems. These conversations benefit from the physiological relaxation and creative boost that walking provides. Save meetings that require detailed note-taking or screen sharing for seated formats.

Establish simple practices that make walking meetings work: agree on the route beforehand, suggest a comfortable walking pace, use voice recording on phones if you need to capture decisions (with permission), check in about pace and route adjustments. The more you formalize these small details, the more smoothly the meetings flow.

Pay attention to what changes in walking meetings versus seated ones. You’ll likely notice more candor, more creative ideas, more comfortable silences, better problem-solving. These observations help you identify which other meetings would benefit from walking format. Track which conversations seem to go better while walking—this reveals patterns about when walking helps most.

After a month of regular walking one-on-ones, you’ll have developed enough practice to expand. You’ll know good routes, you’ll be comfortable with the format, you’ll have evidence of benefits. This makes it easier to suggest walking meetings to others and to advocate for them more broadly in your organization.

How to start: This week, identify one regular one-on-one meeting on your calendar. Message the other person: “I’d like to try a walking meeting for our next check-in—research shows it can improve creative thinking. Want to try walking [specific route] while we talk?” Have a backup seated location in case weather or preference makes walking impractical. During the walk, notice how the conversation differs from seated meetings. After a few walking meetings, evaluate whether you’re getting better conversations and want to make it the regular format.

2. Design walking meetings for divergent thinking, not status updates

Walking meetings excel at certain types of conversation and struggle with others. Instead of trying to do all meeting types while walking, match the format to the work that walking naturally supports: creative problem-solving, strategic thinking, relationship building, difficult conversations.

Use walking meetings when you need to generate options rather than evaluate them, when you’re exploring problems rather than reviewing solutions, when you’re building alignment rather than reporting status. The cognitive state that walking creates—relaxed but energized, divergent rather than convergent—serves these types of conversations well.

Many people find that walking meetings work particularly well for: brainstorming solutions to persistent problems, strategic planning discussions, relationship-building conversations, giving or receiving coaching or feedback, working through interpersonal conflicts, making sense of complex situations, exploring new ideas or opportunities. These all benefit from the creative, psychologically safe state that walking facilitates.

Walking meetings struggle with: detailed presentations requiring visual aids, decisions requiring immediate documentation, conversations needing frequent reference to documents or screens, meetings where participants need to take extensive notes, formal governance or compliance discussions. For these, seated formats with proper tools make more sense.

Consider the walking meeting equivalent of an agenda: discussion prompts or questions rather than bullet points to cover. “Let’s walk and think about three possible approaches to the client situation” works better than “Let’s review the client status report while walking.” The prompts should invite exploration and divergent thinking rather than convergent evaluation.

Also embrace the flexibility that walking provides. If you reach a good stopping point in conversation early, you can end early rather than filling time—you’re already moving, so there’s no awkward “meeting end” moment. If you need more time, you can keep walking. The format is more fluid than seated meetings trapped in calendar blocks.

Some organizations establish walking meeting routes of different lengths: 15-minute loops for quick check-ins, 30-minute routes for standard discussions, 45-60 minute paths for deeper strategic conversations. Having established routes makes it easier to suggest walking meetings because the logistics are already solved.

How to start: Make a simple decision matrix for your common meeting types. Mark which ones could work while walking (don’t require screens, benefit from creative thinking, involve 2-4 people) versus which ones need seated format (need documentation, require presentations, involve large groups). For the next month, deliberately convert meetings in the “could work walking” category to walking format. Track which types of conversations consistently go better while walking—this reveals your optimal use cases for the format.

3. Build a culture where walking meetings are normalized, not weird

The biggest barrier to walking meetings often isn’t logistics—it’s cultural awkwardness. Walking together feels less “professional” than sitting in a conference room, even though it produces better outcomes. Building a culture where walking meetings are normal requires deliberate normalization.

Start by being explicit about why you’re suggesting walking meetings. Don’t just say “want to take a walk?” Say “I’d like to do a walking meeting for this—research shows it improves creative thinking and I’ve found it helps me think more clearly.” The rationale makes it a thoughtful work practice rather than a quirky preference.

When walking meetings go well, mention it afterward. “That walking meeting was really productive—I think the movement helped us think more creatively about the problem.” This positive reinforcement helps others connect the format with good outcomes. Over time, people start suggesting walking meetings themselves because they’ve experienced the benefits.

Many organizations find it helps to have senior leaders model walking meetings. When executives regularly do walking one-on-ones or walking strategy sessions, it signals that this is a legitimate work practice, not just something junior people do casually. Leadership behavior sets cultural norms more than policies or encouragements.

Address accessibility concerns proactively by offering options. “I find walking meetings really helpful for this type of discussion—would you be interested in trying it, or would you prefer to meet in the office?” This shows you value the format but also respect different needs and preferences. Some people will always prefer seated meetings, and that’s fine.

Create simple infrastructure that makes walking meetings easier: suggested routes posted in common areas, a shared document of good walking meeting paths and estimated times, cultural norms about what to do in bad weather (hallway loops, backup meeting rooms, phone calls instead). Reducing logistical friction makes adoption easier.

Also recognize that walking meetings won’t replace all seated meetings, and that’s okay. The goal isn’t to make everything a walking meeting—it’s to add walking as a normal, accessible option for the types of conversations where it helps. You’re expanding the toolkit, not replacing it entirely.

Consider establishing regular team walking meetings for specific purposes: monthly walking brainstorms, quarterly walking retrospectives, weekly walking one-on-ones. The regularity normalizes the practice and builds it into expected rhythms rather than it being a special exception that requires negotiation each time.

How to start: For the next three months, aim to do at least one walking meeting per week. Keep a brief log of walking meetings: who, what you discussed, outcomes. After three months, you’ll have data on what works well while walking and what doesn’t. Share these observations with colleagues who might be curious. If you manage people, make walking one-on-ones your default format unless there’s a specific reason to meet seated. If you notice someone else doing walking meetings, acknowledge it positively. Small acts of normalization accumulate into cultural change over time.

The Takeaway

Walking meetings aren’t just pleasant alternatives to seated conversations—they fundamentally improve cognitive function through increased blood flow, neurotransmitter optimization, and bilateral brain stimulation. They enhance collaboration through physiological synchronization and reduced status dynamics. They support creative thinking, honest dialogue, and complex problem-solving in ways that stationary meetings struggle to replicate.

The barrier isn’t logistics or weather—it’s cultural inertia that treats seated meetings as the only serious format for work conversation. Breaking this pattern requires deliberately choosing walking for the types of discussions where it helps: exploratory conversations, creative problem-solving, strategic thinking, relationship building. Start with one-on-one walking meetings, design them for divergent thinking rather than status updates, and normalize the practice through consistent use and positive reinforcement.

Your best thinking doesn’t happen sitting still. It happens while moving. The question isn’t whether to try walking meetings—the evidence is overwhelming that they work. The question is why you’re still defaulting to seated meetings for conversations that would be better while walking. Start this week with one walking meeting. Notice the difference. Then keep going.