Walking. An Easily Overlooked Management Technique

Companies love tools. According to a 2017 Bain & Company survey the average company uses 7.5 tools. Evergreens (the survey has been conducted since 1993) are Benchmarking, Total Quality Management, and Mission and Vision Statement.

What’s missing on the list of 25 popular tools is the plain old walk. Let me explore the why, where, and how of walking.

Why walking is beneficial for managers (and their organizations)

During the Global Peter Drucker Forum in Vienna, the English management philosopher Charles Handy shared a story highlighting the power of a walk. Charles told us how he spent Christmas with friends in Boston. After lunch he suggested to go for a walk. His American host inquired where he wants to go to. The host’s wife went a step further, asking whether it is possible to drive to wherever they decide to go. After all, it was quite cold.

Charles wanted to just go for a walk and not to any particular place. (Yes, we do this a lot in England) Realising that this was too vague for his friends, he came up with a little instruction. “Let’s go to the Boston Commons” he told them, “And walk around the park twice clock-wise and then twice anti-clockwise.”

This did the trick. The group set out on its walk. With surprising results. “I was a bit reluctant in the beginning but eventually I started to think about my life.” The American host shared with Charles afterwards. “Eventually I started to realised that I don’t like what I am doing. So I decided to go back to school and become a teacher. … but don’t tell my wife. She does not know yet.”

Not every walk leads to such profound insights, but walks certainly create the right condition for creative thinking. It’s an advanced brain exercise. A single step involves the movement of 200 bones and 600 muscles as well as multiple simultaneous brain functions. Complex signals are exchanged between legs, eyes, hands, and the cerebral neocortex. These diverse stimuli and the increased blood flow activate your brain. ?

Walking increases the blood flow in our brain and releases endorphins. It creates the ideal condition for blue-sky thinking.

How to get out most from your walk

Most things we do with a particular target in mind. Organizations are obsessed with goals. If you want to use walking as an effective management technique, don’t turn it into another competition with yourself (“I need to walk 5 km”). Your walk should be a light form of exercise, not the preparation for a marathon.

Walks are best combined with idleness. While not usually appreciated that much, organizations need idleness and procrastination. You might be tempted to listen to a podcast or take some calls while you walk. After all, who wants to waste time? But as Agatha Christie notes, “invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness.” So, no podcasts and no calls.

Where to walk

This brings me to my last suggestion: strolling down 5th Avenue won’t work.

In a recent experiment 63 healthy participants were shown a mixture of fearful and neutral faces while in an MRI scanner. After a walk in a forest, the exercise was repeated, showing a measurable reduction of stress. For those going on a walk on a busy street, however, there was no stress reduction noticeable.?

As stress will get in the way of creative thinking, you need to seek out nature. Forests, mountains, the beach, or a quiet park. A dose of vitamin D and fresh air will do the rest.

What it all boils down to

You probably never thought of walking as a management tool. It is neither fancy nor sensational. But it works!?As you are planning your next management away day, why not include a walk in the woods??

(note: the quotes from Charles Handy are based on the authors recollection, not verbatim)