Feb 06, 2020 | by Budi Tanrim
Walking 1on1: A refreshing way to connect
My small experiment with walking 1on1
When I was in Canada, my favorite things to do is walking from the office back to my home. It’s a refreshing activity to observe my surrounding and reflect to myself after a long hour work and thinking.
After moving back to Indonesia, I missed this right away. In Indonesia, it’s impossible to walk around the city due to the way the culture shaped the city. To be fair, it’s possible to walk around the city to some extend, but it’s a lot of hassle and dangerous.
One day, I read somewhere about the concept of walking 1on1 meeting and actually had it for a few times back in Canada. Yes, basically, you walk while having a conversation. Intrigued about this idea because I can somewhat walk around and refreshed myself from lots of meetings, I’ve done a few of my 1on1 meeting in this format and here are a few things I want to share:
Benefits
Less distraction. Sitting down in the room sometimes allow me to be less focused, because I will be distracted with phone or laptop. Walking around will forces us away from the gadget. However, walking can be distracting sometimes if you met somebody and you have to say hi. But, rarely happens.
More to talk about. I believe the more blood circulation happens, the more our brain stimulated? I believe there is a research about this. In my experiment during this week, seems like everyone who I have 1on1 with can talk out their thought continuously. At the end, we have more to talk about in such a short time.
More relaxed. The advantage about walking 1on1 in Indonesia culture is less eye-contact. I feel like I can focus on the discussion because we walk side by side and less intense eye-contact, which makes things less awkward.
Small observation
Trust. I never tried this with somebody new or someone I haven’t build a trust rapport before. So, not sure about that.
Taking notes? This probably drive note-taker people nuts. However, since I was so focused on the conversation, I can almost remember what chunks we talked about. I tried to summarize things before we end our walk and quickly jot down the big themes of our conversation.
Thanks to Dina for silently took the picture. lol
That’s all. I’d encourage you to try this one. Let me know what you think on Twitter
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