If you want to get your creative juices flowing, stand up and get walking.
The concept may sound simple, but there’s actual scientific evidence to back it up.
Researchers have found that walking, whether it is a stroll around the block or through the office, boosts creative thinking while you’re doing it and for a short time after you sit back down.
For anyone in a creative job, getting ideas for making a sales pitch or writing a marketing plan may be improved by getting out of a chair and stretching your legs.
It works for Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn’s chief executive officer. He has been doing walking meetings for a while, first out of necessity but later for the benefits. He said that during LinkedIn’s rapid expansion, the company didn’t have enough conference rooms so people held meetings while walking the grounds.
The idea is hardly new. The 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, “All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.’’
Current research gives legs to his theory. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition by Stanford University researchers Marily Oppezzo and Daniel L. Schwartz showed that walking increases people’s ability to think of novel, creative ideas.
The effect doesn’t just come from the flow of external stimulation that normally comes from walking. Walking on a treadmill facing a blank wall also improved creativity.
In the study, walking increased 81 percent of participants’ creativity on the Guilford’s Alternate Uses test of creative divergent thinking.
Real world data also shows there are business benefits to moving, according to a laboratory study from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Movement data from Sociometric badges worn by employees showed that people who move more complete tasks more quickly.
The data suggests that taking the stairs instead of the elevator isn’t just good for your health, it improves your productivity, said Ben Waber, one of the study’s authors and president and CEO of Sociometric Solutions, a management consulting firm that specializes in social sensing technology. He recommends getting up once an hour to take a walk, which should be longer than a few steps to the office fridge. All it takes to get started, he said, is putting one foot in front of the other.
Please Leave A Comment
Related posts:
Study: Companies Need to Marry Creativity and Innovation
LinkedIn Study: 67% of Millennial Employees Get Personal with Friends at Work
Employment Increases in Cities With a Large LinkedIn Presence
LinkedIn Purchases Newsle to Give Users Targeted Alerts
Flexible Leadership May Be More Effective Than Solo Leadership