Weeting English

English

Weeting is a new form of consultation for two to five people who like to walk outside and deliberate at the same time. Weetings are fixed routes, with notable points along the way. These points are relevant for orientation during the consultation session and can be helpful to provide more structure. Weeting offers different routes, that can last 15 up to 90 minutes at a time.

Weeting is suitable for any person who likes to organize a meeting outdoors in the urban nature. They can be professionals, managers, employees, consultants, self-employed workers or teachers. Weeting helps people to get better results and it gives you energy. When you plan to organize a weeting in a city, please allow for a maximum of three people to participate to get the best yield. It is possible to organize a weeting up to five people in quiet and spacious locations, like a university campus or a park.

Imagine being outside and walking plenty every day, even during the week, and while working. Being outside and walking no longer belongs to the weekend or lunch breaks, it is part of every day. Because it doesn't take any time or discipline, you finally manage to move more throughout the day. From now on, you do weetings! Walking meetings increase your creativity and you get better contact with the people you work with. It is easier to discuss difficult issues, walking together. As a result, problems are solved faster, before they get out of hand. If you are stuck in your thinking just walk around, and you usually come up with an idea. After a vacation, you don't have to look up to sitting inside all day, because you're not going to do that at all. Added to that is something else. Because you're outside more often and longer, you follow the seasons. You feel the wind, the sun on your skin, and sometimes rain. You hear the sounds of the animals, people and machines around you. Whether you smell blossoms, an eatery, or traffic, your senses are on. It seems like you are more alive. I too struggled with the problem of sitting inside all day. I loved my job, but at the same time hated spending five days a week in offices and conference rooms. That's over. Walking has become an integral part of my arsenal of work methods for years. Outside is part of the work environment, I feel fitter, and the city, the environment, feels more like "mine. It may sound like a fairy tale, but it's not. It can be done: working more productively, exercising more and being outside more often without it taking up any time. Enter weeting!

A weeting route is always easy to follow and uses quiet streets or paths. The walking distance depends on the available time. For a consultation of 60 minutes we do advice a walking route of maximum 3.3 km to 3.7 km. This does depend on the type of outdoor location. Easy to follow routes without traffic lights can for example take a bit longer. The routes and landmarks can be used in different ways. Choose what you like best and is fitting for the occasion.

Go for freestyle: you use the landmarks along the route purely for orientation and in order to keep an eye on the time you planned to work while walking.
Use a pre-planned agenda: link your own agenda to the landmarks.
Use the consultation structure

This structure helps you to have more productive meetings. The environment becomes the chairman as it were; approaching a prominent point on the route turns out to have an accelerating effect on the consultation. Experience it yourself! Prefer your own agenda? Link your own consultation points to the three points on the route. When planning a meeting, allow 5 minutes for departure and time to make notes. Target time is about 7-10 minutes on top of the duration of the route. For a meeting of one hour you can assume an average distance of approximately 3.7 kilometers.

Weeting forms are working forms for weetings, fixed structures to shape the meeting. Weeting has seven basic forms which can be used for most consultations. In addition, there are specific, elaborate forms of weeting for almost every type of meeting that occurs in an organization. Weeting is also suitable for education, and a weeting can even be done alone, by phone, and online with large groups at a time. It is not a lunch or break walk. The essence of weeting is that you use walking for meeting, learning, working or thinking. The weeting forms help to choose the best approach for the walking meeting. The ways of weeting are intended to make a walking meeting better, more effective, easier or more fun and can be used for most types of meetings. These weeting forms provide structure without having an agenda or program in front of you. Everyone has to find their own way. It's up to you if and how you apply a weeting form, depending on the situation and working style. In all cases, you need a good, quiet route that requires little navigation and ensures that you are basically back on time. The structure, as with any meeting, depends on the meeting and the preferences of the participants. More and less structured, more and less flexible.

1. basic weeting - the fixed weeting structure with three standard points linked to landmarks: goal/when happy, checkpoint, conclusions/ first action;
2. freestyle - own steering on the agenda, landmarks on the route are meant for your sense of time;
3. timeboxing - fixating the time for a topic, linking the agenda to landmarks down the road. You don't walk on until you've completed the point;
4. president's walk - A short round, which you walk over and over again for as long as it takes to discuss a topic;
5. recap meeting - weeting with time at the end to recap the meeting sitting down and record agreements;
6. swap - weeting with a group, where you swap conversation partners at set points or times along the way;
7. breakout weeting - a weeting as part of a seated meeting, focused on a specific, jointly established goal. You can combine this form of weeting with timeboxing or a recap meeting.

Weeting as a break out session - How to - Martine de Vaan

People live on average 1.8 to 4.5 years longer

A large study conducted in the United States shows a strong link between exercise and longevity. The study compares different types of exercise. Just a little bit of exercise has a huge impact on your life expectancy.

By walking 75 minutes per week, a person gains an average of 1.8 life years. At 2.5 hours per week the gain is on average 3.4 years. With more than an hour of exercise daily, the gain can run up to 4.5 years. This is based on six studies, involving 650,000 volunteers, who were followed over a period of ten years. People with a higher BMI had the same gain: you can better have an active lifestyle and be too fat, than be inactive and slim. (Barry et al, 2014)

More productive

Better concentration and more focus after 20 minutes of walking: this result comes from a research study conducted by Dr. Hillman of the University of Illinois. The image on the right shows the compilation of MRI scans of the brain in this test of 20 students, after sitting still (left), and after 20 minutes of exercise (right). The red area shows stronger brain activity. These areas are also associated with happiness.

Research conducted at the University of Leiden by cognitive psychologist Colzato and others, shows that both convergent and divergent thinking is improved by exercise. So walking doesn't just help with brainstorming.

Stanford University in California found a huge enhancement of divergent thinking in 4 experiments. Participants were up to 60% more productive. The effect occurs after only 5 minutes of walking; walking outside or on a treadmill made little difference. (Oppezzo and Schwartz, 2014). 80% of the participants benefited from walking, these positive effects apply especially to subjects who already have a rudimentary physical condition: people who get tired of walking do not have enough energy left for other tasks.

English

What is weeting & who is it for?

Imagine

Weeting route shapes your consultation

Basic weeting structure

Weeting forms

The zeven most important weeting forms

Benefits

Practical Tips

What does science say