Would you take a walk with me?

I began this morning by reading these thoughts on the new biography of Steve Jobs: http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com/2011/10/thoughts-on-steve-jobs-the-book.html

Two observations in that blog post are that Steve Jobs was half of a number of brilliant collaborations and that Steve Jobs took a lot of walks.  It started me thinking.

When my partner left the business last spring, I lost the opportunity to go for walks.  During the eight years that we worked together, we often headed to the park or the boardwalk to solve problems, resolve conflicts or search for innovations.  Walking was part of how we worked.  It was so much a part of how we worked, that I didn't realize that I had stopped walking when he left.

In my courses, I often talk about the power of going for a walk with someone, but it took someone else's blog post to make me realize that it's been a long time since I went for a walk. My love of walks goes back long before I started in this business. I used to go for walks to get fresh air and exercise.  I even acquired a dog as an excuse to walk with my teenage sons and a reminder to walk for myself.

Now the dog doesn't much like walking and I head for the yoga studio to stretch my body and my my mind. I walk whenever there's an obvious opportunity (I'd much rather walk than move my car in the city), but I haven't headed out just to move and think and be present in my environment for a long time.

It's time for me to move past some problem solving and do some serious innovating.

It's time for a walk.

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