Nowadays people are sitting 9.3 hours a day, which is more than we’re sleeping, at 7.7 hours. Sitting is so incredibly prevalent, we don’t even question how much we’re doing it, and because everyone else is doing it, it doesn’t even occur to us that it’s not okay. In that way, sitting has become the smoking of our generation.

If business innovator Nilofer Merchant had her way there would be a “surgeon’s general warning” placed on desk chairs around the world. But she isn’t only referring to the health reasons why we shouldn’t be sitting as much as we are. She’s talking about the relationship between exercise and innovation, of how thinking outside the box is so much easier when we’re actually getting out of the box.

Her recommendation to take the step, literally, to have walking meetings may not work for everyone, but it certainly is inspiring.

If we’re going to solve problems and look at the world really differently, whether it’s in governance or business or environmental issues, or job creation, maybe we can think about how to reframe those problems so that things became doable and sustainable and viable…

You’ll be surprised at how fresh air drives fresh thinking…