So I have started to hear a new phrase that bothers me a bit. The phrase is Take a Meeting. As in I'll take that meeting, or I couldn't pitch my idea because the management won't take our meeting.

Whoa, what the heck is up with that? Granted I come out of the manufacturing world, but when someone in the manufacturing world calls a meeting. You go, or you get called at your desk, paged, and then on your cell phone. And if you are really late people are looking for you -- including in the restroom. There was a production meeting, a quality meeting, project meetings, and client meetings to name a few. The list went on and on. Then there were the ever requested sales meetings. There was always a call on my voicemail from some outside salesperson looking to meet to show their latest wares. And you know what, I always arranged time to be in those meetings. It is not to say I haven't missed a meeting or did a fly-by / pop-in when there were a lot of fires. As a manager, I would come in early to make the time for at least a fifteen minute sit down, in rare instances I would have one of my direct reports meet with the requester, and then there were always the walkabout (walk and talk - that works well with a 850,000 sq foot factory). But, we made the time.

See that is the point. For some reason in my new industry, people seem to think that they don't need to meet with you. I understand that folks are extremely busy, but you miss a lot by not taking that meeting. You miss opportunities, you miss innovations, you miss the next win in your industry.