Gone To Lunch — by Dan Lynn
By Dan Lynn
Early in my career, I was always too busy for lunch. I'd skip it entirely, or I'd run down to the cafeteria, grab something, and carry it right back to my office so I could keep working. To me, that hour was time I couldn't afford to lose.
One day, a senior consultant from Mercer Consulting, Bob Atkins, saw me heading back to my desk with my lunch in hand. He stopped me and said something I've never forgotten.
He told me that spending an hour with my colleagues over lunch was more valuable than anything I could possibly get done at my desk in that same hour. The relationships you nourish, he said, and the network you build — those are the most important things you'll ever invest in.
The tasks I was so busy protecting that hour for? I can't remember a single one of them. But the relationships — the colleagues who became friends, mentors, partners, references, clients, and sources of opportunity for decades — those turned out to be among the most valuable things I built in my whole career. Your network isn't a distraction from your growth. Over a long enough career, it will be your growth.
Questions this Key Learning answers
Should I skip lunch when I have too much work?
Dan Lynn once treated lunch as time he could not afford to lose. A senior consultant helped him see that an hour with colleagues could be more valuable than another hour at his desk. The tasks faded from memory, while those relationships became friendships, mentorships, partnerships, references, clients, and sources of opportunity.
How do I build strong relationships with colleagues naturally?
The author’s lesson is to spend regular, unhurried time with colleagues, including over lunch. Our analysis describes this not as transactional networking, but as the gradual accumulation of mutual knowledge and trust. Informal conversations create familiarity, strengthen goodwill, and make future calls for introductions, references, cooperation, or opportunities easier to place and answer.
Is networking really as important as completing my daily tasks?
The author does not dismiss hard work, but argues that solitary activity is not the only work that counts. He cannot remember the tasks he protected his lunch hour to complete, while the relationships built across his career continued creating value for decades. His conclusion is direct: a network is not a distraction from growth; over time, it becomes growth.