The current wave of stand-up meeting is being fueled by the growing use of "Agile," an approach to software development, crystallized in a manifesto published by 17 software professionals in 2001. The method calls for compressing development projects into short pieces. It also involves daily stand-up meetings where participants are supposed to quickly update their peers with three things: What they have done since yesterday's meeting; what they are doing today; and any obstacles that stand in the way of getting work done.

via online.wsj.com

We all spend way too much time in meetings. I'm trying to way more of mine as "walking meetings" and i'll be trying weave more "stand up" meetings into the schedule, too.