Meeting notes are a thing for a reason. Here's a recipe for a successful meeting: 1. Start by setting the agenda, and critically, the desired outcome. "At th

Meeting notes are a thing for a reason. Here's a recipe for a successful meeting: 1. Start by setting the agenda, and critically, the desired outcome. "At the end of this meeting I want to have a decision on X, or a date for when we can make that decision." 2. Have your meeting. Minimize attendance. 3 is perfect. 5 is okay. 7 is pushing it. Have a very clear moderator/leader for the discussion. 2b. Moderator/leaders should be hard-asses about forcing tangential discussions offline/into a parking lot. This is probably their most important function. 3. At the end of the meeting, the leader summarizes the outcome to all participants. This is a critical step. "So, Joe, you will come back to me on Friday with a decision on X. Phil, you'll be working with Joe to pull that answer together." 4. Write the meeting notes down in a permanent place. Email is too ephemeral. A document management system of some kind with an email notification is ideal. Record actions for those who have them, with associated dates. Stakeholders should also follow-up on actions with due dates to make sure they're closed out. This can feel like nagging/cat herding, but it's vital. The reality is, many decisions/discussions are too complex to do over email, particularly if the number of stakeholders grows beyond 3. There's far too much room for confusion/ambiguity and a lack of ownership on follow-up actions. Mix in the ease with which emotional components can be lost or mis-interpreted over email, and my tendency is to push for a voice or in-person discussion the minute an email thread goes on for more than a day.