I agree with all of this, except I've observed that written media can be extremely effective as a means of discussion. In meetings at our company, most of the m

I agree with all of this, except I've observed that written media can be extremely effective as a means of discussion. In meetings at our company, most of the material discussion takes place in writing before the in-person meeting even starts. The first ~10 minutes of a meeting are spent reading people's comments in silence until everyone is caught up. It's an unusual approach, but results in faster and higher quality decisions than any other method we've tried.