I know this isn't a fun answer but in my experience it's just bad process and culture Basically nothing can be done / no decisions made without a meeting. Why

I know this isn't a fun answer but in my experience it's just bad process and culture Basically nothing can be done / no decisions made without a meeting. Why? Because X number of people feel they need buy in. If you don't get them onboard and give them a chance to voice opinions you'll be pushing uphill to get work done. And meetings are actually a fairly effective way to do that -- you have a group's attention for a set amount of time. If you just sent a doc then you'd have to follow up, etc. That sort of becomes the default, so there are meetings even when that sort of buy in isn't necessary, bc meetings are just how things get done.