I have never been in a meeting where consensus was reached. I've been in plenty of meetings where management edicts were handed down after an hour of wasted tim

I have never been in a meeting where consensus was reached. I've been in plenty of meetings where management edicts were handed down after an hour of wasted time with "rapid discussion" based on faulty assumptions that could have been fixed in ten minutes if someone had had an opportunity to consult relevant material at their desk in peace. Either you're confusing "peers with a whiteboard" with "meetings", or you're living on a completely different planet from me.