Meetings that end with a decision.

The most expensive part of a meeting is not the hour. It is the second meeting, a week later, to work out what was agreed in the first.

We tried a rule for three months: no meeting ends until someone reads out what was decided, who owns it, and when it is due. If nobody can, the meeting was a conversation, and we say so.

01What changed

Fewer meetings, because people stopped booking ones that could not produce a decision. Shorter meetings, because the read-out concentrates minds in the last ten minutes. And a written trail that new joiners can actually follow.

“A meeting without a decision is a conversation. Conversations are fine. Just do not put them in the calendar.

02Where this breaks

Exploratory sessions and one-to-ones do not fit this rule, and forcing it makes them worse. Label them as conversations up front and nobody expects a decision.