The most frustrating repeated failure in meeting management is unclear accountability for actionable items. A simple – “Joe – you are going to take care of this by Tuesday, right?” is all it takes. A Pro gives every action item both a name and a date. Assuming you read the rules in order, you should have surmised that The bigger the meeting, the more important this becomes.
I think part of the reason people don’t do this correctly is a reluctance to tell others what to do. What if they say no?
Well…. I can give you a lot of techniques to get someone to pick up the work they ought to do, but think about this. If they didn’t openly say they weren’t going to do it, and others assume they will – then they don’t… That is on you. So at the very least, you are uncovering a possible problem that would not have been solved, which is always better than being “polite”.
Corollary: A meeting without meeting notes never happened.
That’s right. It never happened. Don’t go asking people about the status of their action items if they didn’t get them sent in a clearly worded email. You might as well ask them where they parked their unicorn. If people could be trusted to do their work independently, you wouldn’t need to publicly assign them shit in the first place. They would volunteer.