# A Meeting Earns Its Cost by Producing Owned Decisions ## Claim A meeting earns its cost only when it produces a decision with a named owner and a visible completion window. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - This applies to recurring coordination meetings where status can already move asynchronously. - A fixed agenda and issue-parking list protect the decision work from tangents, but structure alone doesn't create value without ownership. - Some relational or exploratory meetings have value before a decision exists; this claim doesn't reduce every human gathering to task assignment. ## Evidence [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Meetings Don’t Have to Suck]] describes recurring meetings with a stable agenda, ranked issues, a hard stop, and openly recorded commitments checked at the next meeting. The source explicitly distinguishes decision work from status exchange that could have happened asynchronously. ## Links - [[Product & Startup Instincts MOC]] — connects meeting value to decision ownership and operating discipline. - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Event Recap Process]] — applies-in: a recap preserves the decision, owner, and due window after the meeting ends. - [[The Principle of Least Resistance in Knowledge Work]] — contrasts: without explicit ownership, urgent conversation displaces the harder follow-through that creates value. - [[A System Failure That Looks Like a Performance Failure Never Gets Fixed]] — because missed commitments should trigger examination of the coordination system before blame settles on an individual.