Accountability is one of the real pain points in meetings, perhaps especially in academic meetings, where it’s easy for assigning tasks or follow-up to get lost in the fog of the semester, or for attendees to confuse having explored an issue at length with having done something about it. And meetings don’t have to be terribly large to cause this problem–a phone call, or an impromptu encounter with a colleague, might easily count as a meeting that necessitates some follow-up.

The minutes of meetings often don’t help, either, as they dutifully record votes, and sometimes discussions, but frequently don’t indicate what the next steps are to accomplish a committee or department’s next set of tasks.

As Merlin Mann has argued, a sure-fire way to improve meetings is for meeting leaders (committee chairs, etc.) to insist on “transitive followup.” Tasks should be recorded in the…

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