Making Real Decisions In International Meetings

Do you ever take part in international meetings where people say "Yes" when they mean "No"? Where some people come prepared to reach decisions and others expect only to discuss? Where you thought you made a decision but nothing happened after the meeting? This can be particularly frustrating when international meetings are infrequent and very expensive to organize and run. Failure to make "real" decisions can introduce significant delays and costs in international projects and teams. There are major differences in how different cultures expect to run meetings and make decisions.