# Separating Decisions from Discussion

The one skill that makes meeting notes trustworthy: knowing what was *decided* versus what was merely *said*. Most bad notes fail here — they transcribe the debate and bury the outcome.

## The three-bucket test

Every substantive moment in a transcript lands in exactly one bucket:

| Bucket | Test | Written as |
|---|---|---|
| **Decision** | Someone with authority committed, and nobody standing objected | Past tense, owner attached: "Pricing page ships Friday — Sara owns copy" |
| **Action item** | A person accepted (or was assigned and present) a task with a when | Owner · verb · date. No owner present = "PROPOSED for [name], unconfirmed" |
| **Discussion** | Everything else — options weighed, concerns raised, context shared | One line per *theme*, not per speaker |

## Signals a decision actually happened

- The language shifted from conditional to committed ("we could" → "let's")
- Someone summarised and no one pushed back — silence after a summary is consent *in that room*; note it as "agreed without objection"
- A trade-off was named and one side chosen ("we accept the slower migration to keep the API stable")

## Signals it DIDN'T (write it as discussion, not decision)

- "Good idea" with no owner or date — enthusiasm is not commitment
- The decider wasn't in the room — that's a *recommendation to* someone, label it so
- It was decided "pending X" — record it as conditional with the condition, or it becomes folklore
- Two people agreed while a third went quiet — quiet ≠ consent when the quiet one owns the work; flag it

## Recording dissent

If someone objected and the group proceeded anyway, the notes carry one line of their objection *as they'd state it*. Dissent that vanishes from notes resurfaces as relitigation in three weeks. "Priya holds that the migration window is too tight" costs one line and saves one meeting.

## The follow-up test

Read only your Decisions + Action items sections. Could someone who missed the meeting act correctly all week? If they'd need the Discussion section to act, something is mis-bucketed.
