> I live in the UK now, and my impression is that the same is true here but to a much lesser extent

I worked for a client once who had units in NL and BE, and a UK supplier. We had a short meeting once, it went like so:

> Architect(BE): I have an idea, let's do X!

> Developers(BE): OK boss!

> Developers(NL): Terrible idea. No way we're doing X. Let's do Y!

> Supplier(UK): Well X is interesting. None of our customers do X. But, it is possible!

BE thought X was a good idea, developers questioned it but an architect outranks them. NL thought they decided to do Y, and work on it will start the moment the meeting ends. UK thought they were very very clear not to ever do X.

As if there weren't good enough reasons to agree and circulate meeting outcomes, these kinds of things make them invaluable...