Wrangling Cats - or - Guiding meetings pattern

I recently had the opportunity to guide a meeting with twelve other professionals, across two companies, with three different layers of management.  It could have been a disaster, with chaos raining down from the sky ( OK, maybe not that bad, but still could have been unproductive, which is _almost_ as bad. )  But it wasn't; we got through it with a solid plan of who was to do what next, what the critical path was, and with egos and careers intact.  I realized at the end of it that there was a pattern here that could be reused, so of course I wanted to share it!

The overall pattern is:

• Round of quick introductions - keep note of who is there, and what their role is ( do-er, manager, sales )
• Quick history and restatement of why everyone is there
• State what the goal to accomplish is
• Ask open question: "Now, how do we accomplish this?"
• Listen more than you talk; if people start drifting away from solutions or start getting negative, step in to bring conversation back around to focus on solutions
• Once an agreed solution starts forming up, take control by stating ( and this is the new trick ) "OK, let me go through the different levels we have here to make sure we understand what needs to be done"
• Starting with the highest level of authority, state "OK, let's start at the 50,000 foot level: Sales guys / VPs, it sounds like you need to do..." and list out the action items they will need to take.
• Then ask "OK, so at the 50,000 foot level, is there anything else that we need to do?" Let discussion flow if necessary but keep everyone focused on the tasks that level needs to do.
• Then go to the next highest level of authority, stating "OK, so at th 40,000 foot level: Managers, it sounds like you need to do..." and list out the actions items they need to take.
• Then ask "OK, so at the 40,000 foot level is there anything else we need to do?"  Again let it flow but keep it focused.
• Then ask "OK, so at the 30,000 foot level: developers, it sounds like this is what you need to do..." and list out the action items they need to take.
• Then ask "OK, so that the 30,000 level is there anything else we need to do?"  Let it flow, but keep it focused.
• Then state "OK, so just to recap, sales / VPs will do this [ list it out ], while managers are doing this [ list it out ], and the developers are doing this [ list it out ]"
• Then ask "Is there anything that needs to happen before something else can?" Let them talk about any critical path issues.
• Then state "OK, so sounds like the order we need to get this done is...[ list out critical path]"
• Then state, "OK, so I think we are all set.  Is there any other questions or concerns?"  Deal with anything remaining.
• Wrap up with "Thanks for everyone for attending"
• Immediately send the notes as "[ level ] Here are your items: [ items ]", followed with "The critical path here is [ critical path ]"
• Assign someone to follow up ( or take responsibility yourself to follow up with everyone later on status )

Was a great way to help keep everyone focused, and let each level know what their duties were in relation to each other, and let everyone know what needed to happen in order, so that no one was roadblocked because someone didn't know that they were the block.