Thought
This Wired article offers some good advice for getting people to respond to your e-mail requests — don’t cc, but rather send the message to one person.
The problem seems to come from people a) overwhelmed by their inbox and to do lists, and b) a feeling that “someone else will deal with it”.
Once stated this is pretty obvious, but I still receive (and send) messages to groups of associates expecting individual action.
Lesson learned.