If it's not a meeting you called, your options are a little more limited, but if it's one of your meetings, here are some tips: 1 - Have a set time limit, don'

If it's not a meeting you called, your options are a little more limited, but if it's one of your meetings, here are some tips: 1 - Have a set time limit, don't be afraid to even carry an egg timer 2 - Set an agenda, and make sure everyone has it in advance. Agenda is vague, but I'm talking about a list of items (somewhat specific talking points) for which each item can have a realistic time limit 3 - Carry a big stick. This is your meeting, don't be afraid to swing your stick, even if your superiors are in the meeting. This is where most meetings fail, because the organizer is too scared to take control. 4 - "Take this offline" is a powerful weapon as well. Once you even remotely sense that a tangential/offtopic discussion is coming up, tell the participants to take it offline, note it for follow up for yourself so that you can ensure a proper resolution. 5 - Think about using a meeting cost timer. Yes, this is gutsy, but if people see a dollar amount (just use a blended hourly rate x the number of people in the meeting) tallying up on a screen somewhere, they start to respect the cost of the meeting and can be motivated to NOT bore people with low priority discussion.