Does anyone have any strategies for dealing with these situations?
(1) "Hey, so whats the agenda here? What is it we all need to know by the time this is over?"
(2) "I have a conflict with another meeting. What do you need to know from me right now? (or what do I need to know from everyone right now?)"
Works wonders and also helps other people get to the point too.
In my particular case I don't turn up at most meetings. On rare occasions I'll get a phone call at my desk or someone will swing by, in which case I'll happily go.
Make sure there's a timeline 45 min. You need to have an end.
See if the attendees are willing to do the meeting standing up ?
1. Make it so the agenda is announced to the participants over email so they can whittle it down using email. Sometimes you don't even need the meeting.
2. If you have that guy who makes them take to long, talk to him privately about it. Or, don't invite him. Or, schedule the meeting 30 minutes before he has to leave to pick up his kids.
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.
I find this problem to be more the fault of the facilitator than the participant. There's always an opportunity to say "I understand your concerns, lets take this offline so we can continue with our discussion."
As a participant, depending on who is hosting, you may step all over sensitive toes if you try to correct the individual in question.
When I host I have a few rules. I always start on time and avoid repeating myself for people who arrive late. I define the purpose of the meeting up-front. I never schedule more than 30 minutes. I stop people who bloviate or go off topic by suggesting a possible follow-up (often unnecessary).
And the most useful opening line is "Though I booked 30 minutes, I want to value everyone's time, so I think we can [insert purpose for meeting here] and have plenty of time to spare." Any variation of that seems to get people to pay attention and contribute because there's an expectation that we'll get somewhere, and be done quickly.
As a participant: If I know the meeting organizer well enough, it's a conference call and the organizer is not sharing their desktop, a simple IM to them host saying "Land the plane." or "Find a way to shut him/her down.", perhaps with more carefully chosen words depending my relationship with the meeting host helps.
If you feel comfortable enough with the host, content and meeting arrangement you may find that you take over for the host as a participant. Be careful, though, some peoples' egos bruise easily.