[testudovictoria]

You need to enumerate the goals of the meeting on a whiteboard. Literally write them out so people can see. I have found this to be the most effective method by far. When people have a meeting agenda in their email, it won't come to mind during the meeting. When they see the topics ahead of them, they know exactly what needs to be addressed.

Someone has to play the assertive, no nonsense authority. Meetings are ripe for sidebar conversations. It only gets worse with more people, people from different offices/sections/projects, closeness of participants, etc. Whoever is running the meeting needs to ensure that the agenda is the foremost priority. Keep the agenda conversation going while squelching pointless conversation.

Keep a list of tabled topics. Not all sidebar conversation is bad. There are tangentially related topics that need to be addressed as well, but they may not take precedent over what is on the agenda. Those topics can also be written on the board to circle back to if time permits. This has the added bonus of growing the agenda while keeping the time allotted constant.

Understand why people argue and what is needed to make both parties happy. For the longest time, I didn't realize that I was arguing poorly. I knew what my point was and what I wanted to get across. I would listen to their reasons for arguing their side, but I never got to their core beliefs. Sometimes you have to outright ask what will it take to make them change their mind.

An underhanded trick that can be used (but not every time) is to give them a sense of urgency: Thanks for attending this meeting. I know we have a lot to cover, but I have to leave in 45 minutes. If we focus, I know we can hit all of these topics. If certain topics are limping along, give a time check: We need to make a decision. I only have 25 minutes with 3 more topics to go.

[mabbo]

> Someone has to play the assertive, no nonsense authority.

This is one of the most critical roles a good manager can play. I've seen a team cut its meeting hours per week in half because the new manager did this well.