Next to bad coffee and bosses who micro-manage, there's nothing worse than poorly run meetings.

It's a pet peeve of most, but we're not alone. An annual survey of thousands of business and community leaders —conducted by San Francisco consulting firm Interaction Associates — shows that employees consider one-third of all meetings a waste of time, and that managers spend one-half of their working life attending, conducting, preparing for or following up on meetings. No wonder we can't get anything done.

Here are some tactics that can help you make your meetings work.

• Think twice

Is the meeting necessary, or could the issues be handled by phone calls, e-mails or memos instead?

Don't have a meeting when your topic is trivial or highly confidential, you're unprepared (estimate one hour of prep time for an hour-long meeting), or there is too much anger or hostility about the subject.

Choose your audience wisely. Don't include employees who aren't affected or involved; they'll see it as a waste of time.

• Know your desired outcome

You'll never get a good outcome if you don't know what you want. Distribute an agenda before the meeting.

• Get help

Ask others to take meeting notes, or assign it on a rotating basis.

Request others to lead discussions or presentations on particular topics.

Alert attendees that you’d like them to review the agenda in advance and come prepared with their ideas.

• Stay on track

When the topic starts digressing, the facilitator should cut in and put the new subject on a list to be discussed at another time. That way participants feel they've been heard, but the agenda of the meeting doesn't get derailed.

• Wrap up with action items

Agree on who, what, when and where. Hold people accountable to make sure things get done.

• Always start and end on time

Let everyone know it's a strict policy; those who show up late are being disrespectful of the others. (Guilt can be a great motivator.)

Hot tip from the top:

High-level meetings can be very political and complicated. You MUST know your agenda before stepping foot in that room. Most of our clients hold a employee meeting once a week.