Productivity guru Merlin Mann gave a characteristically smart and entertaining talk recently at Twitter HQ discussing meetings, why they're broken, and how you might go about fixing them at your workplace.
Mann's entire talk is an interesting and worthwhile discourse on meetings, but his key point: Every meeting needs a good parent—which is to say, someone who's going to steer and control the meeting responsibly. If you're stuck in a work culture where meetings are intolerably broken (or, you know, could simply be improved), it's a talk worth your time. (Hit up the full post at 43 Folders to follow along with the slides, which aren't that clear in the video.)
Video: "Broken Meetings (and how you'll fix them)" [43 Folders]