From September's Harvard Business Review

Seven techniques can help you get control of your top management agenda and make sure meeting time is spent building value.

1. Deal with operations separately from strategy.

2. Focus on decisions, not on discussions.

3. Measure the real value of every item on the agenda.

4. Get issues off the agenda as quickly as possible.

5. Put real choices on the table.

6. Adopt common decision-making processes and standards.

7. Make decisions stick.