Remember, meetings are what you make of them. If you can't find value in them, either change the topic to make them more valuable or don't have them at all.

The retrospectives at Pivotal are actually quite fun. Usually involves optional booze and doesn't last for more than an hour. The goal is to make them about anything, not just talk about work. It is like an end of the week team building exercise. Think about it, most of us spend more time with these people in the office, then we do with own family. So, we might as well have an hour where we put down the phones and keyboards, reflect on how the week went, find things that can be improved, talk about life events or anything really. Find the positive aspects and focus on those as well as quench any negative things so that they don't carry onto the next week.