[kraigie]

>As a manager it's very hard to get everyone else on board with this

If management was easy then everyone would do it.

How about this for a start? You taking total control of your direct report's calendar. They have read only so can see what meetings you have scheduled they should attend. You book the meetings.

Anyone who wants a meeting has to disturb the manager (so there will be fewer requests) and pushback will have more force.

It's not whiny engineer saying they can't attend the meeting. It's the manager saying they are too busy.

You could also send just 1 report to a meeting instead of the whole team. Since you control the calendar you can choose who goes.