I once read a passage about meetings and how the real calculation of time spent = # of people in the meeting times the duration of the meeting. So a one-hour meeting with 30 participants is actually a 30-hour meeting. The point was to express how important meetings are AND how important human time is. Ensuring that programmed meeting time is well-structured and meaningful is critical to our productivity. Meeting for the sake of meeting is never “critical”.
Feeling supported and empowered by managers (people who call meetings) is the best way to sustain a culture of respect and understanding.