Our club's discussions went from surface-level to actually meaningful after we banned phones from the table for 3 months. | Book Club Debates - The Community Guide
Had the same feeling about a mandatory team lunch at my old job. Found out just showing up for the first 15 minutes and then politely leaving worked fine. It met the "showed up" requirement without wasting my whole lunch break. Managers usually just want to see your face anyway. After a couple times, they didn't even notice when I slipped out early.