Thayer Method

How to run large meetings

Long before the modern classroom or video call, education took shape in forms both inventive and enduring. In 9th-century Italy, the medical school at Salerno drew students from across Europe, offering what was perhaps the earliest prototype of a Western university. But it was in Bologna, two centuries later, that the university as we know it truly began to coalesce. Books were prohibitively expensive, so learning hinged not on reading but on listening. Lectures became the dominant teaching method, not because they were the most engaging, but because they were the most practical, professors read aloud from rare texts while students scribbled furiously, creating personal copies one word at a time. The format stuck, even as the reasons for it faded.

This ancient rhythm, one speaks, many listen, carried over not just into classrooms but into how we gather more broadly. It’s fitting, then, that the Greeks, who pioneered the lecture, also gave us the meeting. In the Agora, the open-air hub of public life, Athenians engaged in commerce, governance, philosophy, and debate. It was messy and vibrant and loud, but deeply participatory. People didn’t just receive information; they shaped it together. In many ways, the Agora was the original conference room, a space for live exchange of ideas. And yet, somewhere along the way, we let the format calcify. Today, our meetings often echo the lecture halls more than the Agora, structured, one-sided, and too often devoid of real interaction.

It strikes me that, even after thousands of years, many of our daily business routines still revolve around a familiar format: we gather in a room, or on a video call, and someone lectures. The topics may vary, from project updates to financial summaries to operational reviews, but the structure remains largely the same. Someone prepares talking points, slides, or spreadsheets, and for 30 minutes or an hour, the rest of us mostly listen. While this one-way, real-time communication is sometimes appropriate, particularly for broadcasting critical updates, it often feels outdated for most types of information sharing. The people we hire are smart, capable, and well-qualified. The real value comes not from passive listening, but from surfacing their ideas, questions, and insights. The way we conduct most meetings today feels stuck in the past, and there are far better ways to collaborate.

For more than two centuries, the United States Military Academy, better known as West Point, has trained cadets to become military officers. Beyond its rigorous leadership and military education, West Point also functions as a university, conferring bachelor’s degrees across a range of disciplines. For much of its history, the Academy has followed a distinctive instructional model known as the Thayer method. At its core, the Thayer method emphasizes cadet responsibility for learning, where students are expected to study course material independently before class. Classroom time then reinforces those concepts through collaborative problem-solving and active exercises, often conducted at the whiteboards. This approach resembles what is now commonly referred to as a “flipped classroom,” where passive lectures are replaced by active engagement.

For all our technological progress and evolving workplace norms, the way we run large meetings has remained surprisingly static. In many organizations, meetings continue to rely on a format that hasn’t changed in centuries: someone stands at the front, physically or virtually, and talks while others listen. Whether the topic is a quarterly financial review, a product update, or a project status check-in, the basic structure is often the same. A deck is prepared. A speaker walks through it slide by slide. Attendees nod, scribble notes, glance at their calendars, and wait for it to end.

There’s a certain comfort in this routine. It feels efficient. Controlled. Predictable. But this structure does little to engage the collective intelligence of the people in the room. We hire talented, thoughtful, capable people, yet we often treat meetings as if their role is to receive information, not contribute meaningfully to its interpretation or improvement. The most valuable ideas, the most insightful questions, the unexpected connections, they rarely emerge in a monologue.

Even worse, meetings like these consume significant time without necessarily producing clarity or action. One-way communication can be valuable for broadcasting urgent news or aligning on high-level narratives. But when used as the default approach to every topic, it becomes a bottleneck for creativity and decision-making. Information is shared, but understanding is shallow. Attendance is high, but engagement is low.

In a world where knowledge work is increasingly about synthesis, not repetition, collaboration, not compliance, the way we structure our meetings should evolve too. We need formats that tap into the collective brainpower of the group, not just the preparation of the presenter. Meetings should be a space where ideas are tested, not just narrated. Right now, we’re still stuck in the habits of ancient lecture halls. It’s time to try something better.

Some companies have recognized the limitations of traditional meetings and introduced alternative formats designed to foster deeper thinking and more productive discussions. Amazon is a well-known example. Instead of slide-based presentations, Amazon meetings often begin with a silent reading period during which attendees digest a carefully written six-page narrative memo. This practice, famously championed by Jeff Bezos, is intended to force clarity of thought and promote shared understanding before discussion begins. Bezos has stated, “My perfect meeting starts with a crisp document. The document should be written with such clarity that it's like angels singing from on high.” By replacing performative presentation with quiet reflection and written analysis, Amazon’s six-pager format shifts the meeting from passive reception to active, informed dialogue, something many organizations could benefit from adopting.

The Thayer Method, developed at West Point in the early 19th century, is built on a deceptively simple premise: the responsibility for learning lies with the student. Before class, cadets are expected to study the material in depth, wrestling with concepts on their own. The classroom, then, is not a place to receive information but to engage with it. Instructors guide discussion, ask pointed questions, and facilitate active problem-solving, often at the blackboard, while cadets explain their reasoning and challenge each other’s ideas. The method encourages preparation, accountability, critical thinking, and above all, participation. It’s less about absorbing facts and more about refining judgment under pressure.

Translating that into the modern workplace isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem. In fact, some companies have already begun to adopt practices inspired by the same principles. Amazon’s six-pager is a perfect example. By asking meeting leaders to craft structured narrative memos and giving attendees time to read and reflect in silence before discussion, Amazon essentially replicates the Thayer principle: the hard thinking happens before the group convenes. The meeting itself becomes a venue for informed dialogue, not passive listening.

Other frameworks follow a similar path. The concept of the pre-read, sending materials in advance and expecting attendees to come prepared, is becoming more common in high-performing organizations. Atlassian, for example, advocates for what they call "async-first" collaboration, where updates and information-sharing happen in writing before the meeting, reserving live time for decisions and open questions. Shopify, in its early years, ran "no-meeting Wednesdays" to give teams uninterrupted time to prepare and build, reminding us that great meetings often depend on what happens outside of them.

Still, these frameworks only succeed when there’s a cultural expectation of preparation and engagement. The Thayer Method thrives because cadets know they will be called on; they know they must wrestle with ideas before stepping into the room. The same can apply to business. If we treat meetings not as performance theater or status updates, but as working sessions where prepared minds converge to solve problems, we unlock far more of our teams’ potential.

To reimagine large meetings through this lens, we need to shift from “What should we present?” to “What should we work on together?” This means designing meetings where preparation is required, not optional. It means ensuring that people don’t just show up, they show up ready. And it means using live time for the uniquely human work of interpreting, critiquing, building, and deciding. Done well, this turns the meeting from a routine obligation into a strategic advantage.

Adopting a Thayer-inspired approach to meetings doesn’t require a complete organizational overhaul, it simply demands intentionality. At its core, this approach is about rebalancing the time and energy we invest in preparation versus presentation. It means shifting the work from during the meeting to before it, so the collective time together is spent on insight, not information.

Start with assigned pre-reading. Whether it’s a written brief, a memo, a spreadsheet, or a dashboard, circulate it in advance and clearly state the expectation that attendees read it before the meeting. This isn’t a courtesy, it’s a prerequisite. To encourage compliance, begin the meeting with a short silent review period or cold open with questions that assume familiarity with the material.

Next, design meetings to solve, not to broadcast. Ask yourself: what decision needs to be made, what issue needs to be debated, what options need to be weighed? Avoid gathering people just to “walk through” a deck. If there’s nothing to discuss, then the update should be asynchronous. Save synchronous time for higher-order thinking.

Even in large meetings, you can create breakout-style moments. Use digital whiteboards like Miro or FigJam, shared docs, or polling tools to surface ideas in parallel. If you're meeting in person, whiteboards, sticky notes, and sharpies still work wonders. This allows participants to contribute even if they don’t speak up verbally and surfaces ideas you might otherwise miss.

Encourage broad participation through structured facilitation. You don’t need to cold call aggressively, but you should create a culture where contribution is expected. Rotate who speaks first. Pose questions to specific individuals or teams. Invite contrarian takes. And if someone hasn’t spoken by the end, prompt them directly, you’re not calling them out, you’re signaling that their voice matters.

Finally, visualize thinking in real time. Use tools that allow ideas to be debated and built live: whiteboards, shared docs, diagrams, code editors, whatever fits your team. The “blackboard” of the Thayer Method was not a prop; it was the collaborative thinking surface. You need one too.

These aren’t just tactics. They represent a mindset shift, from consumption to co-creation. From performance to participation. From broadcast to dialogue. However, as with any method, context matters. Thayer-style meetings are powerful, but they’re not always the right fit. The key is to match the meeting format to the meeting’s purpose.

This approach is ideal for collaborative decision-making, such as strategic planning sessions, project kickoffs, postmortems, design critiques, or cross-functional problem-solving. Anytime the goal is to align on a complex issue or co-create a path forward, Thayer-style preparation and structure will dramatically increase the quality of thought and discussion.

It also shines in feedback-oriented meetings, where ideas need to be tested and refined. Giving everyone time to engage with the content beforehand creates a more level playing field. It reduces performative brainstorming and increases meaningful input, especially from quieter or more junior team members.

However, not every meeting needs this much structure. Routine status updates, high-level broadcasts, or all-hands briefings can often be done more efficiently through channels like Zoom, Loom videos, or even newsletters. For these, the Thayer Method is overkill, and imposing preparation requirements creates unnecessary friction.

Likewise, emergency meetings or high-urgency alignment calls don’t always allow for thoughtful preparation. In these cases, clarity, speed, and simplicity are more important than structure.

The point isn’t to replace every meeting format with Thayer-style rigor. It’s to recognize that the most valuable meetings, the ones where real work gets done, deserve better design. Used thoughtfully, this method can elevate the quality of your team’s collaboration and create space for deeper thinking in an increasingly distracted world.

It’s easy to dismiss meetings as necessary evils, time sinks that everyone endures but few enjoy. But when designed with intention, meetings can become some of the most valuable moments in a team’s week. The challenge is that too many of our meetings are shaped by outdated habits: the ancient lecture, the one-way update, the passive attendance. And in doing so, we squander the intelligence, creativity, and perspective of the people we’ve hired precisely for those strengths.

The Thayer Method offers a compelling alternative. It reminds us that responsibility for learning, and by extension, contribution, belongs to everyone in the room. That preparation isn’t a courtesy, but a requirement. That engagement isn’t something to be coaxed out of people during the meeting, but something we earn by designing the meeting well.

In a world where business problems are more complex, talent is more distributed, and time is more fragmented than ever, this kind of meeting discipline isn’t just an academic ideal. It’s a competitive advantage.

So maybe the answer isn’t fewer meetings. It’s better ones. Meetings where everyone comes prepared. Where we solve problems together. Where ideas are tested, refined, and built in real time. In short: meetings that look less like a lecture, and more like a room full of smart people, standing at the whiteboard, figuring things out together.

Let’s put the slides away. Let’s stop talking at each other and let’s get back to the whiteboard.