🧸 Experience Kindergarten Wonder as an Adult by Hosting Show & Tell
A Guide for Bringing Joy and Learning to Your Life
Welcome to this edition of The Switchboard, my newsletter exploring the ways we communicate and connect at work and beyond. I’m Julia. To begin, I have a community question for you. Reply to shape a future article: What’s a communications resource on your work wish list?
Since I celebrated a milestone newsletter moment last week with 250 editions, I also wanted to reflect on a community adventure I’ve hosted alongside it. Four and a half years ago, I started Show and Tell, a personal growth project at the same time I launched The Switchboard for professional growth. I was extra ambitious eager for community in January 2021, weren’t we all?
The idea behind Show and Tell is simple. When you were a kid, you might have attended in kindergarten. Many of us gathered in a circle on the carpet of our classroom watching in awe as students presented their stuffed animals, family trees or sea shell collections. My modern Show and Tell brings wonder to friends, former colleagues and friends of friends. Together, we’ve shared stories, asked for advice and facilitated conversations.
Ready to get started? Reply for a template invite and to be part of a potential chapter community model I’m exploring. Below are my 5 lessons learned, 5 step guide to hosting and 5 community quotes:
5 lessons Learned
📚 #1 Learn New Topics
Show and Tell introduces hobbies, professional pursuits and passions at every session with a short presentation. The first two years the topic and speaker was a surprise. But I pivoted based on feedback to announce both in advance. Here are subjects we’ve explored so far — made chocolate, gave design portfolio feedback, discovered animal pathology, explored gardening as resilience, built a board of directors, understood hearing loss, learned about foster care, found magic with Disney, explored the power of languages, learned personal branding and much more.
🧡 #2 Find Kind People
I maintain a curated, by invite-only, guest list. My one requirement is at their core, the people in attendance are kind. It’s a common quality I seek out in others. When fostering an environment where people will be vulnerable when they share at Show and Tell, it’s important to have a group that embodies empathy in attendance. Decide what matters to you most.
⚡#3 Spark Common Connections
At the start of each session, I ask an opening question and invite everyone to respond and briefly introduce themselves. This creates camaraderie. Throughout our time together, attendees interact in the chat and conversation. After the event, I send an email to attendees and post our photo, tagging the guests so they can find each other. When I hear stories about attendees who meet for follow-up conversations, I smile because Show and Tell has worked its magic.
🎤 #4 Become Better Presenters
Each speaker has 10 minutes to share. Even though it’s informal, some presenters create a deck. The storytellers need to carefully consider how to convey their messages to guests in a short amount of time, helping them excel at presenting. I didn’t set out for this to become a part of the program, but it’s helped attendees master a new skill.
🎧 #5 Practice Listening Skills
After each presentation we pause for questions. Each presenter receives about ten minutes for this interactive element. Since presentations are short, guests must focus on the topics in order to ask questions or share suggestions after the presentation. This enhances the listening skills of attendees to ask questions.
5 Step Hosting Guide
What makes Show and Tell special is the intentional small-group experience. Since I can’t invite everyone to join us — as much as I wish I could — I created a guide in case you’d like to start your own version for friends, family or colleagues. This model can be applied to culture at work or enrich your life.
✏️ #1 Write your mission statement
Define why you’d like to host Show and Tell. This keeps you on track and also sets expectations for the experience for guests. My mission statement started as “a time for learning, listening and laughing.” It’s evolved, but I return to it often.
🌀 #2 Create your crew
Reach out to 20 people personally to invite them to attend your first Show and Tell — most likely a third of them will show up. Consider friends — people you interact with regularly and those you haven’t spoken to in a long time. Invite past colleagues. Think about the interesting people you might have crossed paths with recently or over the years. The personal invite matters. You can also create a version at work and be more broad, but the individual invite matters.
💌 #3 Invite your presenters
This will happen more organically than you expect. People will naturally express interest in sharing, but occasionally you’ll need to seek out presenters. If the speaker would like to rehearse, make time to chat. But, most of the time, people are very independent with this process.
🪄 #4 Repeat and Perfect
The best way to keep Show and Tell going is with the momentum of a monthly event on calendars. I try to vary the night of the week and make it as time zone friendly as possible. You will have your regular attendees. But, you’ll add others over time to continue to grow the community. If people don’t respond to my invites or show up at least once in 6 months, I let them know it’s time to graduate from my invite list. I view Show and Tell as a sacred special event.
🪕 #5 Embrace the Moment
Sometimes Show and Tell will veer off track. That’s okay. It doesn’t have to follow a perfect script. After the presentations, I often keep the video call open for the casual conversation to continue and people to spark more connections.
Most of all, I hope attendees have fun and capture the feeling of joy and sense of meaning that can sometimes disappear after childhood, but is possible to cultivate as an adult with the right community and conversations that come with Show and Tell.
I would like to give a shout-out to Gary Chou and Orbital friends where I first rediscovered the power of Show and Tell in person in New York City. I will always treasure the memories and experiences I had with this creative community.
Thank you to all the friends who’ve been a part of this community over the years. Your participation has meant more than you’d ever know to me. Here’s the thoughtful reflections some of them shared:
“The first Show & Tell I joined was Fred's on creating magic in our lives. What I found over the rest of the year was that these monthly sessions were part of that in my life, too: finding moments of magic and delight with such a lovely group of humans – with people so thoughtful and generous and who want to live with authentic connection to others. Thanks for being part of my year and thanks for having me!" –Erica Kim
“When we learn as a community, it holds greater significance. The ability to engage in discussions that allow us to hear each other’s perspectives, challenge our own assumptions, and learn from personal anecdotes makes the material feel relatable and applicable.” -Frederick Chandra
"Show & Tell feels like curling up in a warm blanket with a cup of hot chocolate in a circle of trusted friends who are all here to reflect the light in each other's hearts and in the world." -Felicia Ng
“My biggest takeaway: Learning alone can feel like homework. Learning together feels fun!” -Sam Drexler
“The biggest thing I always learn from our S&Ts is the power of community and free thinking. Not in a hippie dippie way, but in a communal growth way. By having someone who values people and creating spaces / moments to share and learn, we inevitably become closer and more educated through diversity of thinking and being. It’s an amazing thing.” -Emma Rolader Martin
“You are not alone!” -Ajay Nair
“Timing is very important: words can only have a positive effect on others if and when they are ready to listen.”― Christopher Reeve, Nothing Is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life
“I've enjoyed Show & Tell. After a session, I find myself reflecting and try to take a gem or two to apply in my own world. The personalities, approaches to opportunities & challenges, and the stories of the group are so different from my routine sphere, that I feel as though my own perspective is altered slightly with each conversation. Respect and appreciation of new perspectives is never a bad thing!” – Anonymous Participant
“Show and Tell is one of the highlights of my month. It’s such a positive and energizing hour with great people. It mashes together a group of people that are uplifting, inspiring, fun, and supportive. Each month I come away learning something new, with new friends, and most especially, a new “zelfie”! -Aaron Meyers
