Can you recall the joy of Show and Tell, where you would excitedly walk into the classroom wrapping your arms around a special item? It may be a favorite book, a flashy new gadget, or even something that you built! You wait patiently for your turn, and when your name is called, you walk up to the front of class, palms a bit sweaty, and then you get the opportunity to speak in front of your peers.

Show and Tell challenges your ability to think 鈥榦ut of the box鈥�, and invite peers to come into your own little world.

So, why not continue this ritual as we work in our careers? At 暗黑网, we鈥檝e created a twist on Show and Tell, a weekly session where anyone can share a new feature, a cool new idea, or just something interesting they鈥檝e been working on. We named it Show Don鈥檛 Tell so that the focus would be geared on 鈥渟howing鈥�, rather than just 鈥渢elling鈥� how it works. Here is how including Show and Don鈥檛 Tell has benefited out team.

1. Strengthen Language

We have the sales and marketing (鈥渟marketing鈥�) team who live on an entirely different planet from the developers. Smarketing talks about ABC, 鈥淎lways be closing鈥�, while developers talk about losing their coder鈥檚 sanity when debugging. Having teams come together to talk about their projects allows words to be thrown around, allowing people to ask questions and get familiar with the language being used.

2. Build Support and Respect

Often teams are separated because they鈥檙e wearing their own 鈥渉at鈥�. By listening to your coworker鈥檚 presentation, you start to gain a sense of respect for what they鈥檙e exactly contributing to the company. Sharing also gives a sense of meaning in the work that you do, and helps others to see it too.

3. Increase Pride

Just like Show and Tell, sharing your excitement with the team increases the pride you have in your own work. Show Don鈥檛 Tell creates a great feedback session and pushes positive peer pressure.

4. Develop effective communication skills

The question portion of Show Don鈥檛 Tell opens your eyes to see if your communication skills are effective across all teams. By getting feedback on what is/isn鈥檛 clear teaches you how to present your ideas better.

5. Stirs Innovation聽

Sharing opens up dialogue and new ideas to be shared.

How will you implement Show Don鈥檛 Tell?