Show Don’t Tell.

Anyone who has ever been given advice about presenting knows that this is a good way to operate. Why does it work though?

It works because it sidesteps those who don’t have empathy for the situation you would be talking about. In the Civil Rights Movement, if someone told you police brutality against people of color was out of control, you may not have seen anything and thought the picture they were painting was an exaggeration. If they showed you videos or photographs, you may recognize that their experience was far worse than your expectations ever imagined.

In order to do the work that we want to do, we need to serve a market where we have empathy that others don’t, and we may need to grow that market by creating more people that understand what we provide and why it’s important. Show don’t tell is a big part of that.

P.S. It also takes much more work to show someone than to tell them. That’s why it’s a generous act.