The necessity of showing rather than telling is a foundational concept when collaborating with, coaching, or leading individuals with ADHD. Because abstract verbal instructions require a high degree of mental sequencing and working memory, concrete visual examples act as a cognitive bridge.

The dynamics of this approach are illustrated by the basketball examples, the bakery analogy, and the design principles highlighted from Ed Catmulls Book "Creativity Inc."

1. The Concrete Target: The Publix Bakery Analogy

The cake anecdote perfectly captures the friction between conceptualizing a task and executing it.

• The Verbal Request: Asking an ADHDer to "bake a cake" from scratch introduces a flood of open-ended variables (recipes, proportions, aesthetics). Without a fixed visual anchor, executive dysfunction can cause cognitive overwhelm, often resulting in half-finished or scattered results (like getting a cake without the icing).
• The Visual Solution: Walking into a bakery and pointing to a physical cake removes the ambiguity. It instantly provides a macro-level view of the final destination. For an ADHD mind, seeing the final product transforms a vague, overwhelming chore into a structured, highly engaging challenge.

2. Real-Time Demonstration: Doc Rivers, James Harden, and Tyrese Maxey

In professional sports, where split-second decisions are vital, abstract playbooks can sometimes fail to click. Doc Rivers—who has ADHD himself—emphasized this when coaching elite guards James Harden and Tyrese Maxey.

"Honestly, I've been saying it literally for 3 weeks, but they never do it. And so, and we never had any practice time to work on it. 
So I thought this week we literally did it every day to show them how effective it could be.

And what we were trying to show them is they both can be in it. Like, one could have the ball on one possession and the other possession, the other one can have the ball, and they can just play off of each other. 


Um, even though it's funny. You learn stuff coaching, like you tell them stuff, and you think they see it, and then you realize they don't run it. So clearly they don't see it. 
And then it's, you know, once we got it in practice, they saw it and it was good."

• Rather than simply explaining a tactical adjustment or drawing abstract diagrams on a clipboard, Rivers recognized that these players had to be shown the exact spacing and execution on the floor.
• By physically demonstrating the movements or using direct video playback, the abstract strategy is translated into actionable, spatial terms. This visual clarity allows athletes to bypass conceptual lag and immediately tap into their fluid, instinctual talent.

3. Experiential Alignment: Steve Jobs had to be Shown

This necessity for visual and experiential proof isn't exclusive to sports or simple daily tasks; it also heavily influenced one of the greatest visionary minds in technology. As detailed in  Ed Catmull's Book "Creativity Inc.", even a genius like Steve Jobs frequently struggled to grasp abstract spatial concepts through verbal descriptions alone.

When designing the Pixar headquarters in the late 1990s, Jobs initially insisted on ideas that his team knew wouldn't work well in practice—such as separating the creators into completely isolated buildings based on which movie they were working on.

Ed Catmull's Book "Creativity Inc." highlights exactly how this bottleneck was broken:

"Showing, not telling, worked best with Steve, which is why I coaxed him south to Burbank, for a tour of the four story glazed glass and aluminum building on Thornton Avenue, known as Northside. Disney animation had taken it over in 1997, using it to house the crew for its first 3D animated movie, Dinosaur, among other projects. But the building was more famous for what it had housed in the 1940s..."

"...Steve knew that my purpose that day wasn't to discuss comic strips or aviation history, but to show him the building, a welcoming space where several hundred animators worked on multiple projects simultaneously under a single roof. I liked the feel of the wide open hallways. I recall Steve being critical of numerous facets of the building's layout, but after an hour or so wandering around the place, I could tell he was getting the message..."

"... After that trip, he met again with his architects and laid out the principles for a single building. He took the creation of a new Pixar headquarters as a personal responsibility. You've heard the saying "Your employees are your most important asset." 
For most executives, these are just words you trot out to make people feel good. While they may be accepted as true, few leaders alter their behavior or make decisions based upon them. But Steve did."

• The Failure of Telling: The narrator notes that arguing or explaining verbally that separate buildings would isolate the creative teams didn't work.
• The Power of Showing: To change Jobs' mind, the narrator coaxed him on a road trip to Burbank to tour "Northside," a Disney Animation building on Thornton Avenue.
• The Result: By physically walking Jobs through the wide-open floor plan under a single roof, where hundreds of animators successfully intermingled and cross-pollinated ideas, Jobs finally "got the message". "Showing not telling worked best with Steve," the narrator reflects. Once Jobs actually saw and felt the energy of accidental mingling, he completely pivoted his design strategy, ultimately creating the unified, central-atrium Pixar headquarters we know today.

Why "Showing" is Biologically & Cognitively Necessary

Cognitive Challenge	How "Telling" Fails	How "Showing" Succeeds
Working Memory	Overloads the brain with a sequence of verbal steps that must be held in mind simultaneously.	Externalizes the memory; the goal is entirely visible in the environment.
Executive Function	Requires the individual to prioritize, sequence, and organize abstract data from scratch.	Provides the completed framework, allowing the brain to reverse-engineer the steps.
Dopamine Activation	Vague instructions offer no immediate reward, leading to procrastination or low engagement.	A clear visual goal creates a tangible "target," sparking competitive drive and engagement.

Whether you are trying to get an ADHD player to execute a pick-and-roll, an ADHD baker to replicate a pastry, or a visionary leader like Steve Jobs to design a collaborative headquarters, the rule remains identical: Do not describe the destination. Take them there, show them what it looks like, and let them figure out how to build it.