David Pointon knew plenty of people in Sydney and not one of them a man he could talk to properly.
You know the setup: the same mates for twenty five years, and a hard ceiling on anything you would actually want to say out loud.
A friend stood up at a business breakfast and said he wanted to start a men's group. Pointon said yes before he understood why. That first table of a dozen men ran seven years. It is now The Men's Table, close to 300 tables meeting monthly around Australia. He says nobody arrives to be fixed. Nothing at a table makes the hard parts of a life go away. What changes is that you stop carrying them alone, and the men's partners notice first: he listens better, and there is less anger in the house.
The ask is two or three hours a month, and it starts with a phone call you keep not making.
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David Pointon
David Pointon is co-founder and CEO of The Men's Table, an Australian not-for-profit that gathers ten to a dozen men once a month in the private room of a pub or restaurant for an openhearted conversation about their lives. It began as one table in Sydney that ran for seven years. Then he and co-founder Ben Hughes turned it into a national organisation, and there are now close to 300 tables around the country. Before that he built and ran his own business in Sydney. His earlier working life took in school teaching, hospitality management and management consulting. He arrived at that first table as a participant, invited by a friend who wanted to start a men's group. He is a regular meditator. He and his wife separated after twenty one years together and later reconciled, which he describes as being married a second time to the same person. Connect with David Pointon The Men's Table LinkedIn Books and products Find a Table or Entree near you Attend an Entree The Men's Table Ripple Effect Report
