Public speaking lessons from Ancient Greece, behind the curtain of ‘diversity theatre’, and the history of Upstart

Every week SmartCompany Plus curates a selection of pieces from around the web that you should read, listen, or watch. This week, we’ve pulled out a stand-out guide to public speaking, along with a long-form retrospective of tech company Upstart, and a piece on Black experiences in tech, which highlights a tension that is yet to be resolved in the US, or Australia.

Public speaking is a learned skill, not natural talent

The Ancient Greeks saw public speaking as an art form, a learned skill no different to carpentry that must be taught. This piece looks at how you can overcome the initial anxiety from public speaking, tailor your words for your audience, and turn your knowledge into eloquence.

Upstart CEO shares why his startup is not a typical success story

This interview with Upstart co-founder Dave Girouard on First Round Review dissects the company’s 10-year journey, failings, leading to its recent IPO. Girouard was a former Google employee who scaled the enterprise application division of Google to the $1 billion mark, bringing together Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar into the suite they now exist as.

The lengthy-interview offers a behind-the-scenes candid viewpoint that many tech startups would find invaluable, complete with mental exercises you can apply to your business.

Black tech employees rebel against ‘diversity theatre’

Undoubtedly, 2020 saw a big shift in public ideas around how to address centuries of racial inequality within organisations, particularly so in the United States. With most media conversations around race in Australia seemingly a decade behind the US, any business owner seriously commited to building a diverse, supported workforce has much to gain from the piece.

This article examines the disconnect between the public positioning and actual results for diversity initiatives at large tech companies, centreing Black voices and experiences as they reconcile with the role they are asked to play in ‘diversity theatre’.

As Facebook recruiter Oscar Veneszee Jr. notes, “There may be Black Lives Matter posters on Facebook’s walls, but Black workers don’t see that phrase reflecting how they are treated in Facebook’s own workplace”.

Boss talk with Ben Horowitz – Podcast

Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi discusses his family’s experience during the Iran revolution of 1979 with the host, before moving onto Conway’s Law, the theory stating that organisations design systems which mirror their own communication structure.

Check out the 42 minute mark to hear the discussion on organisational charts, and how Ghodsi negotiates conflict between executive leaders across marketing and sales.