How to be the startup sector’s Ryan Gosling – and not its Jonah Hill

This is not going to be a typical diversity post — and by that, I mean a post about why we should invest in diverse and underepresented founders or build diverse teams because the data says we get better outcomes.

We all know this already, the data reinforces it, over and over again. The reality is, we won’t be convinced by data.

We will only be convinced by self interest.

Back in 2019, the advertising genius and diversity doyenne that is Cindy Gallop, gave an excellent talk to the advertising industry, explaining how committing to diversity will make life better for the white men in the industry.

I highly recommend watching it here. If there is anyone who understands persuasion, and using emotion to convince someone why they need that product its an advertising creative.

Last week Cindy and four Aussies in the tech ecosystem (including me) were part of a panel at SXSW Sydney, talking about “Where are all the men?”. We tried to unpack why there are many men in our industry who support diversity and equality in private and in the shadows, but find it difficult to do so in public where they may be called to be loud about their support, and how this impacts progress in gender equality.

Our goal was for it to be constructive and to have the audience leave with some actionable insights — focussed on how doing so will reward them.

And this post is about one such reward—how you can be the Ryan Gosling of your industry.

Diverse teams perform better

Ryan Gosling is a talented as hell triple threat, successful enough that he takes pay cuts so the equally talented women he works with can be paid the same, confident enough to star in feminist and inclusive movies, is considered one of the coolest guys in Hollywood, and as a result is respected as hell by evrrryone (the best in his industry across every demographic).

His confidence and approach to diversity and inclusion against the backdrop of his talent has made him more in demand and respected professionally, not less

I’ve had the benefit of observing many types of diversity that seem to thrive in the tech, innovation and startup ecosystem — from people from different career backgrounds or types of adversity who bring wildly different experiences and perspectives, through to neurodivergence and everything in between.

Creativity is essential for innovation, for problem solving, for pushing the envelope, and this requires people who think differently — which is why diverse teams perform better.

Yet, while it’s often present in the most successful companies and teams, diversity is far from common industry wide, and gender is still one form of diversity in the innovation sector that doesnt reflect the real world, and that is curious.

Building teams of people who think differently, requires emotional IQ and a tolerance or empathy for different perspectives or approaches.

I believe most people have bought into the what — the concept that functional diverse teams perform better. I think where people get stuck is the how — how do we manage diverse teams and their different ways of thinking, in a way that doesnt devolve into conflict.

And conflict could arise from not allowing differing perspectives to be heard, through to not acknowledging or actioning the varying needs of different parties or respecting different approaches — all very normal things when you get a diverse array of people together even when pulling together toward a common goal.

To be clear, it is rarely the minority who can’t manage this conflict, after all they have had to adapt to and accomodate the majority their whole lives, it is the incumbent majority who struggles. But the ability to manage through that conflict is an essential skillset for success.

When I look at a team that has little to no diversity at the decision making level, I see a team who has no interest in thinking differently, prioritises their needs over their opportunity to deliver better outcomes for stakeholders, or can’t attract diverse people because they don’t treat them equally – either consciously or unconsciously. It signals a lack of confidence in their own abilities — that they can only manage to perform their role with people that make them comfortable or the way its always been done.

Diversity wont make you immune to failure, but it will reveal where your weaknesses are and this is why I think many companies won’t invest in it. Increasingly, however these types of teams — whether they are boards, executive teams, whatever — will be viewed with the same wariness as those who pay for a membership to the male only Australia Club — exclusionary, elitist, traditionalists, and out of touch.

Diversity should matter to you because it’s one of the best possible positive signals of how confident and sophisticated you are as a professional in your field. In one data point, it shows how prepared you are to think differently or be challenged, how well you treat others not like you or less privileged than you, how evolved your ability to navigate complex relationships and conflict is, and your desire to prioritise what is in the best interests of your stakeholders over your own. ‘

And so, it’s a metric that also shows how resilient your company is, if you have the capacity to build and nurture a diverse team at a decision making level, you have developed a resilience to challenges that a less diverse team will not. This may or may not be a performance metric, but its sure as hell is a critical risk management metric.

Combine that with great performance, however that is defined for you, and you have an unparalleled ability to stand out from the others doing it the way it’s always been done (as history and nature has shown, those who do not adapt, die through natural selection). What’s more, you have the platform to continuously level up — whether that’s recruitment of the best people for your business, attracting the best investors, building a brand of integrity, or simply standing the test of time.

If you truly want to signal to the world that you are the cats pyjamas in your industry, in a field of Hugh Grant’s and Jonah Hill’s, be Ryan Gosling.