Apple’s stance on public speaking looks a little clonish

An X user has shared this series of photographs from Apple’s opening WWDC presentation last week, with 12 executives standing in exactly the same position, a fact that obviously caught a lot of people’s attention including myself, but that few later bothered to point out.

Why would all of Apple’ managers adopt exactly the same posture when speaking in public? Because Apple is the kind of company that organizes such events very carefully, presumably using a particularly dogmatic instructor, rather than encouraging people to be themselves.

I’ve seen numerous public speaking courses, and many make the same mistake: providing a series of “recipes” that are supposed to be followed to get a good result. “don’t say this”, “say that”, “look this way”, “position yourself like this”…

My experience after many years of public speaking? Do what comes naturally to you and don’t pretend to be what you’re not. Except for a few tips to do with common sense, everything else is a one-size-fits all solution that works for some people, but as often as not, leaves many people feeling uncomfortable or having to pay so much attention to what they’ve been told to do that their message is lost in the mix.

In my presentations I do a lot of things I know would be discouraged by the kind of people…