Pearls of Communication Wisdom from Davos 2024

Whether it was Jamie Dimon ridiculing Bitcoin as a ‘pet rock’, Christine Lagarde predicting that 2024 would be a year of ‘economic non-normality’, or Li Qiang urging for ‘co-operation in innovation’, this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos in January provided bucket loads of interesting - and inevitably conflicting – views from a wide range of global leaders.

But as informative as so many of the presentations were, it was the advice from an 89 year old woman that really stood out. Regardless of anyone’s political views, irrespective of culture, personality, age, or type of business, her advice on how to bring about Change was priceless.

Here’s what she said:

“I spend a lot of time talking to different people around the world – to children, CEOs, government officials and anybody who will listen. I have realised that if you want to change somebody, there’s no use arguing with them. They’re not going to listen. They don’t want to listen.”

So how do you change people?

You have to change people by reaching their hearts. I think that when people change, it’s got to be their decision to change from within. So, when I’m talking to these decision-makers who have such sway over us, I try to find a way to reach their heart. The way I see the most effective is to tell stories.’

Thank you, Jane Goodall, for these pearls of wisdom.

For the sake of transparency, I hasten to add that, although I have helped to coach speakers at Davos on their presentation and media skills, I’ve (unfortunately) never met with, or even spoken to, Jane Goodall. However, I do acknowledge that in this case, I am no doubt affected by Confirmation Bias. Along with my colleagues, we’ve been running training sessions on Storytelling for several years to a wide variety of participants from all walks of Life. So I know it works!