A day at Davos: what it taught me about transformational leadership for sustainability
16 February 2024 - Dr Tanja Collavo, Senior Programme Manager and Course Director of the Master’s in Sustainability Leadership, Flexible Route, discusses her experience attending Davos and what it taught her about transformational leadership for sustainability.
It is undoubtable that the World Economic Forum (WEF) is one of the key places where both political and business leaders come together to influence each other and to shape the future of economies and societies through dialogue, confrontation, and negotiation. This makes it a great opportunity to understand where the minds of businesses and politicians are, and to appreciate what is available and missing to shape more sustainable societies and economies. This is why, when I got the opportunity to attend some of the fringe events organised at Davos alongside the main Forum, I jumped on it.
In a year characterised by conflicts, economic instability and the revolutionary development of generative AI, it was good to see at least some aspects of sustainability – such as climate change or gender inequalities - remain on the agenda. However, often discussions were neither systemic nor transformational. Two elements were missing for that to happen: representation of truly diverse views and communities; and a collective approach. For example, while climate change action was often in the spotlight, the focus still seemed to be on changes to individual behaviours, or to the energy sources single organisations rely on. While every little step matters, at all levels, it is hard to see how these isolated changes and decisions can truly help us tackle a growing emergency at the speed required and in a way that remains mindful of context and different starting points.
What I found particularly inspiring was a fireside-chat with the Global CEO of Deloitte, who shared his systemic approach to women’s empowerment, underpinned by the acknowledgement that each woman’s situation is slightly different. Deloitte is putting into place a mix of policies and incentives to support women in their career progression, used together to make a difference to many rather than the few. He also shared his thoughts on fundamental traits of the future leaders: a learning mindset, attention to detail, and willingness to fully understand opposing views before taking a stance on something. I very much agreed with him about the importance of these traits for transformational sustainability leadership and found it reassuring that the thinking of some leaders is where it should be, if we want to achieve more equitable and sustainable societies.
Having said that, his talk was more of an exception than a rule among the ones I attended, this made me wonder what appetite there is for true transformation. The only thing everyone seemed truly invested in and excited about was AI. Based on what I heard, it is undeniable that next generation AI might indeed be a powerful source of transformation. During one panel organised by the Open WEF, I was fascinated by how training in coding and robotics is empowering youth from disadvantaged and minority groups. It has provided them not only with better education and employment prospects, but also with a tool to start creating products and services to support their communities. However, as we have seen with other technological developments, if AI remains more accessible to some than to others, or is developed without clear boundaries, morals, and intentions, it can also become a double edge sword.
If we agree with the Forum attendees that transformational leadership will likely be based on AI and the opportunities it is unleashing, then I believe that if we want to equip ourselves for a more sustainable future, our leaders need to work towards two goals.
Accelerating the learning curve on AI of key stakeholders such as regulators and educators, to ensure the development of policies that encourage equal and informed access to AI-based tools and also their more conscious, informed and empowering (instead of blindsided) use, especially in young generations.
Re-attuning us all to the need for truly collective action. Action that does not result from the random joining of individual efforts of people, but which is inspired by a clear vision of what world we (collectively) want and by engagement and respect of “the other”, whether that is someone from a different background or the nature we all live in.
While as individuals and individual organisations we need to keep improving and fighting for more sustainable inputs, processes, and outcomes, the time has probably passed to count on the butterfly effect. That might be too little, too late. We need to think bigger, bolder and in a more connected way – also with the help of AI – if we really want to start changing the underlying structures of our societies. The WEF, like many other avenues for dialogue and negotiation, has a huge potential to unleash this. I would therefore love to see some more systemic, connected and inclusive approaches, at least in the open events, if I will be lucky enough to go back next year. That might really start building widespread and empowered transformational leadership.