Thoughts on youth’s place amongst Davos movements
Earlier this year, I had the unique opportunity to attend the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. While seeking to understand both my role and impact there, I realized how strategic collaboration is the essential piece for strengthening our collective voice.
Davos started as an experience about my dreams, my place and my influence in a changing world. After a decade of documentaries and years of social entrepreneurship I thought I had the answers. But it took less than a day there to see my excitement sharing space with a hidden anxiety for not being so certain about where were the right places for me to be. One month later I think I know what to say to that dreamer standing in the middle of Davos movements.
At the very beginning, I saw a conference center, lounges and open spaces. I found places to understand the new disruptive innovations and sessions to discuss old humanitarian problems. Once I understood the places I started meeting groups. A group of social innovators, a group for successful young leaders and I met my group of thriving millennials, the Global Shapers. Defining the last one is very difficult, but I see my group as a powerful mix of sparkling eyes, unpredictable questions and personal journeys of courage and transformation.
After spaces and groups I started noticing movements. Groups breaking down and becoming individuals. Individuals moving. Moving while representing a cause, a country, an organization or maybe representing themselves. Everyone seemed to have their own agenda, route and schedule, even if the schedule is searching for serendipity.
When I looked from the first floor to the main area all the movements seemed disconnected, randomly casual and a little bit chaotic. But I was wrong, they were not. Every person in Davos wants an outcome. Wants to make something happen, learn how it happens, convince that it’s happening or maybe just control something that is naturally happening.
The movements that I see are more complex than any person can quickly understand. They are like the movements of this world. They act, react and transform while they are coming and going. Like waves, these movements could be influenced by an important announcement at the Main stage, by a casual chat in the partners lounge, a mindful conversation at a ‘bilateral room’ or a controversial inaugural speech from the other side of the world.
One of the most beautiful things that I learned at Davos is that it doesn’t matter who you are, you are powerful there. You are powerful because your voice can shape one of these invisible waves. Your ideas can make sense to someone and resonate in the moment of an important decision. Being there you are powerful beyond where you can see.
After four days observing, wondering and sharing a piece of myself, I was back with my group of Global Shapers. We were fifty excited minds sitting in a circle with the apparently simple goal of sharing what Davos meant for each one of us. Experiencing that circle started making me feel inside a kind and inspiring comfort zone and ended up challenging my perception of myself and the role of youth there.
Understanding how our group cares about equal opportunities, seeing many of us feeling worried with democracy, representation and ‘Technopoly’ and remembering the Global Shapers ‘asking why’, while singing a 90’s song made me realize that, regardless of our differences we wanted some similar waves. And together we could be powerful enough to make them happen.
As a generation we were challenged to be ourselves and raise our voices. We all knew at least one way to improve the state of the world, at least our way. But when we were deciding where to go next, before looking too lost or too mindful, it’s really hard to see where this individual voice would fit specifically. Davos movements are too fast and too complex. So I guess that most of us just randomly choose a table, line or corner, wishing that maybe the next conversation could be good for our project, business or mission in life.
The most beautiful learning from Davos came when I looked back at that scene and realized if I had explored that same halls with our group beliefs in mind I would be able to see our collective voice fitting almost anywhere. Before everything settles all movements produce empty spaces. In Davos this gaps can be small and difficult to find, but they are complementarily powerful if you have the right idea to fit in. Alone it’s impossible to change the world using gaps, but if we were fifty voices sharing our common values every time it was suitable we could start movements. Small movements that walk corridors, cross sessions and maybe meet in private rooms to become an unexpected connection or powerful decision.
Acknowledging our common causes could have empowered us to represent a louder voice with confidence, strategy and responsibility. The power of presidents and CEO’s with big committees is undeniable, but when I saw that circle fulfilling our room with so much passion and hope, I knew that we could be the most powerful drive of change in number and purpose if we had took some time to understand who we are together (and we even have an amazing annual survey to guide us as the basis of this young voice).
As a generation we want to be everywhere. We want to get the inspiration from Will.i.am, exchange ideas with Jack Ma, influence the agenda of Christine Lagarde, while speaking about AI in a lunch with Sergey Brin. These high expectations can make us feel a little bit impatient and too loud, but the feeling of being alone in the middle of a global ocean would never happen if I had thought that other Global Shapers were carrying a similar message of inclusion, responsibility and love to the places that I couldn’t reach.
If I could go back and say something to myself while I was there, I would walk between all the conversations about AI, 4th Industrial Revolution and the future of work and calmly whisper: don’t worry, just take time to get to know and express who you are together because there’s no right place for the ones who dare to be bigger than themselves.
Maybe we didn’t connect all the dots yet, but still, I’m sure that our group of Global Shapers made a powerful difference at Davos this year. Here some cool examples of it:
Because love and collaboration are the roots of all my learnings from Davos, I want to thank five Global Shapers and one mentor for helping me to make this article real. Thanks Liziane Silva, Thoba Grenville-Grey, Keyvan Ghavami, Michaella Rugwizangoga, Cristina Fonseca and Tony Celestino, you are pretty awesome.
