Webster University Graduation

Saturday, 9 May 2015 at 09:30 a.m.

Thank you, Madam Director, for the kind introduction and for the invitation to be part of this unique event with this year’s graduates and their families. I appreciate the opportunity to highlight the importance of our rich university environment here in International Geneva, with Webster as one of its prominent members.

Class of 2015:

Congratulations! Congratulations on your degrees. Congratulations on the community and friendships that you have formed while you have been here. Congratulations on showing us all and most of all yourselves that you can achieve what you set out to do.

Congratulations also to Webster University on its centenary. 2015 is a year of milestone birthdays, as we also celebrate the 70th anniversary of the United Nations. We are united in a commitment to educating future generations to take on an active international role and to have a sense of individual responsibility for our common good, so I particularly appreciate being with you in our shared anniversary year.

And congratulations to your families who are here to support you at this key moment in your lives and who have supported you throughout your studies. Today is also a demonstration of their dedication to you and to your futures. Make sure that you repay them for their unwavering support and for the investment that they have made….repay them in equal amounts of gratitude and kindness!

Because education is an investment. An investment that leads to innovation and economic growth, and to fulfilment of ambition. But beyond the econometrics of education, I believe that fundamentally education is an investment in personal choice. An investment that allows you to choose how you want to make your life matter - today and tomorrow.

Your challenge now will be to make the right and the most sustainable choices. And these are choices that will impact not only you, but the world around you.

You have already made an excellent choice by studying at Webster University as part of the International Geneva community. This, I hope, has given you a clearer understanding of how interconnected our world has become, and of the importance of ever-closer partnerships to meet the challenges of today.

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect refers to the sensitive dependence in our world through which a small change in one end of the system - the flapping of the wings of a butterfly - can result in large differences far away and later on. I believe in a collective human butterfly effect. Whatever we do has an impact on other people - often in ways and to an extent that we are not aware of and may not be able to predict. And therefore we all have much greater power to change things than we may realize.

That is why our choices matter. And that is why we need to make the right ones, and to always be conscious of how they are connected to the world around us. Whether we choose to work in business, or an NGO, or an international organization or in research, or something completely different, we are all feeding our talents and our thinking into a wider context.

In an interconnected world, all of these different areas need to pull together in the same direction for us to generate genuine progress that benefits all of us. The efforts of the international community in Geneva are a good example of that. The work that we do here adds up to more than the sum of its parts, exactly because it draws on and brings together the perspectives and expertise of many stakeholders.

The combined activities of the international actors in International Geneva are like an institutional butterfly effect. They have an impact on each and every person on this planet, every single day, far beyond Geneva and in more profound ways than many realize.

Our work is also about choice. Whether it is through improved trade, stronger labour standards, protection of rights, disarmament, humanitarian assistance, access to health services, telecommunications or intellectual property, the work of International Geneva empowers individuals and enables them to have more and better choices about their own lives.

Choice is essential for a rich and fulfilling life. But it can be overwhelming. This is why we need to be more conscious of the underlying values that guide us when we make choices. Technical skills are important, but if you want to put them to good use by making the right choices, you need to be inspired by values.

We live in a world that is increasingly characterized by division and discord. Civil wars with an international dimension, sometimes fuelled by violent extremism and combined with transnational organized crime, continue in many regions. Poverty, climate change and denial of fundamental rights obstruct progress for millions of our fellow human beings.

Often these challenges and crises intersect to create new complex and chaotic realities. A common thread that ties together all of these challenges and crises is a glaring trust deficit. At local level, citizens have lost trust in their authorities. At global level, countries are loosing trust in each other and in the legitimacy of the international system and the rule-based order that we have established together over many years of collective work.

This lack of trust is one of our most fundamental and most difficult challenges today. We cannot work effectively together to confront the threats that affect us all if we have no basic trust in each other. And to overcome this trust deficit we need to be much more conscious of the values on which our international community needs to be based: equity, justice and solidarity. In a world of fast-paced change, these values endure as the unchanged foundation of sound choices.

As is the case with the butterfly effect, we can all have a large-scale impact through small, individual actions. This also means that we all have a responsibility to use this potential by placing values such as equity, justice and solidarity at the heart of our actions - in whatever context we find ourselves and at whatever level.

In a world where inequality in income and opportunities in many countries grow ever wider, if we do not strengthen systems of accountability and justice, the rich will always be right, even if not rightfully so. And as a consequence, those who have less will lose trust – not only in the rich, but in the system that structures their society. Already, we see great degrees of polarization. When gaps between people expand because there is no basic solidarity, when one group goes to the street to protest against the other, then suspicion grows and trust declines even further.

The most important task in education is not the teaching of facts, but instilling values as a moral compass that will guide us in making the right choices. And that is the real investment that you have made - an investment that will pay dividends for you on an individual level and for our global community.

Dear Graduates:

Today is a day of success and accomplishment. And it may seem counter-intuitive on such a day to talk about failure. But I want to reflect for a brief moment on the importance of trial and error, and on how the greatest opportunities for growth and progress can come from what did not work out rather than from what did.

When you start in the world of work, or if you continue your studies in a new setting, there is often a great fear of failing. Of not doing the right thing at the right time. Of not knowing fully what you want to do with your life.

Yet often the most significant ideas and the greatest innovation are borne out of projects or in contexts where things did not quite go according to plan, or maybe there was not yet a clearly articulated plan. Experience shows that the most progressive and successful companies and institutions are those where employees are rewarded for trying out new things rather than sanctioned for what did not work. Creativity thrives where people are allowed to experiment and to learn from where they went wrong.

And this is particularly important in a world of inter-linked challenges. We need solutions that cut across traditional boundaries, and for that to happen we need to break down silos. And that is much more likely to happen when we all as individuals have diverse experiences and are open to explore and to innovate. If we always play it safe, we will not move our world ahead - neither as individuals nor as the human family together.

Originality flows from openness. Throughout my career, the most interesting and challenging opportunities have come when I least expected them and from surprising corners. With an open mind and the readiness to embrace the unfamiliar, we are enriched on a personal level - and we are more likely to enrich our team, our organization and our community in turn.

I hope that your time here in International Geneva has inspired you to break free from rigid moulds and from business-as-usual. And that it has also given you the practical tools to do so. International Geneva is a powerful example of what can be achieved when we all work together in the same direction, when we cross dividing lines and when we ignore those who say that things cannot be done.

True, lasting and positive change is made up of individual choices driven by shared values. And this is why you all have the power to change the world.

I, and those around you as you move into your futures, very much look forward to seeing you do just that.

Congratulations!