YGL Yale Education Module

As we make our way back to our respective homes, those of us fortunate enough to have participated in the education module “Foundations for Leadership in the 21st Century: Values”, which was co-hosted by the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University and the World Economic Forum this past week, are no doubt filled with gratitude for the opportunity to get together in an academic setting and learn from experts and each other.

This gathering gave leaders in position as well as those of us in transition time to contemplate subjects ranging from the existential to economical, poetical to geopolitical, spanning public and private domains, and theoretical and practical approaches. And while the foundations of existing leadership were deemed shaky, it is simply impossible to leave a gathering of Young Global Leaders without a sense of enrichment, optimism, inspiration and humility. If so many of us from different cultures and disciplines can come together and engage in a robust and respectful exchange, there must surely be ways to continue to imagine, construct and inhabit a more peaceful and harmonious world.

Among the questions that emerged during our time together, perhaps inspired during our first lecture by Miroslav Volf, Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology and Founding Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, was: where are the philosophers of our time? We certainly have pundits and pontificators, but who is posing the meta questions and creating enduring structures to systematically explore fundamental problems we face? While it may not be time to burn the house down, it is abundantly clear that we need to continue to find the resolve to retrofit our existing frameworks, install mirrors for reflection, create space for time-outs, and use new materials that will prove ever more flexible to weather these storms in a better informed, more inclusive and resilient manner.

Author: Ellen Gonda is a communications executive and was most recently Senior Vice President, Global Communications at Hilton Worldwide, and before that held positions at The Carlyle Group and Brunswick Group. Throughout her career she has provided counsel to companies experiencing critical communications situations. Ellen graduated with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley.

Photo Credit: Harold Shapiro