[Applause]
Matta first matter they matter because
in some situations words are not enough
that’s why they so great because
metaphor is explained with words and
with imagination I say this as a writer
but metaphors exist far beyond the
textual space they are present
everywhere and that’s why they’re so
great they grasp the bigger picture and
that’s why they matter so much because
today more than ever we need to see the
bigger picture of the steps that we take
and the choices that we make let me take
you on a ride on the Metro imagine it’s
crowded it’s hot the air is sticky it’s
shaking it’s uncomfortable you see a
little girl fighting her way through the
crowd and she stops right in front of
you and she looks up to you and asks
Cinco pesos five pesos
now you’re just a better search for your
wallet but then the metro stops and you
need to get off and change lines so you
whisper a heartfelt I’m sorry and you
get off the train and change to line
number 12 it’s fresh you feel the breeze
of the air conditioner you sit down you
look up to the screen on the ceiling in
the Metro and you see a video showing
some scene of the city center saying
this is the city with significant
historic and cultural heritage welcome
to Mexico City this is a true event but
this is also a metaphor line number 12
has only recently been opened and access
is restricted since for everyone who
wants to sell something or beg for money
it is forbidden to step onto that line
so what would be the bigger picture of
this what if the metro map represented
the world and its global population and
having it moving around some of us would
get a change lines some of us would
never have to change from line number 12
because they’re just moving around
within that certain area but some of us
so never II would have access to line
over 12 and that before is to make a
little income and land number one to 11
I think as a global community it should
be our aim to make line number 12
accessible to everyone and also to set
the same standards and expectations that
we have for line number 12 for every
other line so that no one has to beg for
money and we enable every single citizen
to enjoy a pleasant journey living on
this planet we’re on track extreme
global poverty has been decreasing
within the past decades we’ve been a 35
percent in 1990 and are now at roughly
10 percent according to the most recent
estimates by the World Bank in 2013 also
the first of the sustainable development
goals is and poverty in all its forms
everywhere until 2030 and it’s possible
if we make better choices it is possible
if you do a bit of research on the
sustainable development goals you will
quickly find a lot of leaflets and PDFs
published by the United Nations and one
of it is why it matters and there’s one
paragraph with a headline I’m not poor
why should I care about other people’s
economic situation and there is such
beauty of one of the answering sentences
it’s like because as human beings our
well-being is interlinked and I think
this is so true in a globalised digital
interconnected world there is no single
action without consequence even if that
consequence is far removed
geographically our choices still matter
and it matters that we take better
choices we need change and for that
change we need new kinds of leaders
leading that change and I also include
female leaders that’s why I think that
we need a new conversation about
leadership and also about women in power
positions men have always had the golden
ticket when it comes to leadership
because man and male we continue to
associate with autocratic position
making power and leadership too so
taking unconscious by
to account it’s much more likely for a
man to be a leader than for a woman
that’s why I say we need a new
conversation about leadership I’ve
recently written a book on leadership as
co-author with the German leadership
consultancy and what I’ve taken from it
is that this conversation is already
starting to change we are shifting away
from seeing a leader someone autocratic
and talking about leadership more in
terms of emotional intelligence
cooperation emotions community so
leadership is a concept much more
flexible and fluid and a leader in order
to be a good leader sometimes also has
to be a follower so an example leader
someone who adapts different leadership
styles and this wall is Harlan
unpredictable business environment so
autocratic leadership is not anymore at
the one leadership style but rather one
out of many that every single leader has
to master and personally I see this as
great momentum and great opportunity for
the empowerment of women because now
again taking unconscious bias into
account now that we see leadership in
terms of emotions community traits that
we still associate with female and with
women it’s also more possible or less
least beyond the norm for women to be a
leader
so when conscious bias could actually be
a means to an end and balance out
inequalities I thought I had it all
figured out I thought this was the
answer and done that’s a solution
unconscious bias overcome it and we got
equality I was wrong the thing is I’m
not only German I’m all sergeant pinyon
and it is in Latin America that I see a
lot of young moms girls a lot younger
than me and they already have two kids
and they can’t go to class and can’t go
to university because they have a family
that they’re responsible for I see a lot
of kids working to support their
families financially according to the
Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean every last year of
basic education accounts for 10%
income later on and out of life and also
if you look at the numbers of the OECD
40% of women my age group so from 20 to
24 in Mexico alone 40% are neither in
training in employment or education and
if you compare that to the same age
group at men it’s only 10% so I realized
there is a lot about women empowerment
that I know nothing about that I still
have to learn more about because women
empowerment globally is very complex and
I was thought it’s two conversations
it’s like women leadership unconscious
bias and the rest it was like line
number twelve on the rest and I stayed
there in my comfort zone and I continued
new to write articles and conduct
interviews and attend conferences and I
was talking to a high-level
representative of a multinational
corporation and he was confirming how
much his company was doing to empower
women in the workforce in Germany and by
coincidence I met that same
multinational corporation in Mexico
recently only that this time these guys
were the ones who were restricting
access to local resources such as water
so these local communities now are
either forced to buy water which is
theirs or the alternative is walk up to
two hours to have access to safe
drinking water and this includes girls
and women this is not true women
empowerment it can’t be possible
that one group of women in one part of
the world is empowered at the cost of
another group of woman in another part
of the world that’s just not fair and
that’s not true it’s great if more women
have access to a coffee machine in the
office right but not if that same coffee
is produced on exploitive terms
somewhere else by women and also by men
so there is no true conversations
there’s only one conversation and I
think this is an example that shows that
our decisions matter and it matters that
we take better decisions so truth be
told I hate decisions I’m really really
bad at making decisions so to make my
life a lot easier I developed something
that I
call sustainable choices catalog and
it’s making my life so easy I want to
share this with you today so I’m a very
positive person and very happy person so
my number one factor in making decisions
is happiness good because I think it’s
all interlinked and it’s not all just
about me I ask myself does this make a
planet happy the second question I asked
myself is will this make me happy but in
a long-term and that also includes if I
see something that I desperately want to
have I ask myself will I be unhappy if I
don’t have this well they’ll be unhappy
tomorrow next week a year from now and
if the answer is no then I just leave it
and the third question I asked ourselves
is will this make other people happy the
great thing is that we can apply this
sustainable choice catalog to many
different situations in a role as a
consumer for example we’re also in a
role as employee or employer I recently
had a job interview for a PR agency and
the boss of that PR agency was a bit
well
his Instagram account had a lot of very
sexist posts and I knew that I don’t
want to support this and I didn’t want
that job anymore also if you’re already
in the workforce then empower those
around you and if you’re in a position
to decide who’s gonna take the
leadership role encourage women to
participate and finally we can also use
this to actively counteract sexism I
first only had an interview a
singer-songwriter for a radio station
and it was a really awkward situation
because of his life interview and some
of the questions were really strange and
had a lot of sexist comments and I don’t
really know what to do but I decided no
I’m not gonna jump in because it’s
neither funny nor a joke
so the Sustainable tries kind of look it
makes my life so much easier and so much
happier too and I totally subscribe to
that definition of sustainability having
the bigger picture in mind thinking
about tomorrow and I think we can make a
lot of people happy with our decisions I
think we can give our Cinco pesos to a
lot of girls without actually having to
sit inside the metro
Mexico City I think change starts the
moment that we rephrase the question and
we don’t ask what can be done but ask
what can I do right now and right here
how can I contribute to a world in which
no single boy or no single girl has to
beg for money in the metro how can I
contribute to a world in which girls and
women actually have access to the
steering wheel and sit right in front of
the Train that’s where change begins and
that’s why decision it’s just like
matter furs matter I want to finish with
something very personal it’s a song I
wrote and the song was one of the first
songs that showed me the importance of
metaphors and I hope that by singing it
maybe maybe you might see you too thank
you [Applause]
Matta first matter they matter because
in some situations words are not enough
that’s why they so great because
metaphor is explained with words and
with imagination I say this as a writer
but metaphors exist far beyond the
textual space they are present
everywhere and that’s why they’re so
great they grasp the bigger picture and
that’s why they matter so much because
today more than ever we need to see the
bigger picture of the steps that we take
and the choices that we make let me take
you on a ride on the Metro imagine it’s
crowded it’s hot the air is sticky it’s
shaking it’s uncomfortable you see a
little girl fighting her way through the
crowd and she stops right in front of
you and she looks up to you and asks
Cinco pesos five pesos
now you’re just a better search for your
wallet but then the metro stops and you
need to get off and change lines so you
whisper a heartfelt I’m sorry and you
get off the train and change to line
number 12 it’s fresh you feel the breeze
of the air conditioner you sit down you
look up to the screen on the ceiling in
the Metro and you see a video showing
some scene of the city center saying
this is the city with significant
historic and cultural heritage welcome
to Mexico City this is a true event but
this is also a metaphor line number 12
has only recently been opened and access
is restricted since for everyone who
wants to sell something or beg for money
it is forbidden to step onto that line
so what would be the bigger picture of
this what if the metro map represented
the world and its global population and
having it moving around some of us would
get a change lines some of us would
never have to change from line number 12
because they’re just moving around
within that certain area but some of us
so never II would have access to line
over 12 and that before is to make a
little income and land number one to 11
I think as a global community it should
be our aim to make line number 12
accessible to everyone and also to set
the same standards and expectations that
we have for line number 12 for every
other line so that no one has to beg for
money and we enable every single citizen
to enjoy a pleasant journey living on
this planet we’re on track extreme
global poverty has been decreasing
within the past decades we’ve been a 35
percent in 1990 and are now at roughly
10 percent according to the most recent
estimates by the World Bank in 2013 also
the first of the sustainable development
goals is and poverty in all its forms
everywhere until 2030 and it’s possible
if we make better choices it is possible
if you do a bit of research on the
sustainable development goals you will
quickly find a lot of leaflets and PDFs
published by the United Nations and one
of it is why it matters and there’s one
paragraph with a headline I’m not poor
why should I care about other people’s
economic situation and there is such
beauty of one of the answering sentences
it’s like because as human beings our
well-being is interlinked and I think
this is so true in a globalised digital
interconnected world there is no single
action without consequence even if that
consequence is far removed
geographically our choices still matter
and it matters that we take better
choices we need change and for that
change we need new kinds of leaders
leading that change and I also include
female leaders that’s why I think that
we need a new conversation about
leadership and also about women in power
positions men have always had the golden
ticket when it comes to leadership
because man and male we continue to
associate with autocratic position
making power and leadership too so
taking unconscious by
to account it’s much more likely for a
man to be a leader than for a woman
that’s why I say we need a new
conversation about leadership I’ve
recently written a book on leadership as
co-author with the German leadership
consultancy and what I’ve taken from it
is that this conversation is already
starting to change we are shifting away
from seeing a leader someone autocratic
and talking about leadership more in
terms of emotional intelligence
cooperation emotions community so
leadership is a concept much more
flexible and fluid and a leader in order
to be a good leader sometimes also has
to be a follower so an example leader
someone who adapts different leadership
styles and this wall is Harlan
unpredictable business environment so
autocratic leadership is not anymore at
the one leadership style but rather one
out of many that every single leader has
to master and personally I see this as
great momentum and great opportunity for
the empowerment of women because now
again taking unconscious bias into
account now that we see leadership in
terms of emotions community traits that
we still associate with female and with
women it’s also more possible or less
least beyond the norm for women to be a
leader
so when conscious bias could actually be
a means to an end and balance out
inequalities I thought I had it all
figured out I thought this was the
answer and done that’s a solution
unconscious bias overcome it and we got
equality I was wrong the thing is I’m
not only German I’m all sergeant pinyon
and it is in Latin America that I see a
lot of young moms girls a lot younger
than me and they already have two kids
and they can’t go to class and can’t go
to university because they have a family
that they’re responsible for I see a lot
of kids working to support their
families financially according to the
Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean every last year of
basic education accounts for 10%
income later on and out of life and also
if you look at the numbers of the OECD
40% of women my age group so from 20 to
24 in Mexico alone 40% are neither in
training in employment or education and
if you compare that to the same age
group at men it’s only 10% so I realized
there is a lot about women empowerment
that I know nothing about that I still
have to learn more about because women
empowerment globally is very complex and
I was thought it’s two conversations
it’s like women leadership unconscious
bias and the rest it was like line
number twelve on the rest and I stayed
there in my comfort zone and I continued
new to write articles and conduct
interviews and attend conferences and I
was talking to a high-level
representative of a multinational
corporation and he was confirming how
much his company was doing to empower
women in the workforce in Germany and by
coincidence I met that same
multinational corporation in Mexico
recently only that this time these guys
were the ones who were restricting
access to local resources such as water
so these local communities now are
either forced to buy water which is
theirs or the alternative is walk up to
two hours to have access to safe
drinking water and this includes girls
and women this is not true women
empowerment it can’t be possible
that one group of women in one part of
the world is empowered at the cost of
another group of woman in another part
of the world that’s just not fair and
that’s not true it’s great if more women
have access to a coffee machine in the
office right but not if that same coffee
is produced on exploitive terms
somewhere else by women and also by men
so there is no true conversations
there’s only one conversation and I
think this is an example that shows that
our decisions matter and it matters that
we take better decisions so truth be
told I hate decisions I’m really really
bad at making decisions so to make my
life a lot easier I developed something
that I
call sustainable choices catalog and
it’s making my life so easy I want to
share this with you today so I’m a very
positive person and very happy person so
my number one factor in making decisions
is happiness good because I think it’s
all interlinked and it’s not all just
about me I ask myself does this make a
planet happy the second question I asked
myself is will this make me happy but in
a long-term and that also includes if I
see something that I desperately want to
have I ask myself will I be unhappy if I
don’t have this well they’ll be unhappy
tomorrow next week a year from now and
if the answer is no then I just leave it
and the third question I asked ourselves
is will this make other people happy the
great thing is that we can apply this
sustainable choice catalog to many
different situations in a role as a
consumer for example we’re also in a
role as employee or employer I recently
had a job interview for a PR agency and
the boss of that PR agency was a bit
well
his Instagram account had a lot of very
sexist posts and I knew that I don’t
want to support this and I didn’t want
that job anymore also if you’re already
in the workforce then empower those
around you and if you’re in a position
to decide who’s gonna take the
leadership role encourage women to
participate and finally we can also use
this to actively counteract sexism I
first only had an interview a
singer-songwriter for a radio station
and it was a really awkward situation
because of his life interview and some
of the questions were really strange and
had a lot of sexist comments and I don’t
really know what to do but I decided no
I’m not gonna jump in because it’s
neither funny nor a joke
so the Sustainable tries kind of look it
makes my life so much easier and so much
happier too and I totally subscribe to
that definition of sustainability having
the bigger picture in mind thinking
about tomorrow and I think we can make a
lot of people happy with our decisions I
think we can give our Cinco pesos to a
lot of girls without actually having to
sit inside the metro
Mexico City I think change starts the
moment that we rephrase the question and
we don’t ask what can be done but ask
what can I do right now and right here
how can I contribute to a world in which
no single boy or no single girl has to
beg for money in the metro how can I
contribute to a world in which girls and
women actually have access to the
steering wheel and sit right in front of
the Train that’s where change begins and
that’s why decision it’s just like
matter furs matter I want to finish with
something very personal it’s a song I
wrote and the song was one of the first
songs that showed me the importance of
metaphors and I hope that by singing it
maybe maybe you might see you too thank
you [Applause]
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