What Comes Next?

IMF News, May 20, 2017

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Published: May 20, 2017

Saying “I Don’t Know”

Central recommendation: it is often wise to say “I don’t know” and focus on knowing how to find answers rather than pretending to have them.
Education’s role: a liberal arts education teaches how to find answers by developing critical thinking and the capacity for lifelong learning.
Personal example: the speaker emphasizes that even at the IMF there are frequent unknowns and new issues requiring continuous learning.

Your Skills – Learning How to Think

Key observation: “The future, your future, is one where technology, automation, and artificial intelligence may eventually supplant humans in a variety of tasks.”
Statistic: “Two-thirds of today’s children will have jobs which have not been invented yet.” [2]
Comparative advantage: studying the humanities and cultivating broad interests (e.g., Aeschylus, Sappho, Brontë, Dylan, design) fosters polymath skills useful in an evolving economy.
Institutional context: the IMF has “189 member nations” united by cooperation to maintain economic stability and prosperity.
Lifelong learning imperative:
- College teaches how to learn, not what to learn.
- Learning requires “ceaseless curiosity” and active questioning of assumptions.
Practical advice:
- Seek out dissenting views: “Only a fool wants to hear the echo of his own voice.”
- Apply perspective-taking learned through cross-cultural experience to problem solving.

Your Values – Public Service

Definition: public service extends beyond government work to volunteering, community activism, parent-teacher associations, and applying values in any job.
Speaker’s value focus: gender equality has been a life-long commitment and an IMF analytical priority.
Career anecdote and trajectory:
- Early career obstacle: interviewer told the speaker she “could never become a partner” because she was a woman; she left and joined Baker McKenzie in 1981.
- Work–life adaptation: changed working hours to spend Wednesday afternoons with her son; later became a partner and in 1999 became “the first female chairman of the firm.”
IMF programmatic work:
- Gender-related work undertaken in “22 countries.”
- Example: in a new program with Egypt the IMF is “exploring ways the government can increase funding for public nurseries and improve commuter safety” to expand women’s employment opportunities.
Institutional framing of IMF roles: the Fund acts as “firefighters” (financial assistance) and “doctors” (economic surveillance and guidance).

Applying Your Values

Call to action: integrate values into professional roles regardless of sector; be creative and persistent in promoting values.
Concrete suggestions by profession:
- Investment banking: “find out how your company’s philanthropy is being managed.”
- Nursing: “find out how your hospital assists people in the community without health insurance.”
- Journalism: “use the power of the pen to investigate how your city is rebuilding its public transportation system.”
Expect resistance: public service efforts will encounter skeptics; persistence and creativity are required.
Small actions matter: the speaker gives the example of diversifying quoted sources in this commencement address to include more women.

Conclusion – What Comes Next?

Main reassurance: graduates do not have to answer “What comes next?” immediately; they have the foundation to find the answer.
Sources of guidance: training, values, and support from family and friends will “serve as a lighthouse in the journey of your life.”
Closing: thanks and congratulations to the “class of 2017!”

Commencement Address by Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, Washington College – Chestertown, Maryland, May 20, 2017. IMF Communications Department. MEDIA RELATIONS Phone: +1 202 623-7100 Email: MEDIA@IMF.org