## What Comes Next?

_IMF News, May 20, 2017_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [What Comes Next?](https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2017/05/20/sp052017-what-comes-next-commencement-address-lagarde)

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## Bibliographic details
- Published: May 20, 2017

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### 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*

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## References

- [Christine Lagarde](http://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/bios/cl.htm)
- [France and the IMF](http://www.imf.org/external/country/FRA/index.htm)
- [Speeches](https://www.imf.org/en/news/searchnews)
- [PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)
- [https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2017/05/20/sp052017-what-comes-next-commencement-address-lagarde_