Lessons for HR leaders from Mark Carney’s Davos moment

When Prime Minister Mark Carney stood on the world stage in Davos and spoke of a “rupture, not a transition,” he broke with the cautious, hedged language that often dominates global politics. 

For HR leaders, that mix of candour, moral clarity and direction offers a practical blueprint for communicating through disruption within their own organizations back in Canada, according to Kanina Blanchard, an assistant professor in management and communications at Western University in London, Ont. 

The first lessons from Carney's Jan. 30 World Economic Forum speech? Ruthless clarity of purpose. 

“What we know is that communication, whatever its form, needs to be targeted to the audience and it needs to also evoke trust in that audience,” says Blanchard. “And so communication really needs to be viewed not from the perspective of ‘What do I want to say?' but ‘What do I hope the people who are listening are going to do as a result of what I say?’ — every communication has a purpose.” 

Blanchard also stresses that Carney understood that he had multiple audiences — the room full of business and political leaders in Davos and the broader public watching from afar — and calibrated his remarks for both.

HR leaders face a similar reality when a message to one group of employees will inevitably be forwarded and reinterpreted by many others, which raises the bar on consistency and intent, she says. 

Name the rupture, then point to what’s next 

In Davos, Carney spoke directly about uncomfortable dynamics such as economic coercion and the need for a new path for middle powers. Frederick King, an instructor in business and professional communication at Dalhousie University in Halifax, says that worked because it paired clear diagnosis with emotional resonance. 

“The idea there is that the audience responds to it because we all know it to be a reality that we’re all facing and we’re afraid when these big changes happen — he’s warning that nostalgia for the way things once were isn’t going to work,” says King. “And that's a really hard thing for many organizations to deal with, because most business relies on stability and predictability.” 

That warning against nostalgia will feel familiar to HR leaders fielding questions about a return to the prepandemic workplace or a culture before the latest technological transformation. King says business models built on stability and predictability are colliding with structural change and employees need leaders who can both validate that loss and describe, in concrete terms, how the organization intends to adapt. 

Blanchard says that Carney clearly articulated that people may want to shy away from things that are uncomfortable, but now have to face it, and this aligned with what the audience is seeing. 

“He said it in a clear manner, but then he used the language of rhetoric and oration to bring it to life,” she says. “To use the word ‘rupture’ isn’t an accident, it’s an emotional word that creates imagery for people of things breaking apart — but then he was able to balance that by how he proceeded with the idea of recognizing reality but then reframing the possibility of something other. I think that was very powerful.” 

Stories, inclusive language and substance 

The prime minister’s speech was also a reminder that how leaders speak matters as much as what they say. Blanchard notes that for centuries, effective leaders have relied on storytelling, metaphor, and rhythm to move people. 

“Understand your primary audience and recognize what it is that they’re hoping and needing to hear from you, and then use the language that’s going to resonate with them,” says Blanchard. “And never forget that when you’re talking to people, our brains are wired to learn from stories, not from numbers.” 

She says that means choosing examples and metaphors rooted in employees’ real work, such as a safety nearmiss, a client win, or a team that redesigned its process. 

King, who analyzed the structure of Carney’s speech, adds that inclusive language played a central role in building a sense of shared purpose. “There has to be that recognition of the relationship, one of the ways Carney does that rhetorically, is his use of the phrase ‘we are’ — he says ‘we are’ 22 times throughout the speech,” he says. “And the idea is that we're in this together, as a collective, in Canada.” 

King notes that an overreliance on pronouns like “you” can reinforce distance between management and staff, whereas a grounded “we,” used honestly, can underline that leaders and employees are navigating the same storm, even if they occupy different levels. 

Build trust by facing hard truths 

The direct approach reinforcing the collective can help leaders address hard truths in their organizations, according to King. “Communicate that this is why this makes sense, this is why we're doing what we're doing, and this is why we think it's going to work — that builds trust with your audience,” he says. 

Just as important is pairing rhetoric with concrete substance, he says: “Anytime an organization is communicating something, there has to be an actual idea and there has to be a plan,” he says. “You can’t do this and say, ‘We’ll let you know what’s going to happen over the next six months.’ That just instills fear.” 

Blanchard notes that people in HR have a central responsibility in their organizations, despite all the change around them. 

“Even though language has changed in the world of HR, it remains a responsibility to have the emotional intelligence, social intelligence, and cultural intelligence to understand that, at the end of the day, their role is to make people feel safe as much as possible and motivated to the extent that they feel they can do something,” she says. “Because if we take purpose away from people, we see a devolution of people wanting to engage and provide human insights.” 

Frame messaging with relevance to employees 

Blanchard believes that communication and the ability to reframe an organization’s messaging so that it’s actionable by employees is essential in an era of disruption. An HR leader’s communications don’t have to be perfect, but they should be purposeful and honest, she says. 

“I think HR managers and leaders play such a critical role through the presence that they bring, and through their mastery of leadership, communication, and their ability to authentically have gravitas.”