Leading today means navigating a world of uncertainty, rapid change and growing human expectations. Between economic performance and social responsibility, many leaders feel a new tension, often silent but very real. On the occasion of the International Day of Social Justice, and following on from recent discussions in Caux with business leaders, Ignacio Packer, Executive Director of the Caux Foundation, offers his thoughts on what it means to lead with justice in our time. An invitation to take a step back and reflect on the role of leadership in a changing world.

On 13 February, at the Caux Palace, we spoke with business leaders about a paradox that has become almost commonplace: their companies are still holding on... but their teams are getting tired.

No one mentioned AI at first.

We talked about difficult management meetings. About competent employees who are not leaving but who no longer make suggestions. About economically sound decisions that leave a vague sense of unease.

And at one point, one executive summed up what many were thinking: "I have to transform my company, but I don't want to be the one who hurts people."

For me, this sentence is at the heart of World Social Justice Day, which we celebrate on 20 February. Today, social justice is no longer just about laws or redistribution. It is about the daily decisions made by thousands of executives. It is about very concrete choices: reorganising, automating, cutting jobs, asking for extra effort... or waiting.

Today, social justice is the daily and very concrete decisions made by executives.

A new silent responsibility

Today, many leaders are experiencing the same tension. On the one hand: costs, skills shortages, market instability, and AI. On the other: human fatigue, loss of meaning, and fragile commitment. Swiss insurance companies confirm that exhaustion has become a major cause of long-term absenteeism.

But managers do not have the luxury of waiting. And that is where something is changing profoundly.

Businesses are no longer just facing an economic crisis; they are at the crossroads of technological, social, ecological and human transformations. In this context, leadership is no longer just about optimising an organisation. It's about staying the course in uncertain times without losing people along the way.

AI is changing less the work... than the role of leaders

There is a lot of talk about what AI will replace. But the real question is: who will bear the human responsibility for decisions optimised by machines? AI will analyse better. It will often decide faster and more economically. But one question will remain human:

Is this decision fair to the people concerned?

The role of leaders is shifting from performance manager to architect of human trajectories.

Leadership is no longer just about optimising an organisation. It is about staying the course in uncertainty without losing people along the way.

Ignacio Packer

What we learned in Caux

After several discussions with leaders, one thing became clear: the problem is not primarily technical. It is internal.

Many know what to do, but are unsure how to do it without breaking trust. What is missing is not a tool. It is a space to think clearly. A space where we can step out of emergency mode and become fully responsible again.

An experience, not a training course

That is why we have designed an immersion programme with Chemin 28 in Caux, from 28 to 30 October 2026, to explore the question of how to lead with humanity in the age of artificial intelligence.

This choice is part of a long tradition: since 1946, the Caux Palace has been an international venue for dialogue and reflection on ethics, responsibility, and the role of decision-makers. From the Principles for Business, launched in 1994 by the Caux Round Table, to the current programmes on ethical leadership and people-centred economics, this approach has for decades supported those who see people as the key to sustainable performance.

It is not about learning AI, but about learning how to make decisions when everything is changing. A time to rediscover our inner compass, understand what needs to change and what needs to be protected, articulate performance and dignity, and transform without betraying our values.

Leaders will not come here looking for recipes. They will come here to rediscover their stance. Because, ultimately, sustainable competitiveness today depends on a rare quality: the ability to transform an organisation without creating injustice.

Social justice in practice

Social justice is no longer an abstract concept. It comes into play when a leader announces change without humiliating, automates without abandoning, reduces without destroying, explains without manipulating.

In a world marked by multiple crises and AI, the company should be a place of social stability. And every managerial decision becomes a societal decision.

At Caux, we seek to enable leaders to experience:

• the security of a space of trust,
• the clarity of deep reflection,
• the hope that comes from having a clear direction
• and the ability to take concrete action.

Then something can change.

It's not about being kinder, but about being fairer. Because it is this inner requirement that makes it possible to transform the company without sacrificing either its performance or its people.

A conviction

We are entering an era in which machines will optimise decisions. But social cohesion will depend on those who give them meaning. Leading tomorrow will not primarily be a technical skill; it will be a human responsibility.

And perhaps, ultimately, a deeply social responsibility.

Our event ‘Leading with humanity in the age of artificial intelligence’ interest you? Immerse yourself in the magnificent natural setting of the Caux Palace and explore with us how to accompany technological transitions in a fully conscious, democratic and respectful manner.

CONTACT US

It is not about being kinder, but about being fairer. Because it is this inner requirement that enables us to transform the company without sacrificing either its performance or its people.

Ignacio Packer

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Ignacio Packer is Executive Director of the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation, a Swiss charitable foundation committed to promoting trust, ethical leadership, sustainable living and human security. With over 30 years of experience in humanitarian and development work, he worked at the European Bank for Latin America and then at KPMG, before becoming a recognised leader of NGOs and international alliances for over 25 years. An expert in human rights and social issues, he has been particularly involved in defending protection frameworks for migrants and refugees, especially children and young people.

Photos: Olivia Chollet & Christophe Koninckx

“Inclusion doesn’t happen by accident. Our Gender Accountability Champions ensure it happens by intention.”

With these words, Ignacio Packer, Executive Director at Caux Initiatives of Change, reaffirms both his personal and organisational commitment to advancing gender equality. As a International Gender Champion, Ignacio is committing not only for himself, but also on behalf of the Caux Foundation, ensuring that gender equality is embedded into how the Foundation plans, facilitates, and evaluates its work.

From Intention to Deeper Implementation 

In 2026, this commitment moves decisively from initial steps to deeper, organisation-wide practice.

Through trained Gender Accountability Champions and a gender-inclusive facilitation framework, every Caux Forum and all events organised by the Caux Foundation will integrate concrete gender objectives, inclusive facilitation standards, and structured reflection and reporting.

Gender equality shouldn't be an add-on, but a core element of organisational culture and shared responsibility.

Ignacio Packer, Executive Director at Caux Initiatives of Change

Building on Strong Foundations

These 2026 commitments build on important progress made in 2025 and are structured around two core organisational commitments.

Commitment 1: Gender Accountability Champions in Every Forum and Encounter

In 2026, Gender Accountability Champions within our events organising teams will play a central role in embedding gender equality into programme design and delivery.

These Champions will:

• Receive targeted training in gender-sensitive programme design, facilitation, and reporting
• Ensure that each event includes at least one concrete gender equality objective
• Submit a short Gender Inclusion Reflection Report after each Caux Forum or general event feeding directly into organisational impact reviews

This distributed leadership model shifts accountability from a single focal point to shared team responsibility, supporting deeper and more sustainable organisational transformation.

Commitment 2: A Gender-Inclusive Facilitation Framework

In parallel, Caux Initiatives of Change will continue implemening a gender-inclusive facilitation framework across all major events organised or co-organised at the Caux Palace and elsewhere in Switzerland.

In 2026, this framework will ensure:

• At least 50% gender-balanced representation among moderators and facilitators
• Clear guidelines for inclusive language
• A structured feedback loop on participants’ experiences of gender safety, participation, and representation

This framework ensures that inclusion is visible, measurable, and consistently applied — strengthening both participant experience and organisational accountability.

A Shared Responsibility for Inclusion

At the Caux Foundation, we see gender equality not as a side initiative, but as a core way of working and a practical driver for meaningful impact.

Every step counts. Through executive leadership, trained Gender Accountability Champions, and organisation-wide standards, we are committed to making gender equality a shared value and standard that shapes how we convene, lead, and foster greater inclusion - together!

Find out more about our activities and events 2026 

After participating in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos on 22 January 2026, Ignacio Packer, Executive Director of the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation, reflects on the question that stayed with him most: "Can trust still hold in today’s fragmented world?" In this blog, he explores what the erosion of trust means for democracy, cooperation, and leadership — and where renewal might begin.

I’m writing this on the train, on my way back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, with one word echoing in my mind: trust.

I went to Davos this year for three reasons. First, I draw energy from the sheer density of conversations — the collisions of ideas, experiences, and disciplines that are hard to replicate elsewhere. A particular highlight was a lunch discussion on trust organised by the Geneva Graduate Institute, which brought a rare depth and honesty to a concept too often used loosely.

Second, Davos places me face to face with people living very different lives, shaped by different assumptions and priorities. It stretches my capacity to listen carefully and to understand perspectives I do not naturally share.

Third, I wanted to be present in key conversations on food systems, especially as I have just joined the Global Advisory Committee for the Global Conscious Food Systems Summit taking place later this year in Bhutan, led by UNDP-COFSA. At a time of accelerating ecological and social strain, food systems are where trust, power, and human security intersect most visibly.

Across these conversations, one theme was everywhere — and nowhere taken for granted: trust.

Leaders spoke in markedly different registers. Some used blunt force - even disrespectful - rhetoric, others chose calibrated restraint in describing a world shaped by fragmentation, geopolitical tension, technological disruption, and democratic strain. What struck me most was not only what was said about trust, but how leaders are behaving in its absence.

Increasingly, trust is no longer assumed. It is managed.

Powerful actors rely on leverage, pressure, and transactional frameworks to keep cooperation going. Alliances are maintained through safeguards and redundancy rather than confidence. Europe speaks of unity while quietly pursuing greater autonomy. Business is asked to act as a stabiliser, even as public confidence in institutions continues to erode.

These arrangements may keep systems functioning in the short term, but they do not renew legitimacy.

Systems held together primarily by pressure, rules, and transactional deals do not rebuild trust. Without legitimacy, peace becomes fragile and democracy becomes procedural. People may comply, but they no longer believe. Over time, that erosion fuels polarisation, weakens institutions, and increases the risk of conflict.

This is why the question of trust cannot be treated as a communications problem or a governance tweak. It is fundamentally a human one.

Systems held together primarily by pressure, rules, and transactional deals do not rebuild trust.

A Call to Action — and a Call for Inner Development

This is a call to all who exercise influence — including the current U.S. administration and other global power centres — to lead with integrity, tell the truth, repair what has been harmed, and choose dialogue over domination. In a world under strain, the most strategic asset is not leverage. It is trust.

Rebuilding trust requires more than institutional reform. It requires inner development — the capacity for self-reflection, responsibility, and moral courage. Without this inner work, external systems inevitably default to control, coercion, and performance.

This is where the work of the Caux Initiatives of Change Foundation is especially relevant today.

Trust as a Human and Relational Process

For decades, our work in Caux has approached trust not as a slogan or reputational asset, but as a human and relational process. It has offered neutral ground where political, economic, and cultural divides can be faced honestly, and where cooperation begins with personal responsibility and integrity (read more).

In a world moving toward what some describe as “managed interdependence,” such spaces matter more, not less. Places like the Caux Palace, our centre for dialogue and peacebuilding, allow people to step out of posturing and pressure, meet across divides, and rebuild the relationships that make genuine cooperation possible.

Democracy, after all, does not fail only when institutions weaken.
It fails when trust between citizens, leaders, and systems is allowed to disappear.

In a world under strain, the most strategic asset is not leverage. It is trust.

Convening in Caux to rebuild trust

This is why the Caux Foundation will convene its annual Caux Democracy Forum from 22–26 June 2026, opening with a dedicated ceremony at the Maison de la Paix in Geneva. The forum creates space to revitalise democracy, renew hope, foster healing, and strengthen human security across sectors and generations.

Because trust is deeply human, Caux will also host the Caux Inner Development Goals Forum from 13–17 July 2026, under the theme “The Alchemy of Forgiveness.” By placing forgiveness and inner development at the heart of leadership and systems change, this forum strengthens the personal foundations of peace, resilience, and democratic culture. It supports the difficult but necessary movement from compliance to conscience, from polarisation to repair, and from performative cooperation to lasting legitimacy.

So the question I leave Davos with is not only: can trust still hold?
It is: what are we prepared to do to rebuild it?

Trust will not return through declarations or forums alone. It will return if leaders, institutions, businesses, and citizens choose to invest time, courage, and humility in rebuilding relationships, listening across divides, and aligning power with responsibility.

Choosing the hard work of togetherness

This is an invitation to step out of managed coexistence and into intentional togetherness. Caux offers a place to do precisely that — not as spectators, but as participants. Not to manage decline, but to renew legitimacy.

The work of rebuilding trust cannot be postponed, and it cannot be done alone. It begins wherever we decide to show up, engage honestly, and take responsibility for the future we are shaping together.

You are welcome to Caux.

Trust will not return through declarations or forums alone. It will return if we choose to invest time, courage, and humility in rebuilding relationships, listening across divides, and aligning power with responsibility.

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Discover all our Caux Forum 2026 events and join the conversation! 

Immerse yourself in a unique adventure at the heart of a committed foundation as a Communications Coordinator Intern.

This internship (full-time, based in Geneva) is part of our global engagement strategy, with a particular focus on our flagship summer events: the Caux Forum (June/July) and the Arts and Peace Meetings (May).

Based in Geneva, the intern must have an excellent level of English and a genuine interest in international communication and event promotion. Come and experience a summer rich in experiences, creativity and unforgettable encounters. Join the Caux adventure!

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