I listened to Mark Carney‘s Davos address twice: once as a citizen, once as a speechwriter. The citizen: respect for his courage. The speechwriter: respect for his mastery of the central metaphor.

Carney opens with Václav Havel’s greengrocer parable: a shopkeeper in 1978 Prague who hangs a sign every morning: “Workers of the world, unite.” He doesn’t believe it, but he puts it up anyway. Everyone does. Havel called it “living within a lie.” When people perform beliefs they no longer hold, the lie becomes the operating system of public life.

Carney brings the story forward to today: Canada and Europe are the shopkeepers. The “rules-based international order” is the sign. Our diplomatic rhetoric is the daily ritual of placing it in the window.

He returns to the sign multiple times, each reference tightening the frame. We place the sign. We keep the sign in the window. And when we single out one power but stay silent about another, the metaphor reminds us that we are the shopkeepers too.

For the win, Carney brings his metaphor full circle, ending his remarks by calling on his audience to live in truth, name reality – and take their sign down.

Need to deliver complex information or a hard truth? Leading with story can help you make your case without losing the room.