Three Ways to Make a Difference According to Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall passed away on October 1, 2025. She left a legacy of curiosity, compassion, and difference making that touched literally every continent and impacted millions of humans and animals alike. One of my students at Camosun College used this quote to inspire my support for a Roots & Shoots chapter at the school:
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall’s Life Well Lived
Jane Goodall’s journey from an inquisitive observer of her family’s chicken to a trailblazing female scientist to a global icon for conservation offers enduring lessons in leadership. Her story is a testament to how curiosity, compassion, and optimism can drive extraordinary change. For leaders and everyday changemakers alike, Goodall’s life demonstrates that transformative impact begins with how we see the world. The courage to act on what we discover.
Dr. Goodall’s life demonstrates that making a difference isn’t reserved for those with perfect credentials or unlimited resources. When we choose to act with purpose, courage, and compassion our communities benefit.
Three ways to make a difference according to Jane Goodall
Curiosity
Goodall’s introduction to the world of primatology was groundbreaking not for its adherence to convention, but for its embrace of curiosity. Rather than approaching chimpanzees with preconceived notions, she spent countless hours patiently watching, listening, and learning.
In this excellent episode of Rethinking (or Worklife … Adam Grant rethinks and renames his podcast a lot), Goodall uses the phrases “I don’t know” and “I’m not sure” many times. Curiosity begins with acknowledging that we probably don’t have all the answers. Amidst these tumultuous, ever-changing times, the best leaders are comfortable admitting that we don’t have all the answers. Seeking to understand a situation before taking action requires curiosity.
Goodall gave the animals names, recognized their personalities, and described their relationships, which blurred the lines of “objective distance” governing existing practices of primatology and anthropology. Her discoveries, like how using tools and hunting tactics reflect how chimpanzee communities cultivate unique cultures, redefined humanity’s understanding of animals and ourselves. By trusting her observations as they accumulated over time, Goodall showed that curiosity, patience, and open-mindedness are the foundations of genuine insight. Leaders, she teaches, must be willing to suspend judgment and let new evidence shape their understanding.
Compassion
Compassion fueled Goodall’s transition from researcher to advocate. Witnessing the threats facing animals around the world – habitat loss, hunting, and exploitation – she didn’t remain a detached scientist. Instead, she founded the Jane Goodall Institute, focusing on community-led conservation with the intention of empowering and enabling communities to create wealth without destroying the environment.
Goodall’s approach recognized that protecting wildlife and supporting people go hand in hand. Programs like TACARE (Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education) empowered local communities, addressing healthcare, education, and sustainable livelihoods while restoring forests. According to Forbes’s Doug Melville, her leadership was rooted in empathy for all living things, fostering partnerships and movements rather than imposing solutions:
One of Goodall’s most notable and transformative acts was to give chimpanzees names instead of assigning them numbers. She insisted each primate had its own relationships and emotions with others. By recognizing that they possessed inner lives, she compelled others in her space, and eventually the public at large, to view animals not as data or numbers, but as relatable subjects of concern.
Through Roots & Shoots, she encouraged young people worldwide to care for their communities and the environment. Goodall exemplifies how leaders who care deeply inspire others to take action and build lasting change.
Bias for Optimism
In the face of daunting global challenges, Goodall’s optimism remained unshakeable. She traveled extensively, sharing stories of nature’s resilience, human ingenuity, and the power of youth with audiences in the tens of thousands.
Goodall’s “realistic hope” isn’t naïve presented a deliberate choice to focus on possibility, even while we acknowledge the gravity of environmental threats (I wonder what she would say about the Earth breaching seven of the nine planetary boundaries for sustainable living?).
She emphasized that every action, however small, can ripple outward and create positive impact. By modeling persistent engagement and uplifting others, Goodall demonstrated that hope is not just an emotion, but a tool for overcoming obstacles. Leaders who choose optimism inspire communities to persevere and innovate in the face of adversity.
Calls to action
Jane Goodall’s legacy reminds us that real change begins with curiosity, flourishes through compassion, and endures by choosing hope. Here are three calls to action that we can apply in our everyday worklife:
1. Challenge convention (patiently): making a difference in any field often requires the courage to trust your own observations even when they contradict established wisdom.
2. Turn knowledge into action: true conservation requires addressing human needs alongside environmental protection; when leading change, leaders must be able to highlight how change will benefit everyone (or be honest if it won’t).
3. Lead with hope: leadership can come from anyone, anywhere, when we show up consistently with a message of possibility.
Every effort matters, and together, we can shape a better future for all living things.
