Page 28 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

18 HBR Leader’s Handbook

These attacks caused internal morale to plummet. In addition, an in-
ternal Bank study had just concluded that one-third of the Bank’s projects
were not producing the desired economic results.
Given this crisis of confidence, Wolfensohn realized that he needed to
reestablish a compelling vision that would support the continuation of the
Bank and reenergize the staff. “Reconstruction” and “strengthening the
Western Bloc” were no longer relevant, and the core purpose of broad
“economic development,” while still important, was too vague to resonate
with staff at a personal level or the outside world. Something else was
needed.
Based on active discussions and debates with his senior staff, Wolfen-
sohn decided that the answer was to refocus the Bank on poverty reduction,
an area that an earlier president, Robert McNamara, had first emphasized,
but that had become overshadowed by years of debt crises, structural re-
adjustments, and other development issues. After all, in 1996 poverty was
endemic, with more than 28 percent of the world’s population living in
extreme poverty (less than $1.90 per day, according to the World Bank’s
data). Remedying that dismal reality was an urgent need.
Wolfensohn realized that he couldn’t simply cook up a vision for the
Bank with his senior team and then drop it on everyone. Instead, there had
to be a process of dialogue with stakeholders—listening and testing in a
way that would make them feel that the vision was something that they
had helped create. To do this, he asked Caroline Anstey, his head of com-
munications, to draft an initial vision statement that would capture his
intent to focus the Bank on poverty reduction and then to engage multiple
stakeholders in fleshing it out. The team used the initial draft to solicit
input from clients, government officials, board members, and senior man-
agers. It held focus groups with staff and built group discussions into vari-
ous meetings, off-sites, and leadership events. Wolfensohn himself actively
participated in many of the sessions and regularly reviewed the emerging
vision with Anstey and others.
The result was a phrase that was eventually chiseled in stone on the
walls of the Bank’s headquarters building in Washington, DC: “Our dream
is a world free of poverty.”