A few days after 9/11, I was at the World Bank stage-managing an event I had led the design of, working directly with Jim Wolfensohn, then president of the Bank. The atmosphere was understandably raw. During his short speech Wolfensohn did something I had never seen there before. He asked people to hold hands. At that time holding hands was decidedly “un-Bank.”
Then he asked for a moment of silence. People wept openly. What struck me was what happened afterward. Something shifted. The organization became warmer. Counselors were made available in the coming days. People talked differently with one another. I have thought about that moment many times since.
When organizations face disruption, leaders naturally want to talk about where we are going, the new strategy, the new structure… The Plan.
But, often the first job is to acknowledge where people actually are. People cannot always be managed out of uncertainty. Sometimes they have to be led through it.
