RWA Program Invaluable to WBG SuccessObiageli Ezekwesili, Vice President, Africa Region

The role of the Respectful Workplace Advisor (RWA) is vital to the WBG—by helping staff and managers resolve workplace issues, they enable each of us to be as productive as possible

in fulfilling the mandate of the WBG—a world free of poverty. At the WBG, we have come together from all over the world for this purpose—this mission. In order to achieve this mission we need to maintain an environment where the goals of the institution are higher than the goals set by each individual; an environment that eschews all behavior that would be undesirable; an environment where the spirit of team draws out the best in everyone—that is the simple definition of a respectful workplace.

This is not an easy task, however, because conflict is a natural occurrence and we are only human. Conflict is present in every workplace, and an institution as di-verse as the WBG has an added challenge of peacefully merging people from all different cultures. Every one of us has to have the tools to be people who are cultur-ally sensitive—to understand that we cannot all be the same, but nonetheless there is a common vision that we all pursue. That is why we are here. When we abandon that cause and focus on the things that divide us we miss our reason for being at

IN THIS ISSUE

1 RWA Program Invaluable to WBG Success

1 Top 10 Easy Tips for Developing & Maintaining Good Working Relationships

2 A Reflection on My Experience as an RWA

3 RWA Singapore Training

3 Release of Ombuds Services and RWA Program 2009 Annual Report

4 Becoming a Conflict Wizard!

5 Bringing Internal Justice Day to the Country Offices

6 RWA Training Updates

7 Internal Justice Day Photos

Vol. 6 | December 2010

Respectful Workplace Advisors (RWA) ProgramHelp Create a Respectful Work Environment in the World Bank Group

Top 10 Easy Tips for Developing & Maintaining Good Working Relationships Connie Bernard, Ombudsman

I’ve been an Ombudsman for almost two years now, and it has been a great ex-perience. I am so appreciative of the diverse and fascinating staff here—bright, dedicated, and engaged in the world around them. I am learning every day—from the colleagues around me, from

visitors to the office, and from our wonderful RWAs. After many conversations with different people about workplace

conflicts, it occurred to me that many sprung from problems which were avoidable. I’ve compiled a list of some common mistakes peo-ple make that may detract from a positive work environment and lead to unintended and unnecessary conflicts. Often times, people aren’t even aware of the impact that certain behaviors have. I would

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RWA Program Invaluable to WBG SuccessContinued from page 1

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2 RWA Network News and Views

the WBG. We all carry with us biases and prejudices, but it is how we overcome them to achieve synergy that matters. The human relationships that we need to be able to foster a highly productive work environment are key to our survival as an institution that remains relevant to the mandate we seek to pursue.

This is why the RWA Program is so important here—to help us maintain the cooperation and positive energy we need to stay focused on our goal. First, the RWAs are charged with the respon-sibility of modeling the behavior we should see in our work environment and

like to know if you agree with these and if there are other mistakes that people make which could be avoided by simply raising awareness. Send us an email at rwa@worldbank.org with your thoughts, and we will follow-up on this topic.

10. Failure to define roles. Managers should normally do this, but col-leagues working together can also sit down and discuss who is doing what if there is any ambiguity which could create tension.

9. Speaking ill of colleagues to others. It almost always gets back and cre-ates distrust.

8. Speaking (or worse, sending emails) in the heat of emotion. If one is an-gry or upset, it always makes sense to become calm and reflect before taking action which one may regret.

7. Failure to greet colleagues! Many people tell me, “X doesn’t even say “good morning” to me. It only takes a second and can have a really pos-itive impact.

6. Neglecting to use manners. Our parents already told us—say please, say thank you, don’t inter-rupt, and apologize if we make a mistake.

5. Standing on hierarchy—“it’s not my job.” Better to help colleagues when they need it.

4. Making assumptions about the mo-tivations of colleagues—give them the benefit of the doubt. We don’t know the full story.

3. Holding a grudge—best to let the small things go.

2. Making jokes, teasing people, mak-ing fun of others—it’s very easy for this behavior to be misunderstood or hurtful, even when well-intended, particularly in our multi-cultural en-vironment.

1. Failure to communicate. Ignoring issues that need to be resolved can lead to escalation. Better to resolve issues early so that little problems don’t turn into big prob-lems. ■

encouraging others to demonstrate this behavior. It is important for the RWAs to stand above the fray and give people the implicit confidence in their role as an objective neutral. The expectations for these role models are quite high.

Second, the RWAs serve as a neu-tral resource enabling colleagues to dis-cuss anything that gets in the way of a positive work environment. They provide a safe avenue for open and honest com-munication helping to resolve issues at the lowest level. Sometimes all it takes is to raise awareness to one party of how certain behaviors make others feel. Even

if the RWA can’t help resolve the issue on their own, they are equipped with the knowledge to direct staff to other appro-priate resources in the WBG.

Management support is key to a high functioning environment. The few times that these inevitable workplace challeng-es in the AFRVP have been brought to my attention I have made every effort to support resolving them. I want to thank the RWAs for their sacrifice; it is not one that can be paid off. But, when we look around and see people really being their best that is a reflection of their hard work. ■

Top 10 Easy Tips for Developing & Maintaining Good Working RelationshipsContinued from page 1

A Reflection on My Experience as an RWAWang Jun, Lead Financial Sector Specialist & Former RWA, China

Serving as an RWA was one of the best things that hap-

pened to me during my career at the World Bank Group. It is with a bit of compunction that I con-fess that I may have benefitted more from the RWA program than my col-leagues that I was supposed to serve. The training I received as an RWA has, I believe, made me a better person than I was before this experience. I could have avoided many unnecessary mistakes over the years had I been exposed to the training earlier. The core values taught--the need to listen and be sensitive and respectful of others’ feelings, the ladder of inference, leadership and negotiation skills, and the need to focus on inter-

3Vol. 6 • December 2010

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Release of Ombuds Services and RWA Program 2009 Annual Report

Ombuds Services released its 2009 Annual Report in August detailing trends in visitor characteristics and issues. The office had its highest number of visitors to date with 345 visitors bringing a total of 556 issues. The RWA Program also

had a busy year with 333 visitors. The most frequent issues raised by visitors included management skills and behavior, interpersonal conflict, misconduct and performance.

This year’s report looked at six institutional is-sues and recommended actions for improvement. Issues included:

• Budget, workload and internal change; • Recruitment, reassignment and selection pro-

cesses;• Treatment of contract employees in Country Of-

fices; • Management Skills of Untagged Managers; • Terms of Employment; and• Retaliation

O M B U D S S E R V I C E S a n d R E S P E C T F U L W O R K P L AC E A DV I S O R S P R O G R A M

Confidential, Impartial, Independent, InformalExplore Solutions…

Annual Report 20

09

click to view report

I was on a Safeguards training program in Guilin, China in March

2010 when I received an encrypted email from a certain Thomas Patrick Zgambo. The subject line said, “RWA – Reply needed”, but I knew that RW stood for Respectful Work-place. I asked around a bit to find out who Thomas Zgambo was, and I quickly found out that he was one of the Om-budsman! I spent the next 5 days feel-ing apprehensive and confused, trying to think back on any events in the office which may have been misconstrued as being disrespectful. As soon as I got back to the office, I was able to read the email and this is what it said,

“Dear Gerardo, As you know, a nomi-nation process was conducted in the Manila country office to nominate new Respectful Workplace Advisors (RWA). Staff were asked to nominate a col-league who they trust and respect to serve as the new RWAs. Your colleagues in your office have sent in their nomina-tions, and you are one of the top nom-inees.” Whew!! All the worrying I went through was all for nothing!

Fast forward to May 2010, and I find myself in clean, cosmopolitan Singapore together with 30 other RWAs for 4 days of training. Most of us are new RWAs with a sprinkling of returning RWAs. I see Bei my fellow Filipino RWA. Then I see Waraporn from Thailand, some-one I meet almost every year as a fellow safeguards specialist. The rest are new to me. We are introduced to the nicest people in the Bank Group, the Ombuds Team—Swinitha Osuri, Odile Rheaume, Fred Temple and Thomas Patrick Zgam-bo. I find myself face to face with the sender of the encrypted email that had me wondering—turns out, Thomas is one of the nicest guys one will ever meet at

RWA Singapore TrainingGerry Parco, Operations Officer & RWA, Philippines

the Bank Group. After an introductory game, we all settle down for some se-rious training. The training team takes us through the details and procedures of RWA-ship. What exactly is an RWA? What can RWAs actually contribute to the office we work in? How about deal-ing with friends we have in the Bank? We all had so many questions to ask. What’s for lunch?!

In the succeeding session, Swinitha introduces us to our real selves. Using the Lewis Model in the Culture Active assessment tool, all of us are classified into three types: linear active, reactive and multi-active. I fell into the multi- active type, turns out that this is the talk-ative, people-oriented, display-your-feel-ings type of person. Reactive people tend to do most of the listening and con-ceal their feelings while linear people are highly rational and use speech to com-

municate ideas. Not everyone ended up in the group they predicted, but in the end, we realized that the exercise helped us better understand ourselves and how we relate to different types of people. The Culture Active exercises helped us sharpen our cultural antenna and learn not to be impulsively judgmental. The next few days are filled with interesting videos, interactive sessions with Fred and Odile, and best of all are the role plays. Role playing may seem corny to some people at first, but when you get right down to actually doing it, you realize that it is the best way to practice really playing the part of an RWA. We switch roles by alternately playing the role of RWA, Staff Member and Observer.

Half the fun of this training was get-ting to mix with some of the best peo-ple in the Bank Group. It is one of the

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Becoming a Conflict Wizard! Taming the Conflict Dragon: Mastering the Obstacles to Collaboration in the Workplace & in Life by Alexander Hiam. Book Review by Katie Wood, Ombuds Services

Interpersonal conflicts continue to rank among the most frequent is-

sues for RWAs and Om-buds Services year after year. This is not surpris-ing as conflict is a natural occurrence among humans, often times amplified by the levels of diversity, stress and passion within the WBG.

In just 70 pages, Hiam does a great job of simplifying the often elusive nature of conflicts and arms readers with the tools to deal with them effectively. The approach is fun and relaxed, equating dealing with

4 RWA Network News and Views

ests rather than getting locked in posi-tions, just to mention a few—are tools we should all possess. The awareness of this knowledge has brought me great benefit in dealing with myself and others in work and in life and will continue to do so in the rest of my life. I feel indebt-ed to my colleagues who felt compelled to share their thoughts and issues with me and gave me the opportunity to apply and hone these skills.

The willingness to put in place a functioning conflict resolution system including the RWA Program and keep investing in it to make it work defines the WBG as one of the best organiza-tions in the world. Every time I hear of abuses taking place elsewhere includ-ing in my former workplace, I feel pained for those experiencing issues without a safe avenue to seek help and lucky that

the WBG is a different place to work. Unfortunately, the RWA services may be under-utilized because not all staff realize that help is available and that going to an RWA could make a differ-ence. Even though RWAs do not have the power—and should not have the power—of investigation and resolution, they are a valuable resource as they are trained to provide neutral advice and are also positioned to point staff to other options available to them depending on the issue.

Approaching an RWA or the Om-budsman should not be taken as a sign of weakness. Even though I was an RWA myself, I approached a fellow RWA on a personal work issue when I needed a sounding board, and I am very glad I did.

Many thanks, and best wishes to all current RWAs. ■

Reflection on My Experience as an RWAContinued from page 2

conflict to taming a dragon, but the les-sons taught are essential to successfully understanding and overcoming conflict.

What is your first reaction when you are face to face with a dragon (aka. Con-flict)? There are 5 different conflict styles:

• Avoid—putting distance between yourself and the other party and re-fusing to address the conflict

• Accommodate—conceding very quickly preferring to let others win and be done with it

• Compete—fighting hard to hold your ground and beat the other party no matter what

• Compromise—accepting less than what you originally wanted by split-ting differences in a fair way

• Collaborate—working together to develop solutions that meet both parties’ interests

The workbook in the back of the book allows you to test your natural conflict

style and advises when to use the different styles. The first 4 styles may be appropri-ate in some situations, but not where rela-tionships and interests are equally impor-tant because in each of these approaches something is lost. The fifth style, collabo-ration, yields the optimum outcome, but it takes skill to successfully collaborate and is not always possible.

The first step toward collaboration is to redefine conflicts as opportunities by shifting the focus from winning to uncov-ering and meeting interests. On the sur-face, conflict may look like a win-lose sit-uation, but if you learn to look below the surface at the underlying reasons behind why each party wants to win, you are like-ly to find a solution that meets both par-ties’ interests. Conflicts are not always about what you think they are about. By focusing on interests, solving a con-flict becomes more like solving a puzzle. Once you know what is important to the other party, you can try to develop a so-lution that meets both of your needs. In fact, getting to that critical information al-lows the conflict to start to solve itself as a few of the pieces fall into place and the road to resolution becomes much clearer.

How do you interrupt the natural ten-dency of a conflict to spiral into a battle over winning? Reflective listening is the first step to taking control of the con-flict and steering it in a win-win direction. This exercise is about putting yourself in the other’s shoes and trying to under-stand what it is that they are really in-terested in. In order to do this, you have to let your defenses down and build the trust of the other party. There are 2 steps to building trust:

• Communicating in a concerned and trusting manner

• Behaving consistently and consider-ately

This can be challenging as it may catch the other party, who likely already has his/her defenses up, off-guard. In almost every conflict, both parties feel like they are defending and the other

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5Vol. 6 • December 2010

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Bringing Internal Justice Day to the Country OfficesOdile Rhéaume, RWA Program Administrator

Internal Justice Day was held Novem-ber 16, 2010 in Washington to help raise staff awareness of the services

available to them for resolving work-place issues. The day was filled with interactive learning games, give-aways with contact information, refreshments, and booths with information about each service that attracted many staff to stop by and learn more about the Internal Justice System (IJS). In addition to the IJS booths, Staff Association, Human Resources, and the Personal and Work Stress Counseling Unit were also there to discuss their services. Throughout the day several training workshops were also held for interested parties to get some deeper learning including Con-flict Happens: What Managers Need to Know to Resolve Workplace Concerns, Preventing and Addressing Workplace Harassment for ACS Staff, and Tech-niques to De-stress.

In an effort to get the country of-fices more involved in IJS Day this year, we asked each RWA in the coun-try offices to gather their colleagues to show the Conflict Resolution System (CRS) video on IJS Day. We have been trying to come up with some ideas

as to how we could in-volve the country offices more fully next year, and we wanted to get some input from RWAs and Country Managers on what would work best in your offices. One idea we had was to develop a short, simple trivia game about the IJS and ask each RWA to have their office play the game after watching the CRS video to make the experience more interactive for coun-try office staff.

As it turns out, we had an RWA who was already thinking along the same lines. Bei Zonaga, RWA in the Manila office, carried out this idea on her own this year, and it sounds like it was a suc-cess. Bei told us “I couldn’t replicate the Wii games and popcorn in HQ…, but I did come up with a game asking trivia questions on the roles of some of the offices involved in CRS/IJS to help reinforce the messages in the video. There were some small prizes (mugs and tote bags with our CAS logos) which I thought made it a fun learning activity.”

Becoming a Conflict Wizard! Continued from page 4

RWA Singapore TrainingContinued from page 3

is attacking. Be prepared for this reac-tion, and give the other party several chances to drop his/her guard and dis-cuss interests. Don’t let the other par-ty’s conflict style and behavior trigger an undesirable reaction from you. This is how conflicts spiral out of control. If you feel yourself getting worked up, take a step back and revisit the issue when you are calm. Physical symptoms such as clenched fists and a tight jaw have a direct connection to your level of calmness.

As an RWA, you can use this knowl-edge when someone comes to you with a conflict by advising the visitor to take a step back and put himself/her-self in the other’s shoes. If appropriate, you can guide the visitor through how to have a conversation about interests. Take advantage of the workshop at the end of the book to learn more about your own behaviors in conflict and help-ful strategies to manage these behav-ioral tendencies. ■

few training programs that mixes IFC and World Bank staff. There were peo-ple from EAP, SAR, MENA, ECA and Headquarters. The dinner party on the first day was such a revelation. We even had a chance to get on the dance floor, and the energy of the group was amaz-ing! Since we were all voted by peers into this position, I dare say that RWAs are a fun and fine group of people to be with. At the end of the training, we

Additionally, we have thought about streaming the workshops mentioned earlier so that interested parties have a chance to take advantage of these learning opportunities. In the past, we have also had a speaker talk on a top-ic related to conflict resolution which could also be streamed to the country offices.

Please send an email to rwa@world-bank.org to let us know how these ideas would work in your offices and if you have other suggestions.

For more about IJS Day, click here, or visit the Bank’s homepage to read the November 22, 2010 Today article. ■

formed the RWA dream catcher using a big ball of string. Everyone express-ing a wish and dream for the group. I have an additional wish for the RWA community—may we all be able to help our fellow colleagues go through their problems, and may we never forget les-sons we learned from our training—em-pathize, validate and summarize. Have fun everyone, and see you in the next training! ■

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6 RWA Network News and Views

RWA Training Updates

Fall training for RWAs was held in Zagreb, Croatia this year. ECA Vice President, Philippe Le Houerou

said in a message to all ECA staff on the RWA Program,

“We want all our staff to work in a comfortable atmosphere where opin-ions are valued, staff are treated with respect and dignity, and people are sensitive to cultural differences.”

Click here, or visit the ECA website to read a related article, “A Good Listener—Key Skill for a Respectful Workplace Ad-visor”, on the ECA training.

2010 RWA Training Summary

Location Dates BasicMid-Term

Singapore May 32 n/a

Croatia October 32 16

Total Trained in 2010 64 16

2011 Anticipated Training Schedule

Location Dates

Washington Basic April 5–8

Midterm April 12–14

Kenya & Senegal

Fall TBD A team of basic training participants in Croatia works together on an exercise to present their idea of respect.

To close the training all the participants gather in a circle to create a dreamcatcher and share their dreams for the RWA Program.

7Vol. 6 • December 2010

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Internal Justice DayNovember 16, 2010

Teams of participants from competing VPUs assemble for a Wii tournament and to learn about

the Internal Justice System (IJS).

Bei Zonaga, RWA in the Manila office, gathered her colleagues to play a short trivia game about the IJS services.

Ombudsman, Connie Bernard, talks with staff passing by the Ombuds Services booth.

Laurence Sage, RWA, joined Swinitha Osuri and Odile Rheaume, RWA Program team, to help pass out

information at the RWA booth.

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Thank you to all of our contributors. Produced and edited by: Katie Wood

For more information on the RWA Program please visit our website at: http://rwa

Questions or comments? Contact us: phone: (202) 458-1058 ~ email: rwa@worldbank.org

Internal Justice DayNovember 16, 2010

Kurt Nemes from the Office of Ethics and Business Conduct spins the Wheel of Information to give staff a chance to answer a question about one of the IJS services.

Meggy Savady hands out coffee mugs and bags to participants in the Ombuds Services trivia game run by Tanisha McGill.

Safura Budukova hands out brochures and cupcakes to visitors stopping by the Peer Review Services booth.