CHAPTER 4

The World Economic Forum

Global Leadership Fellows Program

Gilbert J.B. Probst and Eric S. Roland

The modern global arena features a set of unprecedented challenges that are transnational, transcultural, and even transcendental in nature. Finding viable solutions to worldwide environmental degradation, bridging the global divide in access to health care and education, and stabilizing ever-changing geopolitical tensions all require thinking that stretches the boundaries of individual imagination and creativity. These and other intractable issues exceed the capacity of an individual actor or, as history has demonstrated, a single sector. Global issues require multi-stakeholder collaboration, with private, public, and civil society leaders working in conjunction with one another. Indeed, such concerted and collaborative effort offers the greatest promise of enacting transformative, global change.

This cross-sectoral and multi-actor approach to international affairs resides at the core of the World Economic Forum and has served as a strategic signpost for the organization throughout its four decades of existence. In 1971, Klaus Schwab, who founded and continues to lead the Forum, theorized that business enterprises are responsible not only to customers and shareholders but also to governmental and societal institutions, among others.¹ That notion has come to define the World Economic Forum’s purpose. Today, the Forum convenes gatherings, both in-person and virtual, of emerging and experienced leaders from all industries and from every level of political and social arenas, including outstanding academics, artists, religious representatives, philanthropists, and other notable stakeholders, to tackle the important issues of the day.

Since the inaugural World Economic Forum event in Davos, Switzerland, in 1971, multi-stakeholder activity has expanded and accelerated throughout the world. The 21st century has already offered various examples of collaborative efforts between business and civil society, which promise benefits to the economy, to citizen-consumers, and to overall corporate identity.* Institutions worldwide have demonstrated their willingness to shift from unilateral approaches to multi-stakeholder initiatives. Recent decades have proven that leveraging the resources and insight of dissimilar entities can generate powerful input into what is needed most: diverse, original thinking and innovative action. As this idea continues to take hold, the argument that the world finds itself in a “multi-stakeholder era” gains credence. Future global activity will only be more multi-sectoral in nature. As this aligned landscape approaches reality, leaders are needed in every sector who can collaborate in this transnational, multi-sector context.

The World Economic Forum and Lifelong Learning

Lifelong learning is inherent in the mission of the World Economic Forum. The Forum itself is a platform for converting information and data into applicable knowledge and higher-order wisdom to guide a multi-sectoral exchange of ideas and insight related to the global agenda. Through regional and transnational events, gatherings of Global Agenda Council thoughts leaders, internationally relevant projects, and other Forum channels, opportunities are offered to delve into the participants’ particular fields while also gaining vital, cross-sectoral knowledge.

Viewed through another lens, the World Economic Forum represents an education system, gathering experts and generating knowledge, culled through a robust set of convergent and divergent viewpoints, and inviting and encouraging participants to act. By providing opportunities for young leaders, current leaders, and veterans of industry in the public sphere and in civil society, the Forum aims at developing a network of responsible global citizens who act as catalysts of societal change. The World Economic Forum actively involves multi-stakeholder perspectives on global issues to produce a rich learning environment. Ultimately, the organization aims to create an environment that enables leaders from all walks of life to creatively address challenges and realize change on a global scale.

To achieve these academic and education goals, the Forum offers a comprehensive catalog of learning opportunities. This includes creating communities of young global leaders and global shapers and, within the Forum itself, Global Leadership Fellows, all of whom represent the future generation of global leadership. Each community is encouraged to be more than the sum of its component parts. By first understanding the motivations of global business, the engagement of governments, and the interests represented by civil society, and how to leverage them for positive change, these communities, with the support and interaction of the Forum, can develop solutions to key challenges.

Global Leadership Fellows Program

Recognizing the need for collaborative, creative multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral leadership, the World Economic Forum created the Global Leadership Fellows Program (GLFP) in 2005. The GLFP helps emerging leaders work across different sectors and acquire professional tools that can be applied in virtually any setting or context. The GLFP is situated in the Forum’s Geneva headquarters. Switzerland’s neutrality serves as a symbol for exploring and questioning from an objective standpoint. Geneva’s geography provides an ideal and idyllic setting in which Fellows can embrace the life lessons that enable them to become outstanding leaders themselves. Further, the approach of the World Economic Forum as an organization directed toward a global constituency—and guided by a mission to improve the state of the world—provides an ideal environment through which Global Leadership Fellows come to embody the practice of agile, servant leadership by putting the needs of others first (Exhibit 4-1). Responding to the evident need for purpose-driven leaders who espouse humility and adaptability, the GLFP emphasizes the elements of self-awareness, interpersonal skills, effective communication, contextual intelligence, change agility, and a results-driven orientation throughout the entirety of the program.²

Exhibit 4-1.   The Global Leadership Fellows Program: educational, coaching, and mentoring elements.

Abbreviations: CEIBS, China Europe International Business School; LBS, London Business School; INSEAD, formerly known as the Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires.

Fellowship Selection Process

Fellows are selectively chosen from applicants in their mid-career phase who demonstrate their desire to use their leadership potential to serve society. Each year, approximately Global Leadership Fellows are ultimately offered positions from a candidate pool of more than 6,000 applicants. Applicants have at least 6 years of professional work experience, including a record of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary work within and across government, business, and civil society. Through the submission of a curriculum vitae and a written motivation statement, candidates must initially provide evidence of compliance with the requirements of specific World Economic Forum positions while also exhibiting leadership potential as well as a broad intellectual background reflected, at minimum, through the possession of a master’s degree or equivalent from a major university. Following this initial screening, a narrowed list of candidates participates in a virtual interview process, from which a handful of applicants are offered the opportunity for in-person screening. Prior to those office-based interviews, candidates complete the Hogan High-Potential Report, which identifies those most aligned with the future leadership needs of the Forum. Utilizing baseline business competencies, the report provides insight into the potential of a candidate as a World Economic Forum employee. Onsite, candidates write an essay elucidating a current, global issue; take part in an emotional intelligence test; and interview with an array of Forum staff, including a human resources staff member, representatives of the position’s team, current Fellows, the GLFP dean, and the senior Forum directorate.

Program Design

The fellowship is a 3-year commitment, during which time Fellows assume full-time, community, or initiative management positions within the World Economic Forum, earn postgraduate credits in leadership studies, and are mentored by leaders from various sectors.

Working at the Forum

The core of GLFP is a full-time position at the World Economic Forum. Fellows leave their current employment to work in Geneva, New York, Beijing, or Tokyo, and are integrated into all Forum activities by taking positions with the organization. Here are comments from Fellows about their work experiences:

“As a Knowledge Manager, I work with groups of experts from around the world to curate content that aims to provide new perspectives and solutions on pressing global issues. In addition, I collaborate in-house to connect experts’ ideas with agendas driven by businesses and regional partners.”—Isabel de Sola, Global Agenda Councils

“As a Senior Manager of the Global Shapers community, I lead a community of exceptional young shapers in the age group of 20 to 29 to drive local impact leveraging global insights. I design strategies and execute in clinical fashion to help my team achieve their mission in South Asia and help the Global Shapers Community achieve their global vision. At the same time I co-create processes that will help all the internal and external stakeholders.”—Vijay Raju, Global Shapers Community, South Asia

“Contributing to the Technology Pioneer and Global Growth company programs, I am in charge of identifying and integrating some of the most innovative, entrepreneurial and thought-provocative business leaders. Representing emerging technologies and new markets, they bring diversity, opportunities, and drive to the global Forum community.”—Marjorie Buchser, Knowledge Integration New Champion Communities

“As part of the Membership Team, I am responsible for building the African membership community while improving the regional value proposition. It is imperative that the Forum’s African membership base is representative of the African business community and that they are engaged to design Africa’s role in the new global economy.”—Marius Hugo, Middle East and Africa Membership

Postgraduate Education

The program has a second component. The Fellows participate in a “2 + 1” year professional program designed to develop the next generation of global leaders committed to improving the state of the world. Academic credits are earned through modules conducted in partnership with leading academic institutions during the first 2 years, including the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, London Business School, the French graduate school INSEAD, and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS). During the third year, Fellows participate in coaching mentoring activities while also developing and leading a series of Forum-relevant taskforces. These modules result in a master’s degree in advanced studies in global leadership.

During the 3-year experience, Fellows dedicate 2 weeks to a classroom-experiential social impact module that explicitly provides both design- and systems-oriented learning opportunities. In conjunction with the Wharton School, Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and the design consultancy firm IDEO, Fellows engage with a variety of thought leaders around issues of poverty, unemployment, homelessness, disaster relief, healthy living, obesity, and others. These discussions provide an opportunity to delve into the complex intricacies of each topic while also mapping the interconnectedness of the broader system. Thus, Fellows develop insight into the root causes and challenges involved in resolving such issues. Discussions are complemented with visits to and collaborations with various organizations, meeting with leaders and clients, and providing assistance through targeted projects and in an applied manner, further underscoring the learning process. The intrinsic flexibility of the program curriculum enables Fellows to tackle the most pressing, current concerns affecting major metropolitan areas while also exploring the structural elements that explain the reality for such locales. By the conclusion of the social impact modules, Fellows have journeyed from “egosystem” to “ecosystem,” exploring their individual effect vis-à-vis their local and global context.

Interactions with Leaders

The program has a third component. Through interactions with the most important leaders from around the world and across all sectors, the Fellows observe global leadership in action. The GLFP provides the Fellows with current and past examples of lived, experienced leadership and facilitates “face-to-face” conversations with notable leaders from all sectors and geographies. It is not unusual for a Fellow to have more than a dozen encounters offered on an annual basis—from leading corporate executives to civil society visionaries to the highest ranking political officials worldwide. These interactions offer a unique insight into the trials and tribulations of the leadership journey. Such regular discussions, coupled with personal, introspective reflection that is a hallmark of the program, set Fellows on the path toward discerning, lifelong learning. They are afforded the many vantage points by which to judge a successful leadership life and then provided the space to practice it on a daily basis.

A key aspect of the GLFP is coaching and peer mentoring. Fellows benefit from conversations with professional coaches as well as a cadre of cohort Fellows. The dual-stream process allows for individual transparency and objective assessment, seeding the opportunity for individual behavior change and developing the habit of lifelong learning. Through peer mentorship, the Fellows learn to coach and guide one another through the complex, transnational issues in which they are immersed through their professional attachment. Such guidance resonates as particularly significant in light of the aforementioned, outsized, global information database. Peers gain the skills to serve as vital arbiters between individuals and ambiguous information, encouraging veritable growth over the long-term. Such professional companionship can pay serious dividends. In the entrepreneurship arena, such mentors, or “personal enablers,”³ can mean the difference between an idea getting off the ground and resting in peace. As the lifelong learning concept establishes itself with some permanence, the need for reliable, objective mentors increases. The need for others to journey with individuals who can strengthen competence and confidence—and make sense of seemingly intractable issues and challenges—intensifies. Further, the mentor model serves as a nontraditional version of workforce development, equipping individuals to channel effort in order to become thriving employees and, as demanded by the global marketplace, informed information entrepreneurs. Over time, the Fellows assume responsibility for one another’s ongoing professional and personal development.⁴

Experiential Lessons

In addition to the three major program components, the 3-year tour includes a “crucible” week in the mountains, complete with an intensive negotiation practicum and sessions dedicated to the subtleties of pursing a collective mission. These experiential lessons serve as readily usable ones, as GLFP graduates identify the insight from that week as particularly meaningful. Together, the program components help the Fellows develop into well-rounded leaders who can interact with people from multiple sectors, regions, and cultures. Furthermore, the Forum provides the Fellows with the capacity to maintain a sense of agency amidst complexity, a conviction that they can effect change in the most multidimensional of situations by identifying and focusing their energies, and their teams’ energies, on the area where they can have a genuine impact.

Program Impact

Various assessments are regularly conducted with the Fellows to monitor progress and development impact. Measurements take place on two levels and are supported by various measurement tools (Exhibit 4-2):

• Individual level: Assessments and the dean’s evaluations are based on observations and feedback collected throughout the organization. These assessments provide regular, individual feedback to Fellows on a personal level, providing insight into areas of ongoing development. Some feedback elements are provided by external consultants and are solely available to the individual Fellows, whereas other data are provided through the GLFP office.

• Institutional level: Data are gathered through the aggregated related to all Fellows, providing trend observations and assessments related to the overall success of the GLFP.

Exhibit 4-2.   Global Leadership Fellows Program measurement tools.

The insight and experience garnered through the GLFP reveals that the training serves as a readily applicable, academic-experiential bridge for Fellows. Close monitoring at all stages of the program indicates that fellows consistently progress on several measures of collaboration, adult development, and leadership.

Following their 3-year participation and through the aforementioned assessments, an exhaustive, 360-degree review, which incorporates feedback from peers as well as mentors,, and a concluding self-analysis,* Global Leadership Fellows report having availed themselves of designing and executing activity in a true multi-stakeholder environment, gaining “a multi-sector, multi-discipline, and multi-regional perspective,” acting with a more systemic viewpoint and breaking away from a more traditional, “siloed” mindset.⁵ In addition to sharpening their understanding around these concepts, the Fellows live the experience of stakeholder management and leadership by virtue of their professional posts as community managers or equivalent within the World Economic Forum and thus practicing the cooperative mantra exercised by the organization. Reflective of the world stage, they note their increased comfort with the collaborative nature of work, citing their work as “builders of networks or communities.”⁶ The Fellows pinpointed the complexity and ambiguity facing their own work as critical challenges, in parallel with the environment of external actors engaged with Forum activity, not unlike the global environment.⁷ Further, the GLFP assessment serves as a proxy for discerning the learning experience of external Forum participants, most of whom take advantage of the Forum’s educational resources, including sessions at events, Forum Academy, Global Agenda Councils, and Forum projects.

Close attention is paid also to the evolution of the Fellows in line with the adult development stages of maturity or the “minds at work” adult development methodology. Created by developmental psychologist Robert Kegan, the framework provides a means by which to evaluate the progress of individuals with respect to their growth in self-awareness and systemic awareness. Close monitoring at all stages of the program, with extensive surveys at its outset and conclusion, reveals that more than half of the Fellows move from stage 3 (socializing mind) to stage 4 (self-authoring mind) over the course of the GLFP journey** (Exhibit 4-3). Such progress reflects the success of the program in facilitating the movement of Fellows through stages at an accelerated rate.⁸ Additionally, participants in the program demonstrate increased capacity with respect to three key dimensions of leadership development: leadership of self, leadership within organizations and collaborative systems, and leadership within a global context. Through rigorous qualitative and quantitative reporting, the Fellows demonstrate that because of their professional-academic arrangement, they are equipped to navigate—and excel in—each aspect.

Exhibit 4-3.   The “minds at work” methodology of Robert Kegan’s adult development theory (stages 3, 4, and 5).

On a biennial basis, and in collaboration with a Harvard University–based research team, assessments are conducted on the capacity of Fellows for “meaning making” as well as their ability to handle complexity. Developmental interviews are conducted with the Fellows right after joining and at the end of the program. The Fellows are given feedback on their individual results, which is followed up by the dean and by their coaches. In the end, an overall comparison is made with the conclusions about the development of the Fellows.

Each set of interviews is analyzed by Robert Kegan’s research team based on the constructive developmental theory to determine whether or not the way that the Fellows make sense of their personal and professional experiences become more complex over the years. The Fellows are ranked based on where they stand regarding three key development stages of the increasing complexity in adult meaning-making: socializing mind, self-authoring mind, and self-transforming mind.

Results of the Report: Excerpt from the 2009 Summary of the Results of the 2006 Cohort

Developmental growth among the Fellows was remarkable in two ways. First, the fact that nearly every Fellow demonstrated transformational change suggests that their experiences over the 3 years were richly rewarding. Second, the rate of growth was very positive, with at least three Fellows making fairly large gains of almost half (.04) a stage or more.. While only one of these 11 Fellows constructed experience as complexly at the self-authoring mind at the outset of the program, five of the 11 did so at its end. While only four of 11 constructed experience at the beginning of the program in a fashion closer to self-authoring than socializing, by the end of the program nine of 11 were doing so.

These gains are somewhat exceptional within our research data, where trends have showed a longer time span for similar gains in developmental capacity. Specifically, the scores represented in Exhibit 4-4 indicate the following:

• Eighty-two percent of the Fellows’ meaning-making became more complex over the 3 years at the World Economic Forum.

• None of the Fellows demonstrated meaning-making that was less complex than the third stage or more complex than the fourth stage of adult development in 2006 or 2009.

• Fifty percent of the Fellows whose meaning-making was dominated by the underlying principles of the third stage in 2006 evolved to be dominated by underlying principles of the fourth stage in 2009

Conclusion

Today’s most pressing international issues transcend simple binary decision making and instead tap into the deepest reserves of both individual energy and collective commitment. Amidst a global backdrop that features both intricacy and uncertainty and that limits the capacity of individual actors, collaborative action serves as a compelling strategy. Through deliberately arranged partnerships, those in the public, private, and nonprofit spheres stand to mutually benefit while also positively shaping the global agenda. By accumulating unique experience and perspectives, collaboration represents the most viable means of generating critical solutions to the world’s concerns.

Exhibit 4-4.   Developmental scores from interviews.

Delivering such cooperative efforts requires leadership that can see beyond one sector.. Heads of organizations, corporate or otherwise, alongside societal leaders must demonstrate the willingness to engage the dissimilar insight of altogether different sectors and discern what is most valuable. In addition to executing multi-sectoral practices, leaders must guide others through a decidedly systemic lens: challenges are best addressed as part of a system rather than piecemeal. The profound nature of economic, political, and social challenges necessitates simultaneous understanding of the “micro” and the “macro.” Inspiring innovative action emerges from leaders accounting for micro-decisions at individual institutions within their immediate sphere as well as the broader, macro-level, and then finding solutions that resonate across sectors and levels.

Indeed, the demands on today’s leaders are numerous. The shifting dynamics and growing complexity of the international system serve as a clarion call for lifelong learning systems that make sense of the global reality and equip leaders to probe creative solutions. In the face of ambiguous information, such systems ought to provide space for reflection and introspection as well as provide a platform for creative application across sectors and geographies. In addition, lifelong learning itself should serve to encourage further learning and continual development. That is, learning systems should serve an inherently perpetual function. Doing so would provide leaders and citizens with an unquestionable advantage: an endless desire to fully question, explore, and develop.

Notes

1. World Economic Forum. (2009) A Partner in Shaping History: The First 40 Years. Geneva: World Economic Forum, p. 7.

2. Swisher, V. (2012). Becoming an Agile Leader. Minneapolis: Lominger International.

3. Booz & Company. (2011). “Accelerating Entrepreneurship in the Arab World.’ Geneva: World Economic Forum. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_YGL_AcceleratingEntrepreneurshipArabWorld_Report_2011.pdf.

4. Millar, R. (2013). “Getting Personal: The World Economic Forum and the Power of Coaching,” Developing Leaders: Executive Education in Practice, Issue 10: 42–48.

5. Khurana, R. and Baldwin, E. (2013). The World Economic Forum’s Global Leadership Fellows Program. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, p. 6

6. Ibid.

7. Millar, “Getting Personal.”

8. Millar, R. (2012). “Global Leaders for Tomorrow,” Developing Leaders: Executive Education in Practice, Issue 6: 45–50; Khurana and Baldwin, The World Economic Forum’s Global Leadership Fellows Program.

* One such example of an effort made possible through the collaboration of the private sector, government, and civil society is the creation of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, an organization whose aim is to utilize “partnership, transparency, constant learning, and results-based funding.” (For more information, go to http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/about/.)

* At the conclusion of the GLFP, the Fellows complete an introspective self-assessment, describing various aspects of their individual journey, including responsibilities; achievements; lessons learned; skills, attributes, and behaviors; and development needs. The final report is reviewed with the Fellows’ coaches as well as the dean.

** Literature on the methodology indicates that fewer than 10% of all leaders evaluated reach stage 5 (self-transforming mind), which is exemplified by leaders who enable themselves, their organizations, and their surrounding systems to realize success. Those who do evolve into this stage usually do not do so before midlife, in contrast to the average GLF cohort age (early 30s). The challenges associated with reaching the self-transforming phase underscore the serious need for continual, lifelong learning that can enable leaders to reach stage 5.