One year of saying yes: Lessons in outcomes and change, echoes from Ulysses

By Lisandro Martin

James Joyce ended his book Ulysses with a single word that reverberates through literature: yes. Not a casual yes, but one of affirmation, of life, of possibility. As the World Bank Group’s Outcomes Department marks its first year, that same word feels like the truest way to describe our journey.

When we set out a year ago, we knew the task ahead was ambitious. Our goal was to shift the World Bank Group’s culture from counting outputs to living outcomes. We did not imagine it would be easy. Change rarely is. But step by step, we found ourselves saying yes in ways both big and small. And, like Joyce’s wandering characters, we discovered that the journey itself teaches lessons: that meaning emerges gradually, through detours, reflections, and the courage to keep moving forward.

We said yes to a new paradigm. The outcome reflex—that instinct to constantly ask, are we achieving results that matter for people?—is not a rule written into a manual. It is a habit we are slowly learning together. In stock-takes, in strategy discussions, in country dialogues, we are beginning to see colleagues pause and ask the question. That pause is small but powerful. It signals a new reflex in the making. For example, we now hold regular stock-takes of World Bank Group corporate targets, where operational teams bring evidence and insights to help keep us on course toward outcomes. Lesson one of change: Like Molly Bloom’s meander through Dublin in Ulysses, culture shifts gradually through small affirmations that add up to transformation.

We said yes to new tools. Artificial intelligence (AI), once seen as a distant reality, is already shaping how we work. From analyzing hundreds of project reports to identifying learning patterns to building simple text-based dashboards that help teams connect dots across portfolios, we are discovering what it means to take an “AI-native” approach to outcomes. These tools are not perfect, nor are they a substitute for judgment, but they expand our imagination of what is possible. Scoresight, for instance, now taps into the institution’s Knowledge Bank in seconds to suggest what and how to measure project results, accelerating a process that once took weeks. Lesson two of change: As in Joyce’s stream of consciousness, innovation advances by trial, error, and discovery; imperfect, unfinished, yet vital. 

We said yes to new standards. With the redesigned World Bank Group Scorecard, which includes 22 indicators across 15 outcome areas, we gave ourselves a compass. Jobs, poverty, climate, and private sector engagement now sit side by side, measured not in isolation but as parts of one story. This is still a work in progress, but it has already shifted conversations across the organization with senior management, with the Board, and with teams in the field. 

The impact is tangible. In 2025, the World Bank Group moved to the top of the Publish What You Fund Transparency Index, a recognition that standards and openness can go hand in hand. Lesson three of change: Like the structure hidden beneath Ulysses’ seeming chaos, standards bring coherence to what might otherwise be overwhelming.

This change matters, perhaps now more than ever. In a world of growing uncertainty, with climate shocks, fragile debt situations, pressures on jobs, and inequality, development institutions are being asked not just to do more, but to prove they are making a difference in people’s lives. Outputs and activities, while necessary, are no longer enough. The shift to outcomes is how we keep ourselves honest, relevant, and impactful. It is our way of navigating the complexity of the present, just as Joyce’s characters wandered through Dublin’s streets searching, questioning, and gradually revealing that what seems ordinary can be transformative. In our case, the transformation lies in holding ourselves accountable not for what we do, but for what endures.

And, perhaps most importantly, others said yes too. 

Colleagues across the World Bank Group said yes by weaving outcomes into their daily work. I have seen task teams experiment with new approaches in country programs and managers embrace outcome-focused reviews even when the data is incomplete. Clients and shareholders said yes by asking us to help them strengthen their own capacity for outcome measurement, from ministries in Benin to discussions in Argentina, and through new partnerships with Princeton, Bocconi, and the Cote d’Ivoire School of statistics. Development partners said yes by working with us to harmonize indicators and by rallying around the Jobs Council, turning what could have been fragmented efforts into collective momentum. Lesson four of change: Like Joyce’s polyphonic chorus of voices, lasting reform requires many yeses, not one solitary affirmation but a collective one.

Yet none of this is finished. A year in, we are less at the destination than at the opening of a path. And that is perhaps the greatest teaching of all: Lesson five of change is humility. Outcomes are not achieved by decree but by repeated practice, by habits that evolve, and by imagination that dares to say yes. Like Ulysses, our work resists neat endings; it is an unfolding journey that rewards persistence, patience, and attention to detail.

Joyce knew that “yes” is the word that holds the future. Bloom’s final soliloquy closes with the words, “and yes I said yes I will Yes.” That is how we close our first year. Not with finality, but with humility, gratitude, and a commitment to keep saying yes.