HOW TO SUCCEED IN THE UN

First enlist support to succeed in the UN.

Force of personality or position or intellect will not bring change in the UN or help you succeed.

The way I went about making my views known in the UN guaranteed I was immediately ‘isolated.'

In business, as a professional I had to make quick and dramatic change aimed at strengthening the organization and improving its effectiveness and operations quickly.  Choosing conflict over harmony was good in business as long as the end result was good for business and the customer.  However, when I joined the UN with that ethos, which was exactly the wrong approach for UNness.  I was working in what I thought was the best interests of the UN.  However, I was doing the right thing in the wrong way.

Therefore, I learned the hard way that you need to enlist support inside the organization before you start trying to be a change agent.  The UN lingo for this is "networking".  If you think, you are going to make change happen simply by force of personality, position, or intellect you then had better think again.  You need to choose harmony over conflict, rule number one. You also need to develop a survival strategy determining how you can exist within the UN or risk being fired or transferred to a remote location.  It is a pity that with this form of culture, good ideas from people with deep smarts are thrown asunder and never get any attention in the UN and or its allied agencies.  Of course, the bigger mistake that I made was to maintain my business astuteness until the day I retired from UNICEF.  Thinking back though, I am happier that I fervently did not change my beliefs. What gets you ahead in the UN is not know-how but know-who. The private sector ethos I experienced: what you know mattered more than who you know.

HRM now becomes an important sector for spotting any failure in any part of the organization where staff are denied recognition for good performance that goes unrecognized and sometimes punished. Of course, the recipe is straightforward in principle but hard to provide in practice without the support of top management.  Therefore, top management must take the lead to convey the message in the UN and its agencies, that to succeed in the UN that staff do not have to suppress or hide good ideas for fear of oppressive behavior of any supervisor.  Occasionally, the Internal Audit department may undertake a human-relations audit with the assistance of HRM to ensure a clean slate of HRM practices throughout the organization.

Comments

[rohini de silva]

very good article and very true. Recent studies in UNICEF have also confirmed this culture. However,to succeed it is important to understand organization culture and adjust oneself accordingly and also know to manage upwards. That is one of the competencies we all need to understand better. Once that is understood, networking is an imperative and through this change happens.The big challenge is to create an atmosphere of trust to speak freely.There are conscious efforts to work on this... best regards

[Merrill]

Excellent feedback, especially about managing upwards and understanding organization culture. For success in any organization any person must respect their peers, their subordinates and supervisors and do their fair share of work. Yes, trust and freedom of speech even moves nations.