The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193. The headquarters of the United Nations is in Manhattan, New York City, and experiences extraterritoriality. Further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states. Its objectives include maintaining international peace and security, promoting human rights, fostering social and economic development, protecting the environment, and providing humanitarian aid in cases of famine, natural disaster, and armed conflict.
The Senior Training Manager of the UN in Brindisi, Italy approached Momentum4 with the challenge of designing a ‘change/transition’ programme, aimed at a targeted population within the UN. With the common scenario often found in large organisations where people can be prone to operate in silos, it was considered that communication at the UN needed to be more effective and accurate, both across the different teams of the organisation and at all levels of the organisation.
The desired outcome of the program as defined by the UN, was to reinforce the ability to create a harmonious environment and to improve the ability to work with others’, by increasing soft skills and collaboration with emotional intelligence. The set of soft skills needed to do this are embedded in the model of Emotional Intelligence with Six Seconds, which was to be at the core of the program.
Momentum4’s strategy was firstly to use the Six Seconds ‘SEI’ Emotional Intelligence Assessment tool to measure the 8 competencies of the model with all of the participants. A 2-day face-to-face training programme was then developed, based on the Six Seconds EI model (Know Yourself, Choose Yourself, Give Yourself) and the 8 competencies:
1-2-1 coaching was then delivered to all participants 2 weeks after the training to de-brief their own assessment. Each participant created a personal development plan that was action and evidence based.
The feedback from the group was excellent, and the desire to create change in their working environment high. People were acting immediately with what they had learnt and putting into practice, the tools and methods from the training. In further conversations with the Senior Training Manager, we are now looking at embedding this learning into all aspects of L&D at the UN.
Based on the success of the work with the UN, Momentum4 were invited to be the first UK Preferred Partner with Six Seconds. Momentum4 continue to work with the UN who are currently looking to embed emotional intelligence into their strategic training plan.
