UNITED NATIONS ASIA PACIFIC OFFICE STRIVES FOR ‘BEST PRACTICE’
In the beautiful and tranquil surroundings of the Veranda Resort at Hua Hin, on the beach front of the Gulf of Thailand, (some 2 ½ hours from bustling Bangkok), 40 key staff from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) were engaged with Australian Corporate Challenge (ACC) in a 3 day retreat and conference.
(ACC) led by Chief Executive Officer Dr Garry Tester, Programs Coordinator Jacqui Finnegan, Director Jennifer Clay and Mentors Ryan Harding, Margaret Thompson and Kieran McDowell delivered 3 exhaustive and rewarding days of leading edge programs for (APRO) to build a Charter of aspirational behaviours, enhance communication, build team work and encourage collegiate spirit with a multi-cultural staff, spanning 16 Nationalities.
Eight teams were selected to ensure some friendly rivalry was sustained when working through the experiential learning activities and winning points were keenly sought throughout the retreat in a tight competition to the very end.
With such a strong group of professional staff keen to be involved in robust communication, the results from the retreat enabled (APRO) to develop an outstanding Charter of values and behaviours moving forward in 2012 with a shared mandate for all.
The Pipeline activity involving planning, risk management, budgeting, achieving set objectives and time management allowed a thrilling conclusion to the teams competition and the winning prize being copies of the bestselling book by Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture, summing up his overview of Life which was a true metaphor for (APRO) “We can’t change the hand we are dealt in life, but only how we play it”.
The staff feedback also confirmed this premise as (APRO) moves forward, dedicated to helping the ‘at risk’ populations of Asia Pacific with one delegate writing “I have learnt so much about myself and how it impacts on others, now it is up to me to make sure my team work behaviours are in line with our Charter, thank you ACC for the start of my new journey”.
