ABSTRACT
When I first started working at the United Nations, I would often ask my colleagues around the world whether they could meet my proposed deadlines for particular deliverables, and they would invariably say yes. Then, when the deadlines came and I did not receive what I expected them to send, I would be genuinely confused and upset. Finally, my boss had to explain to me that my colleagues in some of our national offices would consider it to be inappropriate to say no to me, and therefore they would always say yes to anything I asked, regardless of whether they had any intention of ever fulfilling my requests. If I wanted to actually obtain what I needed, I would need to find a different way of communicating with my team.
