The focus of change management practice in the UN system

The past few years have seen the world undergo a significant increase in the pace and magnitude of change. As noted by the UN Secretary-General, change has become a consistent fixture.

This continuous state of flux needs to be better taken into account for working towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. It has spurred the implementation of the UN 2.0 vision and the Quintet of Change, where driving internal change in the UN is vital for greater external impact – to improve programmatic and operational support to Member States, enabling them to prosper in the twenty-first century and make faster collective progress towards the SDGs.

In parallel, the new change reality is also reflected in UN organizations. Among the 37 organizations surveyed in July 2023 new ways of working, digital transformation, business transformation and culture change were the most common types of transformation occurring. Many of these changes were occurring concurrently. These constant and overlapping changes are straining the UN system. A majority of survey respondents report insufficient change management budgets and high levels of change saturation.

The Quintet of Change has led to some change management activities, yet also reveals gaps in areas such as behavioural science. In addition to transforming the practice of change management, survey respondents say that the pandemic increased awareness of the importance of change management. But as they also report, this awareness by senior leaders and mid-level managers remains insufficient.

What types of organizational transformation and change initiatives are respondents working on?
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The most prevalent transformations ongoing in the UN in July 2023, according to the 103 survey participants who responded to this question are digital transformation (62 per cent), followed closely by business transformation and new ways of working at 61 per cent, as well as culture change at 56 per cent. Organizational alignment rounds up the top five, with learning transformation coming in as a close sixth place. Larger organizations report a different focus than smaller ones (click filters above graph to discover).

How much budget is available for change management?
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Change management budgets don’t seem to match the level or quantity of ongoing transformations, a reality also expressed by participants when describing their change management challenges. Overall, only 41 per cent of respondents report a budget for their change initiative. Among smaller organizations almost half of respondents (49 per cent) indicate the absence of a budget for their change initiatives, whereas only 20 per cent of respondents in larger organizations indicate the same.

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Of the 25 respondents who answered a subsequent question about the budget size of their change initiative, 44 per cent report the budget exceeds $250,000 while almost a third (32 per cent) say it is below $50,000. 

What have been the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic within organizations on change management?
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When asked to what degree the COVID-19 pandemic influenced change management practices, a large majority – more than 80 per cent – of overall survey respondents believe it has influenced their organizations to varying degrees. The 6 per cent who indicated it didn’t are from organizations with less than 5,000 personnel.

Respondents from those smaller organizations are almost evenly split in assessing whether the pandemic influenced change management in their organization to some degree (37 per cent) or a larger degree (32 per cent); whereas 54 per cent of respondents from organizations with more than 5,000 personnel indicate the pandemic influenced change management to some degree and only 18 per cent, to a larger degree.

How has the pandemic influenced change management in your organization and why?

 

Participants who answered an open-ended follow-up question on how the pandemic influenced the practice of change management in their organization shared that it slowed or halted some initiatives, while simultaneously triggering or accelerating others.

As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic also increased awareness of the importance of change management and offered opportunities to leverage and influence change. However, as respondents express here, awareness of the importance of change management is still insufficient across the UN system.

The top types of transformation triggered or accelerated by the pandemic generally correspond to the most prevalent types of transformation previously listed, namely: new ways of working, digital transformation, culture change, business transformation and organizational alignment.

Teleworking is the most frequently mentioned example of change from the pandemic. It also significantly transformed aspects of the change management practice by adding layers of complexity, especially in staff engagement and involvement of key stakeholders in sponsoring change.

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What are the saturation levels for change and transformation in different organizations?

Change saturation refers to the capacity of organizations to handle changes relative to the amount of change occurring. High levels of change saturation significantly impact the speed and outcomes of change and change management. Therefore, as one participant put it, “we have to factor in people’s overall fatigue when it comes to the ambition we can have regarding the amount of change they can digest”.

Change management practitioners who participated in the survey report high levels of change saturation and low change capacity in their organizations: Almost two thirds of respondents (63 per cent) indicate their organization is past the point of saturation, at the point of saturation, or nearing the point of saturation. This is corroborated by the fact that in an open-ended question at the end of the survey change saturation and concurrence of transformations is one of the top change management challenges mentioned by participants.

However, capacity differs greatly by organization size: 80 per cent of respondents from larger UN entities assess their organization as nearing, at or past the point of change saturation, compared to 50 per cent in smaller UN entities. Only 3 per cent of larger entities report having plenty of spare capacity, compared to 17 per cent for smaller entities.

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What has been the impact of the UN 2.0 Quintet of Change on change management?

Across all respondents, the Quintet of Change areas most cited as having led to change management activities is the collapsed category ‘innovation / digital transformation’ at 74 per cent while the least cited one is ‘behavioural science’ at 28 per cent. Together with findings about the skills and experience gap of change management practitioners, this suggests the UN must implement practical pathways to increase the key skills of change agents. 

A greater proportion of change management activities result from data, analysis and communications in smaller UN entities (66 per cent) than in larger UN entities (54 per cent). Conversely, a greater proportion of activities stems from performance-oriented results in larger entities (57 per cent) than in smaller entities (48 per cent).