Foundational aspects of the change management practice in the UN system

Successful change management involves a series of foundational elements and good practices. This includes the co-creation of change management strategies that apply appropriate change management models, frameworks and methodologies for the right context. It also involves working with key sponsors and influencers of change through a variety of interventions, including coaching, training and sharing good practices across an organization.

These foundational elements are applied inconsistently across survey participants and organizations. Particularly worrisome from a change management perspective is the low level of systematic use of models and frameworks, the lack of involvement of key stakeholders, the dearth of project-specific change management strategies, and the insufficient sharing of good practices.

When it comes to the use and application of change management building blocks, survey results highlight the significance of organizational size and of whether a practitioner is certified in change management.

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Is there an overarching change management strategy?

An organization-wide change management strategy offers vision and guidance and should be in place for all organization-wide transformations. Considering the commitment to UN 2.0 and the number of ongoing transformations within the UN system, it is worth noting that only 17 per cent of survey respondents indicate the presence of an organization-wide change management strategy. 

Eighteen per cent of participants indicated that such a strategy is under development. That proportion is markedly higher in smaller UN entities (22 per cent) than in larger entities (13 per cent). However, it is still startling that almost one-third (32 per cent) of respondents report the absence in their organization of an overarching change management strategy. It is also surprising that 30 per cent indicate they are not aware whether such in-house strategy exists.

Is there a change management strategy for the current project?
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Many reasons could explain the absence of organization-wide change management strategies, including the absence of organization-wide change initiatives. However, the absence of a project-related change management strategy is harder to justify.

Only 56 per cent of respondents report the existence of a change management strategy for the main project to which they are assigned. This number is lower for smaller UN entities where only 46 per cent of respondents are aware of a change management strategy for their project. This number is 72 per cent in larger UN entities. Seventeen per cent of all respondents say there is no project-related change management strategy. It is worth noting that 31 per cent of practitioners from smaller entities report a strategy being under development, whereas 13 per cent do in larger entities.

Change management certification also plays a role in respondents’ answers: when grouping the presence and the development of a project-related strategy, 86 per cent of certified respondents report a strategy, compared to 74 per cent of non-certified respondents. 

To what extent are organizations applying change management models, frameworks and methodologies?
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Models, frameworks and methodologies bring cohesion to change management activities. They are essential for effective change management, particularly in highly diverse cultural, professional and geographic settings. However, only 26 per cent of all survey respondents use models or frameworks for every project. This proportion sees a significant variation when organizational size is factored in: 38 per cent of respondents from UN entities with more than 5,000 personnel use a model or framework for each project, whereas only 15 per cent do in UN entities with less than 5,000 personnel. 

Conversely, when we combine the “sometimes, not often, never” answer options, almost half of all respondents (45 per cent) rarely or never apply models, frameworks and methodologies. The proportion rises to 54 per cent for respondents from smaller entities compared to 33 per cent for their colleagues from larger entities. Notably, 44 per cent of respondents from smaller organizations report applying these foundational elements only “sometimes”.

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Change management certification is also a sizable factor in applying models, frameworks and methodologies: 82 per cent of certified respondents apply them to every project or almost every project, whereas only 38 per cent of uncertified respondents do.

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What are the most used models, frameworks or methodologies?

While models, frameworks and methodologies are fundamental for successful change management, a “one-size-fits-all” approach is ineffective. Given the profile diversity of UN change management practitioners and UN entities, it is unsurprising that 60 per cent of survey participants who do use a change management model or framework, implement a hybrid model rather than staying within one single model.

However, participants from entities larger than 5,000 personnel rely less on hybrid models than those from entities with less than 5,000 personnel, 51 per cent vs 61 per cent. They are twice as likely to rely on one of the leading industry models, Prosci, (59 per cent) than their counterparts from smaller entities (26 per cent). This proportion increases to 68 per cent for respondents with a change management certification, compared to 20 per cent for uncertified respondents, regardless of organizational size. 

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Is change management training available?

Change management is a discipline in its own right. Stakeholders with the most active role in managing change will likely require training to effectively champion change in general, and in relation to specific change initiatives. It is therefore noteworthy that more than 40 per cent of respondents do not offer training to senior leaders and people managers.

It is also remarkable that 36 per cent of respondents report they or their organization offer training to “anyone interested”, while only 29 per cent offer it to senior leaders. This may be related to rather low levels of awareness of the importance of change management, as uncovered here, and warrants the collection of additional insights.

In contrast, 41 per cent of respondents who hold a change management certification indicate they or their organization offer training to senior leaders and people managers, while only 22 per cent of their uncertified colleagues offer it to senior leaders and 33 per cent to people managers.

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To what extent are change practitioners involving key stakeholder groups?

Along with change management practitioners, senior leaders, people managers and local personnel are key to the success of any change initiative. 

The willingness of senior leaders to articulate the vision for, embrace and role-model change is essential. Their support and engagement with staff are critical for effective change management. While their levels of involvement understandably depend on the initiative and its scope, it is striking that 21 per cent of all respondents report not involving senior leaders or involving them very little. It is also worth noting certified change management practitioners (52 per cent) are much more likely to highly involve senior leaders than their uncertified colleagues (32 per cent).

People managers – mid-level managers – are indispensable for adopting change. Their involvement in change management activities should always be high. Therefore, it is striking that only 22 per cent highly involve people managers in change management and that 27 per cent involve them very little or not at all. While proportions are somewhat impacted by size of an organization, certification status makes no difference. According to participants, the COVID-19 pandemic created “massive, overwhelming increase in responsibilities of middle management to address radically different ways of working and staff expectations,” which could help explain these results.

General staff and local personnel often hold the longest tenure in an office and over time are exposed to the largest amount of change in their local setting over time. Involving them in change management activities is therefore paramount. It is worth noting that almost 40 per cent of survey respondents describe involving local personnel in change management not at all or very little. Exactly half of respondents from smaller organizations cite a medium level of involvement while 39 per cent of respondents from larger organizations do. Only 11 per cent of respondents from small UN entities report high involvement, in comparison to 21 per cent of respondents from larger UN entities. Certified change management practitioners are more than twice as likely (28 per cent) as their uncertified counterparts (12 per cent) to highly involve local personnel and are less likely to not involve them, or involve them very little (32 per cent) than their uncertified counterparts (42 per cent). 

Kinds of interventions used to support relevant stakeholders
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A set of key interventions are recommended to successfully support stakeholders through the change journey. According to all survey respondents, briefings are by far the most used of these interventions to support senior leaders (89 per cent) and people managers (79 per cent) in their role as change management sponsors and supporters. Fully 97 per cent of change management practitioners in larger UN entities use them to support senior leaders and 86 per cent, to support people managers. Training, the second most frequent intervention selected by participants, is used by 30 per cent of respondents with senior leaders and by 55 per cent with middle managers, with very little variation by organizational size or certification status.

However, considering the high demand for coaching of senior leaders fielded by the UNLOCK team, it is surprising that less than a quarter of all respondents (24 per cent) report using coaching to support senior leaders. This may correlate to the coaching skill gap identified in the People of Change Management section. While there is no significant difference in use of coaching by organizational size, 40 per cent of certified change management practitioners use that intervention, compared to only 14 per cent for their uncertified counterparts. 

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Sharing of best practices in change management

Sharing lessons learned and good practices from past and ongoing change management initiatives and experiences is a useful way of ensuring the continuity of institutional memory and the success of future change initiatives. Not sharing them significantly robs change management practitioners and all other key stakeholders of important opportunities.

From that perspective, it is concerning that more than half of respondents indicate that best practices are not shared across their organizations. While there are no significant differences in responses according to size of organization, it is worth noting that 42 per cent of certified change management practitioners say best practices are not shared, whereas as 55 per cent of their uncertified colleagues report the same. 

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How are good practices shared across your organization?

The responses of 32 participants who answered this open-ended follow-up question offered a glimpse into knowledge-sharing and management practices. The most prevalent practices are themselves a good practice: the grouping of workshops/training/coaching, mentioned by almost half of participants (15), followed by change agent networks (14 mentions) and an online repository (12 mentions). 

The foundational elements described in this section indicate the maturity of change management in an organization. Survey results point to an overall low level of change management maturity across UN organizations. Results also illustrate that larger organizations and those who employ certified change management practitioners are more likely to rate themselves higher on the maturity scale. 

For a deeper dive into the findings around change management maturity,
go to the next chapter