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The UN Lab for Organizational Change and Knowledge (UNLOCK)
A project of the United Nations System Staff College, UNLOCK guides, connects and empowers change management professionals across the UN system. We support senior leaders, people and project managers to lead complex changes and support UN entities in establishing change management as a standard practice.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls upon all stakeholders – the UN included – to transform the way we work. To become nimbler and more effective, the UN is developing and scaling new approaches that promote agility, integration and cohesion – all part of a wider transformation in methods and practices towards a UN 2.0. This transformation requires a significant shift in mindset, practices and structures. The UN system must ensure that its personnel are equipped with the right mix of skills and capacities to think, innovate and deliver as one. It needs to adapt its posture and approach continually to remain relevant in the increasingly volatile environments where it operates. But is the UN system ready for change?
As a direct response to the call for change and transformation, the United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC) established UNLOCK in 2015. By placing innovation, collaboration, leadership and staff engagement at its core, UNLOCK aims to shift how the UN system learns, thinks and works.
What we do at UNLOCK
Under the auspices of UNLOCK, the Staff College offers a set of interventions designed to connect the entire UN family in the advancement of organizational change and innovation at all levels. These targeted interventions benefit from the College’s unique understanding of the UN system and its shared values, and its ability to draw on the insights and data from a broad network of collaborators.
UNLOCK helps to change the way the UN works through three interrelated and mutually supporting service lines:
Click on the + sign next to each section below to find out more about our work to guide, connect and empower change management professionals across the system.
Guide
We guide UN entities with evidence, knowledge products, assessments and advisory services to achieve measurable progress with clients engaging in multi-year transformational processes.
To inject evidence and knowledge into the UN system’s work on transformation and change, UNSSC, through UNLOCK, conducts the biannual stocktaking of the State of Change Management in the UN System and produces case studies to identify good practice and lessons learned. Subjects have been chosen because of their relevance to agencies and staff across the system, as well as the potential to stimulate learning and knowledge sharing that leads to the practical steps required to build a stronger UN:
- The relevance of innovation to the United Nations - What has been tried, and what have we learned? (2017)
- Delivering successful change with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems (2017)
- Global shared services and transformation of the UN System (2017)
- Delivering successful change on diversity and inclusion in the UN (2017)
- Change agents networks in the UN System (2020)
Our advisory services are guided by the bespoke UNLOCK change model – an open-source resource developed by the UN for the UN. It provides a complementary approach to classic project management. When applied in tandem, change management and project management provide a unified, structured approach to achieving organizational change.
UNLOCK Change Model
Connect
We connect UN change managers and senior leaders in the UNLOCK network and related spaces to share resources and learn from each other.
The "UNLOCK Network" meets regularly throughout the year to touch base on various change management challenges that colleagues are facing. During the annual peer exchange, members discuss critical change management trends and topics. These engagements inform themes for UNLOCK case studies that the network co-creates (see above).
Working on change management in the UN System and interested in joining the UNLOCK Network, get in touch with us!
Empower
We empower learning managers, senior leaders, team and project managers through change management learning spaces and change management certification to lead change more effectively and inclusively within their organizations.
UNSSC has been providing an in-depth learning space for change managers to learn how to develop a change strategy for a process they are responsible for through its 'In-depth Change Management' course (ICM, formerly 'Introduction to Change Management').
This year look out for a new range of change management courses addressing the growing need for role-based trainings, such as ‘Sponsoring change for UN 2.0’ or ‘Change Management Fundamentals for Project Managers’ as well as ‘All Staff Navigating Change with Confidence’.
Our change management courses
UNSSC offers a series of general change management training and role-based courses that allow change leaders, people managers, project managers and change practitioners – but also all personnel – to understand their role in change and transformation; and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to navigate change with confidence. Find out more about each of our courses below.
All courses can also be offered on demand to individual organizations and can be tailored to specific organizational needs or contexts. Get in touch with the UNLOCK team to find out more at unlock@unssc.org.
