Upon completing the course, participants will have a solid grasp of the essentials of change management. They will understand the psychology of change, have developed or refined a change strategy for their project or team, and receive individual feedback at every stage. They will also learn how to leverage behavioral science for change and how to use change management to support change towards an agile UN 2.0.
Change management is crucial in enabling transformations and bolstering the transformation strategies of the Quintet of Change towards a UN 2.0.
UN managers have had to adopt a change leadership role, assessing the impacts of programmes with key stakeholders while assisting their teams in rapidly adjusting their practices.
Both line and change managers are essential drivers of cultural shifts and agents of organizational transformation, whether the change is primarily planned, as in the case of digital transformations, strategic repositioning, seeking buy-in to new initiatives, policies, or culture change, or emergent in response to crisis' or member states' demands.
Participants in this course will define the change management required at both an individual and team level. Each week, they will develop segments of their strategy and present them as written assignments or presentations to a small peer group.
The course focuses on the mindset and skills of change leaders and the steps involved in developing a change management strategy that prioritizes strong staff engagement. Participants will work on their own change cases and benefit from behavioral insights to generate ideas for change interventions.
On average, participants will require about two half-days of work per week, including a two-hour webinar every Tuesday and a peer session on Thursday. The final week will be dedicated to presentations from participants.
The course benefits from the expertise of UN change practitioners who are part of the UN Lab for Organisational Change and Knowledge (UNLOCK) network and have led complex change processes in UN system organizations.
Upon successful completion of this course, participants will
This course combines weekly self-study modules with individual assignments, participant case presentations, webinars, forum discussions as well as individual feedback and guidance. During the weekly webinars participants deepen their knowledge of concepts, discuss their application to their work and listen to a real-life application by a UN change practitioner.
Each week the webinar is complemented by an individual assignment, a peer coaching session, or a presentation. The sessions provide the opportunity for each participant to apply the concepts and tools to their change case and get feedback from UN change practitioners. On two occasions each participant will be required to give a brief presentation of their change situation to a small group.
The online forum discussions allow for an exchange with other UN managers in order to facilitate organizational learning across UN entities.
The course requires roughly two half days of work per week.
Upon demand, we are offering special tracks for groups who want to jointly develop a change strategy. Please be in touch to discuss your specific change challenges.
Week 0: Onboarding
Week 1: Mindset of a change leader
Week 2: Skills and behaviors of a change leader
Week 3: UNLOCK change management model I
Week 4: UNLOCK change management model II: Developing a strategy
Week 5: UNLOCK change management model III: Engagement and sustainability
Week 6: Behavioural sciences
This course is geared to line and change managers, change agents and programme and operations staff who are leading change in their field of expertise within the UN and with partners. The course is helpful for staff setting up offices, and those leading or coordinating both complex organizational change as well as implementing organizational changes with their teams. This course is also available for groups to develop together a change strategy at a different price.
The course fee of $1,850 includes all dedicated materials and webinars as well as access to a closed online discussion and at least five instances of personal feedback on participant strategy development.