What is NewWork?

NewWork is a grassroots movement of UN employees who are innovating, collaborating, and adopting new ways of working. We aim to change our workplace culture and cultivate an agile, people-focused UN 2.0. We do this by amplifying transformative initiatives and bridging silos through dialogue and creativity.

NewWork was created to help ensure the UN can better respond to humanity’s most pressing challenges while maintaining the well-being, morale, and engagement of our employees. #NewWork aims to build a community of individuals who are committed to embedding continuous improvement, agility, and innovation through experiential workshops and networking opportunities. It is an employee-led, global empowered network. It consists of champions and volunteers from across the UN. The network is coordinated by a global group of volunteers and supported by champions applying an agile mindset and principles.

Empowering employees, driving new mindsets

We cannot solve our biggest problems if we do not come together. It is not only about institutions or processes. It is in the first instance about our mindsets.

- António Guterres, Secretary-General

 

The complexities that we face require different sets of tools, different mindsets, and different ways of doing our work.

- Amina J Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General

The Secretary-General's Common Agenda and vision for “United Nations 2.0” articulates the drive and impetus for organizational flexibility, agility, and transformation. The UN80 initiative calls for a "paradigm shift in how the UN system organizes its work and collaborates for greater impact". The ability to deliver, to proactively respond to and even prevent future crises, depends on a fundamental rethinking of how we do our work. Culture change is necessary to connect and align the behaviours and mindsets of personnel globally.

With this goal to shift our workplace culture and cultivate an agile, people-focused UN 2.0, NewWork aims to amplify transformative initiatives led by its members and offers opportunities to exchange good practices and scale. NewWork aligns to the Values and Behaviours Framework, as well as Our Common Agenda and the vision for UN 2.0. Taking a non-siloed, collaborative approach to organizational culture change.

NewWork is honored to be part of the UN 2.0 “Quintet of Change” Communities of Practice. NewWork provides a nurturing transformational space where individuals come together to not only champion a collective mindset shift that embraces agility, creativity, learning and adaptability, but also to upgrade soft skills (e.g., complex problem solving​, critical thinking​, creativity, interpersonal communications, cultural intelligence, leadership, curiosity, continuous learning​).