Innovation Day

The UN Values and Behaviours Framework calls on staff to demonstrate flexibility, agility and the ability to think and act in novel ways. Innovation Day (iD) is a monthly platform that connects UN employees with ideas, people, and practices from across sectors and disciplines — sparking the curiosity and cross-pollination that culture change requires. With speakers drawn from the UN system, academia, and the public and private sectors, iD builds the social capital and shared language that help staff translate new mindsets into everyday practice.  

Since 2019, the ideas and stories shared through Innovation Day have helped employees:

• introduce new methodologies and approaches in their day-to-day work,
• find ways to apply innovation and creativity in mandate delivery,
• connect with others outside their network, expanding their social capital, and
• scale ideas across the global Secretariat.

Diversity is a key value of Innovation Day. We have achieved parity in gender and included speakers from almost all continents, on a variety of topics. Young people have also been featured with thanks to speakers suggested by the UN Youth Office. We actively seek and incorporate a diversity of perspectives, ways of thinking, experiences, and opinions.

Participation is open to any UN employees, in any location ensuring broad application and discussion. Participation and ratings are consistently high.

Contact the Business Transformation and Accountability Division Innovation team at newwork@un.org for more information or to volunteer to speak. We are committed to work with people regardless of age, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, geography, grade, language, nationality, racial identity, religion, sex, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, social origin or any other aspect of identity.

Innovation Day is an example of #NewWork in action.

A select number of episodes are available publicly: View the playlist. UN employees can access the full library on the NewWork SharePoint.

Within the UN

Agile in Action - a global pilot at the UN
NewWork: UNOG, ESCAP, DMSPC/BTAD

Embedding Innovation in our DNA - "side-project" time
UNOV/UNODC

Reimagine the UN Together Innovation Challenge
UN System Alliance - NewWork, Young UN, UNLOCK, DCO, OICT

First Women's Wellness Center opened in a Peacekeeping mission
UNSOS, DOS

External to the UN

Digitization vs Digital Transformation
Brian Solis: World-renowned digital analyst, futurist and 8x best-selling author

Unlearning Before You Change
Amy J. Wilson, Culture Futurist and the founder of the Culture Shift Studio

Grow in Purpose
Anna Chojnacka: Senior Coach of ScaleUp Impact

Democratizing Leadership
Eric Martin: Leadership advisor & author

Leading Change: Navigating Rivers and Maelstorms
Martha Maznevski: Professor at Ivey Business School

Change intelligence
Barbara Trautlein: Principal, Change Catalysts; Richard Maltzman: Professor at Boston University

Transformational Change
Aaron Dignan: Founder of The Ready

Don't call it disruption
Jeff Grabill: Professor at Michigan State

Design Sprints - Tackling Complex Challenges
Rishni Biswas: UN SDG Youth leader and Winner of Summer of Solutions Competition 2019

Design Thinking - Hydrous deep dive
Dr. Erika Woolsey: Marine biologist & AR/VR creator

Introducing the KAIZEN way
Kato Yoichiro: Management consultant, ABeam; Apilas Pete Kraisittipong: Strategy & operations consultant, ABeam

The Art and Science of Engaging People
Scott Gould: Engagement advisor and speaker

Building Trust
Dominic Wilhelm: Senior Strategy Practitioner

Creating an Innovative Team Culture
Memorie Herholdt: Industrial psychologist

Háblalo - free app to help people with disabilities communicate more easily with others
Mateo Salvatto: Founder/CEO of Asteroid Technologies, young entreprenuer