Making sure everyone has access to consistent details is a critical pillar as we move toward the ‘Next Normal’. Furthermore, by equipping all staff with the tools they need and focusing on addition, we build stronger relationships and bolster trust. The initiative has been recognized by the Career Development Roundtable (CDR)1 held in Milan in December 2021 with the award in the Staff Wedding category. The award acknowledges the successes and breakthrough #NewWork has achieved in uniting staff, breaking down silos, and working towards organizational culture change. The primary goal of a series of dialogues led by the global #NewWork team was to provide personnel with opportunities to envision the ‘Next Normal’ at the UN. The ‘Reimagine the Next Normal Dialogues’ aimed to facilitate the particular exchange of ideas across the UN, driving organizational culture change from the bottom up. Inspired by the Reimagine the UN Together Dialogues and the UNHQ Next Normal Dialogues, the Reimagine the Next Normal Dialogues focused on four themes related to our post-pandemic workplace tradition:
- Agile Teams which encourages every teams to cultivate a good agile mindset to be a lot more adaptive and versatile.
- Digital Literacy & Tools which encourages knowledge on technology plus ongoing digital transformation to assist personnel feel at ease with revolutionary tools and develop electronic literacy.
- Hybrid Teams which highlights the importance for organizations to help staff and managers create skills and competencies to better adapt to hybrid work settings.
- Increasing Innovation which underlines the particular essentiality of sprouting brand new ideas through participation within innovation-related events and programmes.
As the ‘Next Normal’ dialogues taken staff voices and crafting ideas, it also unveiled the information asymmetry within the organization. Today, many staff are unaware of existing manuals and resources that are available to support them through times of transition. A previous round of dialogues that centered on planning and preparing for the particular ‘Next Normal’ at UNHQ produced a series of ideas in 12 workstreams, which given directly into a report on recommendations for the Next Normal that went to the Secretary-General. The dialogues introduced together more than 180 colleagues from 52 duty stations. Over 25 volunteers from your field, Bangkok, New York, and Geneva, moderated 26 sessions held (as at time of publication). Broad variety in each session has been achieved through the use of a ‘randomising’ tool developed by a friend in peacekeeping. Not only does the conversation mechanism offer a safe room for the global exchange of ideas, it also makes possible the particular sharing of feedback plus insights with senior administration, human resources, and other fora, assisting to ensure staff voices are usually heard and valued. A number of these staff tips have been endorsed for execution, including institutionalizing the dialogue mechanism itself. This will ensure the Organization offers an ongoing way for staff to contribute a lot more directly to transformation and changes proposed in the future. Strengthening staff voices creates ripple effects, inviting more active participation to co-create the vision for the ‘Culture of the Next Normal that We Want’ and to support the trip to “UN 2 . 0” as laid out in Our Common Agenda . #NewWork will always harness the power of group intelligence to address challenges and develop an agile, innovative and inclusive workplace culture.
