Our approach

The 2025 study on the State of Change Management took as its starting point a similar survey that was conducted by UNLOCK in 2023. You can access the findings of the 2023 survey here.

The objectives of the 2025 study were to gather insights on the practice of change management from the perspective of those directly involved in change, to track relevant data points from the 2023 study, and to continue to help strengthen the ability of the UN system to navigate change for the future.

Working with a Sounding Board of change managers in the UN system, and following feedback from respondents, the UNLOCK team reviewed the questions asked in the 2023 survey, reducing the total number of questions from 83 to 30.

The survey was distributed in June 2025 via SurveyMonkey to several networks in the UN system, including members of the UNLOCK Peer Exchange network, members of the HR Network of the UN High-Level Committee on Management, members of the UN Learning Managers network, UN Communications Leads, and alumni of the UNSSC In-depth Change Management programme. The survey was circulated directly to network members by UNLOCK, or shared with a single contact person who then distributed to network members. Those receiving the survey were also encouraged to distribute it within their own UN networks.

To help provide reassurance around confidentiality, respondents were not required to provide their email address. Responses were seen only by members of the UNLOCK team working directly on survey development and analysis.

Survey responses were exported to Excel and analysed by the UNLOCK team, with support from UNSSC’s data and evaluation team. Statistical significance was evaluated using chi-squared tests, with P-values used to determine the strength of association between variables. The process of making sense of the data also included a workshop with the UNLOCK team, and discussion of the initial findings at the 2025 UNLOCK Peer Exchange.

Limitations and learning

One limitation of the methodology was in the approach taken to distributing the survey. The use of networks combined with a modified “snowball” approach (where participation was encouraged through targeted respondents passing the survey onto their networks and connections) meant that the profile and set of possible respondents was not clear. This compromised the ability to identify statistically significant findings beyond those highlighted in the papers.

A second limitation was that the same people did not necessarily complete the survey in 2025 as in 2023, compromising the ability to make direct comparisons year-on-year.

Both limitations mean that the findings from the survey can only be considered indicative but not necessarily representative of the views and experiences of all those involved in change management in the UN system.

This methodology, together with other considerations such as limiting the use of Excel and enhancing the use of AI in data analysis, will be revisited for future iterations of the survey.