This document serves as your travel guide as you progress through the Toolkit. It will provide you with the background you need to get the most out of the Toolkit, and tips for how to reflect on and share your innovation insights with others to spur meaningful conversations on innovation. Throughout the guide, you will be asked to engage in two main types of activities:

Learning activities provide you with key information on how the Toolkit works

Reflection activities help you contemplate, document, and discuss your Toolkit results

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The United Nations Secretary-General has made innovation a priority, repeatedly highlighting the need to shift from “accidental” innovation to innovation “by design.” To support these efforts, he called for the development of the UN Innovation Toolkit that provides actionable guidance on how to foster, scale, and accelerate innovation across the UN System.

WHAT IS THE TOOLKIT?

The Toolkit is a digital platform that you can access anywhere, anytime, from your computer, tablet, or mobile phone. It includes 21 tools that are grounded in research and contextualized for the diverse operating realities of UN organizations. The Toolkit also includes an innovation diagnostic, a 27-question survey that assesses a user’s relative innovation strengths and growth areas. The Toolkit was endorsed by the SecretaryGeneral, Members of the Chief Executives Board, and tested by over 120 staff from 36 UN entities as well as the UN High Level Committee on Management.

INNOVATION IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UN

Innovation can take a number of forms – from process and policy changes, to new business models and ways of engaging stakeholders – and can be both programmatic and operational in nature. The Secretary-General has challenged all UN entities to think creatively, work collaboratively, and take smart risks. Innovation consists of doing something new and different whether solving an old problem in a new way, addressing a new problem with a proven solution, or bringing a new solution to a new problem

The Toolkit is designed to help UN entities accelerate and sustain innovation, regardless of the problems they are trying to solve or the “newness” of the solutions they are seeking to explore.

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WHAT IS S.P.A.C.E. AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

WHAT IS THE TOOLKIT?

The Toolkit is organized around five foundational modules considered critical for innovative organizations: Strategy, Partnerships, Architecture, Culture, and Evaluation (forming the acronym, “S.P.A.C.E.”).

STRATEGY

Without a clear direction to orient their activities, teams and organizations risk launching innovation efforts that are siloed, not complementary, or do not strike the right balance between risks and rewards. The strategy tools help users chart the course for their innovation efforts by guiding them through the key decisions they need to make today to get where they want to be tomorrow.

PARTNERSHIPS

Partners can fill resource gaps, generate innovative solutions, and maximize the overall success of innovative efforts in a programmatic or operational area. But finding and selecting the best partners can be a challenge. The partnership tools help end users effectively identify and secure new partnership opportunities.

ARCHITECTURE

Innovations rarely fail because of a lack of creativity. Rather, they fail because organizations lack the systems, structures, and processes to repeatedly turn ideas into testable and scalable solutions. The architecture tools help end users build the platforms they need to execute across the innovation life cycle and sustain innovation over time.

CULTURE

Culture is consistently cited as one of the primary barriers to innovation within organizations. Employees need support, incentives, and opportunities to innovate. The culture tools help UN entities foster work environments that promote strategic risk taking and enable employees to innovate more consistently.

EVALUATION

Organizations unable to measure the effectiveness of their innovation efforts may struggle to justify their investments and communicate their successes to stakeholders. The evaluation tools help organizations assess and report on the efficacy and impact of their projects, portfolios, and pipelines throughout the innovation life cycle.

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HOW DOES S.P.A.C.E. APPLY WITHIN MY CONTEXT?

Reflect on the S.P.A.C.E. framework by considering the questions below. Consider answering the questions from multiple perspectives. For example, do your responses change if you answer from the view of your unit as opposed to your team? Oftentimes perspectives vary, even amongst the same team or office. Understanding why there is variation in opinion can help uncover new insights and facilitate rich discussion on how to best address areas of strength and weakness and how to prioritize efforts.

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THE INNOVATION DIAGNOSTIC & HOW IT WORKS

How do you know which tools are right for you? The UN Innovation Diagnostic is designed to help you determine where to start across the S.P.A.C.E. modules and which tools are bestaligned to your needs. The diagnostic includes a short ten minute survey designed to provide users with a summary of their strengths and weaknesses across the five S.P.A.C.E. modules. The UN Innovation Diagnostic works by asking users to assess how well a series of 27 statements reflects their team, unit, or organizational capabilities. Each statement is derived from research and leading practices

STRATEGY MODULE questions explore the degree to which the user’s team, unit, or organization:

PARTNERSHIP MODULE questions explore the degree to which the user’s team, unit, or organization:

ARCHITECTURE MODULE questions explore the degree to which the user’s team, unit, or organization:

CULTURE MODULE questions explore the degree to which the user’s team, unit, or organization:

EVALUATION MODULE questions explore the degree to which the user’s team, unit, or organization:

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WHAT ARE INNOVATION PROFILES?

Upon completing the diagnostic, you will receive one of six innovation profiles. The profiles represent general strengths and weaknesses for users sharing similar innovation traits as measured using the innovation diagnostic.

There is no “right” profile. Rather, profiles are intended to be a starting point for understanding which tools may be right for you based on the perspective from which you took the diagnostic. As you use the tools within the Toolkit, you can re-take the diagnostic and receive different results. The “profile” tab of the Toolkit will allow you to track how your profile results have evolved over time

Motivator

Motivators are strongest at developing an innovative culture. Effective motivators foster a culture of innovation where innovation happens organically and staff feel both encouraged and empowered to innovate. However, motivators may struggle to effectively direct and implement the innovative ideas and initiatives being generated.

Strategist

Strategists are strongest at setting a strategy for innovation. They typically understand and create alignment around common goals and objectives for innovation efforts. While strategists tend to know where they want to go and how they want to get there, they may lack the right structures or processes to effectively execute on their plans.

Collaborator

Collaborators are strongest at developing partnerships for innovation. They tend to actively engage broader ecosystems of actors to drive innovation, and effectively identify partners and deploy the right strategies to engage them. Collaborators usually focus on incentivizing, enabling, or convening others to innovate, but may be missing opportunities to foster innovation within their own organization.

Motivator

Motivators are strongest at developing an innovative culture. Effective motivators foster a culture of innovation where innovation happens organically and staff feel both encouraged and empowered to innovate. However, motivators may struggle to effectively direct and implement the innovative ideas and initiatives being generated.

Strategist

Strategists are strongest at setting a strategy for innovation. They typically understand and create alignment around common goals and objectives for innovation efforts. While strategists tend to know where they want to go and how they want to get there, they may lack the right structures or processes to effectively execute on their plans.

Collaborator

Collaborators are strongest at developing partnerships for innovation. They tend to actively engage broader ecosystems of actors to drive innovation, and effectively identify partners and deploy the right strategies to engage them. Collaborators usually focus on incentivizing, enabling, or convening others to innovate, but may be missing opportunities to foster innovation within their own organization.

Ah-Ha Moment: An unexpected failure during an innovation activity that presents significant opportunities for learning

Adjacent Innovation: An innovative solution that represents the reconfiguration of an existing solution, or the application of an existing solution in a new way; these solutions tend to represent a moderate level of risk

Agile: A solution development methodology that emphasizes iteration, constant monitoring, and adaptation as a project progresses

Barriers to Success: Challenges that must be overcome to achieve an innovation goal

Baseline: A starting point against which future progress is measured

Bold Failure: A failure that results from a high-risk innovation activity

Business Unit: Refers to the office or division in which your immediate team resides

Calculated Risk: An experiment that fails due to an unlikely, but known, risk

Challenge Statement: A question designed to prompt – and provide constraints for – ideation around a specific topic

Cognitive Psychology: A field in the social sciences that studies the mental processes relating external, sensory stimulation and the processing of information including perception, learning, and thinking

Challenge Statement: A question designed to prompt – and provide constraints for – ideation around a specific topic

Crowdsourcing Campaign: Process for putting tasks, questions, or funding requests out to a large group, usually online, to collect their input or contributions

Data Collection Techniques: Approaches for gathering, storing, and making sense of qualitative and quantitative information; common methods include observation, one-one-one interviews, and focus groups

Design Statement: A concise description of your intended ideation activity

Digital Divide: The gap between individuals with and without access to the internet

Disruptive Innovation: A new solution applied to a challenge never-before addressed, with the potential to completely transform conventional ways of thinking or doing; these solutions tend to be high-risk

Enabling Environment: Refers to underlying organizational elements that make innovation more or less likely to be successful; specifically the organization’s innovation architecture, partnerships, and culture

End-User: The stakeholder that will ultimately be using an innovative solution