In this episode of The RE:Generation Collective Podcast – The Next UN: Visions for a Regenerative Future, host Silke v. Brockhausen speaks with Liliana Uruburo, a long-time advisor on innovation and culture change in the UN Secretariat’s Business Transformation and Accountability Division. Rather than debating abstract reforms, their dialogue zeroes in on what UN staff can actually do tomorrow morning to make work more humane, energized, and effective—no matter their level or duty station.
Silke frames the conversation with a simple question: if the UN is to help life thrive in a century of polycrisis, what would it look like for the institution itself to become regenerative? Liliana’s answer is refreshingly concrete. She invites listeners to tend the UN’s “social soil”—the invisible web of relationships, psychological safety, and presence that enables people to flourish. When that soil is depleted, even smart reforms wither. When it’s nurtured, colleagues find energy, collaboration improves, duplication drops, and delivery strengthens.
From tech to human systems, Liliana’s own journey tracks a wider lesson: technology can enable change, but culture carries it. After years in the tech sector, she studied cultural anthropology to better understand how people actually adopt new ways of working. At the UN, that lens evolved into Transformative Spaces—short, experiential sessions where staff practice simple tools together rather than passively consume them. Participants learn to slow down, listen deeply, and test small, repeatable rituals they can bring back to their teams. The point is not a single workshop; it’s building micro-habits that quietly rewire how we meet, decide, and collaborate.
So what does this look like in day-to-day UN life?
Liliana suggests beginning inside the meeting room. Open with a three-minute reset—one minute of breath, one minute releasing tension, one minute clarifying intention. During discussions, try “collective listening”: in pairs or trios, one person speaks while the others reflect back what they heard—no advice, no fixing. Close by asking each person for a one-sentence commitment and whether they leave with more, less, or the same energy. These are small moves. But repeated, they shift the atmosphere from defensiveness and fatigue to clarity and momentum.
The conversation also spotlights the often-forgotten center of the system: middle management. Senior sponsors still matter (someone to clear difficult obstacles and create safe spaces for experimenting), and grassroots energy matters (change agents keep hope alive). Yet the squeezed middle is where regenerative practices either become normal—or stall.
For early-career colleagues, the advice is both bracing and empowering. Don’t assume you must copy the loudest behaviors to succeed. Instead, choose two role models whose conduct you genuinely respect—kindness, clarity, courage—and emulate them. Show visible value in quiet ways: map a messy process, capture decisions, draft the follow-up that helps everyone move. And find community: even if your immediate team isn’t ready, there are networks across entities where you can practice better ways of working and feel supported.
Silke presses on a common frustration: the UN is busy; who has time for this? Liliana counters that effective practices can be learned in two-hour sessions or shorter, and the return is palpable—better focus, fewer misunderstandings, less duplication. In her experience, colleagues quickly notice the difference between meetings that drain and meetings that give energy back—a simple, human metric of regeneration.
The episode closes with a systems-level gesture. If she had the new Secretary-General’s ear, Liliana would convene a diverse, representative global “citizen” platform—staff across grades and geographies, Member States, civil society, private sector, academia, and, crucially, the communities the UN serves—to rethink the UN’s purpose and ways of working for the next era. Call it anything but a task force; make it a living forum that prototypes practices and shares ownership of change. The bet is that an institution designed to serve the world should periodically re-design with the world—and that this participatory act is itself regenerative.
Through it all, Silke keeps the lens grounded in the everyday. The UN’s magic is its people. Culture isn’t amended `by resolutions; it turns on thousands of small, humane practices repeated until they become normal. Start where you are: one meeting, one ritual, one partnership that replaces duplication with shared momentum. Plant a seed in the social soil—and keep tending it.
Highlights you can try this month
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Open–Listen–Close: Three-minute reset at the start; collective listening in the middle; one-line commitments and an energy check at the end
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Borrow before building: Before launching a new initiative, find a similar one and scale it together
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Trust the outputs: Manage to outcomes, not optics - flex where, when and how work gets done.
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Find your circle: Join a practice group (e.g. Transformative Spaces/NewWork) and repeat the basics until they feel natural.
Where to Learn More
Inside the UN, explore NewWork and Transformative Spaces for short, repeatable practices and communities of support. (Ask peers; many entities already run sessions you can join.) You can connect with Liliana on Linkedin and learn more about the RE:Generation Collective for a Thriving UN and Planet here.
Final Thought
As Silke notes, the UN’s magic is its people. Regenerating the institution isn’t one grand reform—it’s thousands of small, humane practices repeated until they become culture. Start with two hours, one practice, one meeting. Plant a seed in the social soil—and keep tending it.
Listen to the Full Episode
Youtube:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rewiring-the-un-small-habits-big-transformation/id1841851629?i=1000736306102
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1QdH8BFrj7pzGPlo8gkz58