Everything Starts from the People
I have worked the past 15 years with people from very different backgrounds, from the Equator to the Northern Pole, creating change together. A few years ago I got interested in service design and its potential and decided to study more about it in Haaga-Helia, where I found myself as the only non-profit worker among the most experienced business world experts. It was truly inspiring. I believed that I had finally found something that framed well what I had always been doing -and also provided me with new tools and ways of doing.
As part of my studies I got the opportunity to make a final project in a true Dream Team. We still meet up once a year. Oh, and we created Binder for Technopolis as our common project!
As part of my studies I got the opportunity to make a final project in a true Dream Team. We still meet up once a year. Oh, and we created Binder for Technopolis as our common project!
Service Design Thinking to the NGO World through Blogging
My service design studies in Haaga-Helia got me inspired and to start my blog, in which I have been sharing my ideation process about the potential of service design in the NGO world -and why not in other types of organizations too!!
Design Thinking for the Reception of Refugees
The municipalities of Lapland invited me to facilitate a process in order to create a map of the integration process of refugees and the critical points on it, from the municipal workers’ point of view. The workshops were full of talking as the municipal workers were drawing the paths together. The outcome was a description of the reception process to small municipalities, which can be found from the website of the Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment.
Better with Service Design Thinking? Tailor made Service Design Plunges
What does service design thinking have to offer to NGO workers? How it can be applied to your own job and to your organization? Where to start from? The service design plunges are a great way to help you to put on the service design thinker glasses and start to look at your organization from service design perspective.
I have held several taylormade short introductions like this to, for example, for Akava Special Branches; SOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health, The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals in Finland -Tehy, Citizen's Forum, Rastor Institute etc.
I have held several taylormade short introductions like this to, for example, for Akava Special Branches; SOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health, The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals in Finland -Tehy, Citizen's Forum, Rastor Institute etc.
Better with Service Design Thinking? A Guidebook to NGO Workers
It was my dream to find a specific service design guidebook for non profits. Since I didn’t find one, I made it. My guidebook includes all the basic information you need for starting to apply service design thinking in your NGO. In Finland, NGOs are a significant player in the social wellfare -in the end, they are over 100 000 in total! So this guidebook is another way for me to contribute to social change.
The guidebook was created through a service design process itself -yes, a book can also be considered as a service. The guidebook is only in Finnish, and can be downloaded from my blog.
The guidebook was created through a service design process itself -yes, a book can also be considered as a service. The guidebook is only in Finnish, and can be downloaded from my blog.
Physical Space as a Tool for Change -Service Designing New NGO Spaces
In April 2018 I joined the Propellerheads team in one of the most innovative NGOs in Finland, called Kukunori. Since then I have worked as the Head of Change Design for the organization that works mainly with mental wellbeing. My first project in the Propellerheads was to design our Experiment Lab, which we made, naturally, with service design.
Sometimes we forget what an important part of the change the physical spaces, in which we advance the change, actually are. The Propellerheads’ Experiment Lab was designed with the change, that we want to see in this world, in mind and the people, who we need to create that change, at the core throughout the process. Did you get interested? If so, get in contact and visit us in Malmi, Helsinki!
Sometimes we forget what an important part of the change the physical spaces, in which we advance the change, actually are. The Propellerheads’ Experiment Lab was designed with the change, that we want to see in this world, in mind and the people, who we need to create that change, at the core throughout the process. Did you get interested? If so, get in contact and visit us in Malmi, Helsinki!
Designing Communication Strategies
Amnesty International asked me to help them in designing the contents of their communication strategy. Design thinking is a great tool for strategy work too!
Start by thinking what is the change, that you’re trying to advance with your strategy. After that think who are the people who you need to make the change. Then start to sketch the steps for them to take, so that the change can take place. After this all you need is to produce the thoughts into a shape of a strategy!
The outcome of the project was the draft of the communication strategy for Amnesty International Finland.
Start by thinking what is the change, that you’re trying to advance with your strategy. After that think who are the people who you need to make the change. Then start to sketch the steps for them to take, so that the change can take place. After this all you need is to produce the thoughts into a shape of a strategy!
The outcome of the project was the draft of the communication strategy for Amnesty International Finland.
Design Sprinting Strategy
As the Head of Change Design I have also had the change to test how the Design Sprint, launched by Google, works for designing NGO work. Designing a creative, 5-day, intensive and systematic series of workshops in such a way that no participant falls a sleep and every one of them feels like they can truly get their voices heard was very rewarding and fun. The outcome was a strategy draft for Kukunori.
The NGOs have a lot to learn from Google, indeed! If you are interested in using the Design Sprint as a tool for creating organizational strategies, get in contact!
The NGOs have a lot to learn from Google, indeed! If you are interested in using the Design Sprint as a tool for creating organizational strategies, get in contact!
Design Sprinting Mental Wellbeing
My second Design Sprint was about designing a prototype of a game app for Lilinkotisäätiö. The Design Sprint was implemented again by modifying Google’s model for a five-day, systematic workshop series, during which we developed the prototype for The World of Recovery game.
The atmosphere was great and the participated commented later on how meaningful it hat felt to be part of it. And I did manage to facilitate a process, which ended up in getting a project funding for actually launching the game. So soon you will be able to play it!
The atmosphere was great and the participated commented later on how meaningful it hat felt to be part of it. And I did manage to facilitate a process, which ended up in getting a project funding for actually launching the game. So soon you will be able to play it!
Webinars for Customer Centric NGO Work
The Finnish Olympic Committee ordered a series of three webinars from me for their network of volunteers for them to improve their activity offer. The outcome were the three webinars, which you can watch in YouTube here (in Finnish).
Exploding the Way to Creativity
In the Autumn of 2018 I was thinking in the Propellerheads that how to get information about all the obstacles on the way of NGOs and the people involved with them to do experiments. I designed and facilitated an explosion workshop, where we literally built NGOs (models of them) and destroyed the elements, which were recognized as obstacles for creativity and experimental culture. The outcome was a comprehensive list of different types of issues. Removing them would create space for creativity and experimental organizational culture.
Workshopping Joint Campaigns
The Red Cross, Finn Church Aid and Amnesty International invited me to facilitated the building blocks of their joint advocacy campaign.
The outcom of the ideation workshop, based on change design, was a map with the common change paths, roles and vision for what the campaign should achieve.
The outcom of the ideation workshop, based on change design, was a map with the common change paths, roles and vision for what the campaign should achieve.
Experimental Ideas with Ideation Workshops
In Kukunori I have designed and facilitated numerous ideation workshops, which have as an outcome 1-3 experimental ideas or idea protorypes, ready to be tested in the organizations, which have participated in the workshops. The ideas have often been concerning the internal processes or working cultures of the organizations or new ideas for activities or services developed for the organizations’ customers. The ideation workshops are based on a clear and systematic plan, which always includes creative methods such as drawing, building models or acting. The workshops’ outcomes are wellbeing, team spirit and concrete experimental ideas.
Customer Insights with Interviews and Observation in the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
A major part of my work is to interview different kinds of people and observe the services that they are offered. I have carried out numerous interviews and observation processes in the most varied mental health and substance abuse services and created syntheses, which work as a tool to make the services more customer oriented. The services need to be renewed and the people need to be heard. The key to this is to know how to pose the right questions and apply respectful curiosity towards the daily lives of people.
Building Brand Strategy with Service Design Thinking
The Finnish Doctors without Borders asked me to help them to advance in their road to make a brand strategy. I designed and facilitated the workshops, including a homework that was assigned to the participants in between the workshops. These workshops helped the organization to create a brand strategy, which has apparently been admired in the other country offices too!
Building a Better World
There are many people in our societies, whose voices have maybe never been heard and of whom many have thought, that they are not capable of express their own needs or views about the services that they use now or might need in the future. I work especially with this kind of people and I am passionate about developing new ways to hear all the people and make the thoughts of all the people visible in different kinds of codesign workshops. I have designed and facilitated several wokshops for building a better world with people with mental disabilities, mental illnesses, ex-prisoners etc.!
How to go about it? Ask more.
How to go about it? Ask more.
Service Design Training for Mental Health Experience Expert
About a year ago I suggested to Kaakkois-Suomen Sosiaalipsykiatrinen yhdistys that what if we start to train mental health recoverers in service design. We have been testing the training in 2018-2019 and we’re currently packaging the training, which includes basics of service design thinking, service design tools and possibilities to develop experiments or prototypes for the support of mental health. Who could indeed be a better service designer for mental health services than the mental health recoverers themselves!
Better Wellbeing Service Experiences for Migrants
My Phd research in the Culture-based Service Design Doctoral Program of the University of Lapland is my personal change project, which is a possibility to research the service experiences within our wellbeing service system of those who move to Finland as adults from systems very different to ours and the relationship these experience have to social cohesion. This project started in 2017. At the moment I’m in the process of collecting my data, which I am doing in the cities of Tampere and Turku.
Let the Ideas Fly with the 8th Graders!
In April 2019 I got to design and facilitate workshops for the 8th graders in Pori, where the students were creating ideas for a culture workshop model to the school, in order to prevent loneliness among the students. It was great -the ideas were just flying! This was also a great example of cooperation between the NGOs and the public sector in order to tackle such a big social challenge as loneliness. The outcome of the workshop, a model for the culture workshops, was launched in the school in the Autumn of 2019.
Group Power for Change through Social Media Facilitation
Part of my job in advancing experimental organizational culture among the NGOs has been to learn virtual facilitation, which I advance as part of our Propellerhead team in the Curious Developers’ Peer Group in Facebook (Uteliaiden kehittäjien vertaisverkosto).
30 Minutes’s Idea Sprint!
In the Rehabilitation Days 2019 event I had 30 minutes to get the participants create new ideas for their organizations. I decided to facilitated a 30 minute idea sprint. The participants were amazed -about 50-100 ideas were created just in a half an hour! Time is not an issue, when the facilitation is right.
Do you have a problem with time and want to generate new ideas fast? Ask more -we can sprint them out in 30 minutes!
Do you have a problem with time and want to generate new ideas fast? Ask more -we can sprint them out in 30 minutes!
Building the Strategic Paths with Legos
The Finnish Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities asked me to facilitate workshops for getting answers to certain questions they still had open for their strategy. I designed and facilitated a workshop with their management group using legos as the tool. The outcome was the strategic vision, the definition of the starting line and the path to get from the start to the vision. The legos are a great tool for ideation with very different kinds of people -from management group to staff and the representatives of their beneficiaries.
Design Thinking Project Planning
In the Spring of 2019 I tested how design thinking applies to project planning. And it works! I facilitated project planning processes for three different projects, using design thinking as my too, which resulted in project funding applications for the Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations (STEA). All the three processes that I was facilitating got funding in December 2019.
Designing Culture of Failure
In Kukunori one day I was thinking that how we could generate such an organizational culture that it allows and even encourages people to experiment and thus to accept failure. I decided to experiment myself and glued a post it on a wall in which I wrote “Failure wall. Write your mistake on a post it -however big or small, and glue it to this wall. After 10 mistakes we will have a party!”. First post its took some time, but after that they have kept coming. And now we have our Failure Parties as part of the organization’s daily culture. In the parties we use the Failure Wall’s post its as material for creating something new and -above all- fun! So far they have served as material for a co-written story and co-composed songs. And for sure we always have fun with those failures!
