in content lists or on the content page.Sitra has re-started training activites through Synergise Finland forums for future opinion leaders, and will continue with courses related to sustainable financial policy for current decision makers. The Synergise Finland forums will result in practical experiments and activities that intend to resolve social problems. The first Synergise Finland forum implemented 16 pilot experiments that sought answers to what new work means to Finnish society.
– In recent years, Sitra has emphasised the major ongoing change in its operations, which deals with shifting away from the thinking and operation models of the industrial era to a sustainable, people-oriented service society. The goal of the Synergise Finland forums has been to find answers to what this means in practise, says Mikko Kosonen, President of Sitra.
The first forum gathered people from different sectors to learn from each other and to find solutions to what kind of changes should be carried out in Finland in regard to work-related structures and procedures. The group comprises about 20 people, including Author Alexandra Salmela, Deputy Mayor Tuula Haatainen and Serial Entrepreneur Taneli Tikka. Solutions were not enough, and they also had to be tested in practice. Some of the experiments will now be used as the basis for new activities.
– Change can only happen through taking action. We want to promote experimenting, which means that you brace yourself and start testing what is functional. In that sense, the Synergise Finland forum is a great success, says Mr Kosonen.
Challenges are related to heavy structures and the working tradition of the industrial era
At the moment, the major challenges for Finnish working life are the heavy structures and the working tradition based on the line production of the industrial era, also in sectors where work is already segmented, diverse and by no means straightforward.
– Life is still considered as progressing from school to further studies and to a career where you proceed evenly until retirement. People are afraid of failure and risks, and an immense potential is wasted when there is no courage to employ immigrants or the young, for example, says Mika Kalliomaa, Director of the Development Programme.
The strengths and potential of people should be utilised more comprehensively everywhere. Working life should promote, allow for and utilise diversity to a greater extent. There should be more flexibility in going beyond traditional boundaries and silos in working life. An experimental, entrepreneur-like way of working was clearly regarded as more suitable for today than a linear way of working, which is bound to time and place.
Great challenges require small deeds throughout society
The Synergise Finland forum considered working life challenges and opportunities from the perspective of three groups: the young, immigrants and those who carry out totally new work.
– The team that addressed immigrants and the challenges of new work found that the main population has a negative attitude to competence that originates from elsewhere. It is also easy to consider immigrants as a single group even though there are as many kinds of backgrounds and competencies as there are people, says Author Alexandra Salmela.
Challenges were resolved by experimenting with an editor course with immigration as the theme, an experience-oriented drama trip for decision-makers to find out what the daily life of immigrants is like, a challenge campaign for getting to know working life and mentoring for HR professionals.
Regarding the young, it is more and more difficult for them to find their path in working life, as periods of study and working overlap throughout life and the attitude to work has changed.
– To make it easier for the young to find their career path, we experimented with the idea of an open vocational school where they would be able to try out different vocational studies before actually choosing their sector. A professional and career guidance service kiosk, which operated with the pop-up store concept, provided very good experiences, and we were happy to see how eagerly the professionals became involved in mentoring young unemployed people, says Deputy Mayor Tuula Haatainen.
Taneli Tikka, Serial Entrepreneur and CEO of Soprano Brain Alliance Oy, and his team, addressed totally new kinds of work. The answers and experimenting were very much entrepreneurship-bound.
– It should be easier to become an entrepreneur, and the attitude to failure and risk taking must change if our goal is to create totally new kinds of work in Finland.
The team that addressed totally new kinds of work experimented with the utilisation of pensioners’ competence in project mentoring and at a language café for immigrants. School headmasters were encouraged to join in on promoting the experimenting culture, and job exchange was tested in the public sector. Open network training, a live role playing game for decision makers and those planning to become entrepreneurs, was tested in order to promote entrepreneurship and corporate globalisation. The online centre for new work advised new workers regarding themes that official working life parties are not aware of yet.
Experimentation was conducted through cooperation between Aalto University, Hub Helsinki and Sitra. From now on, Sitra has decided to provide funding for the following experiments: the open network management course, the project dealing with the utilisation of pensioners’ competence, the Game of Life concept related to entrepreneurship, the Failure Campaign, the Junior mentoring, the promotion of experimenting in primary schools, the vocational service kiosk for the young, and the centre for new work.
The next Synergize Finland forum will start working on 17 November, focusing on new democracy. You can monitor the work online at www.sitra.fi/uusidemokratia