Tikissä

Tutkimus-, kehitys- ja innovaatiotoiminnan sydämessä

Avainsana: inclusion

Why you need to learn Service Design
http://An%20empty%20office%20room,%20with%20long%20table%20in%20middle,%20big%20glass%20windeows%20on%20one%20wall
6.4.2022
Pamela Spokes

Service design is about deep customer research, inclusion, prototyping, testing, and iteration. These are skills that almost everyone needs in almost every job. Everyone needs to think about the customer/user when creating something. Even a construction worker when building a part of a house should be able to think about how it will be used. Asking themselves ‘does this make sense?’ and flag things that maybe don’t. I use this as an example as I have just moved into a brand-new apartment and wonder what went into some of the decisions made that make no logical sense when it comes to actually using some things. In my opinion, everyone should learn these skills. These skills and tools are fairly industry and profession agnostic. How did we get here? Manufacturing was the basis of the economy for almost 300 years- since the industrial revolution. Underpinned by a vast knowledge gap between the producer and the consumer. The customer did not have access to quality comparisons, technical information of products, understand the process of creation/manufacturing, etc. There was a severe imbalance of knowledge that the producers and sellers could hide behind and take advantage of customers. But post-1950 you see a slow shift in how business is done. The shift from the power being in making things and selling them to being able to selling them in vast quantities to new markets. More products came onto the market and there was more choice - the seeds of needing differentiation were being planted. Between the 1950s and the 1980s, there was the drive of mass production and cheap prices as well as a still existing substantial knowledge gap between producer and consumer. The 1980s saw the beginning of a huge shift in how economies work. It was the time when technology began to play a bigger role in the economy - making goods more accessible to more people. This movement began to enable many new ways of working and how we consumed. Needing to differentiate the plethora of products, co2mpanies began to focus on the customer and differentiating through services. The 90s and beyond embraced ever-evolving technology - the internet, email, etc…this created access to information and the knowledge gap began to shrink rapidly. And so, heading into the 2000s, there is really a new way of organising the economy- a profound shift from value being exchanged from the producer to the buyer (with the value being in the product itself) to value-in-use. The value is in what you can do with the product rather than the product itself. A computer or a smartphone are only valuable if it has useful software on it and if you know how to use it. Services are E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. So, services in the 2020s are EVERYWHERE. The value is now in what you can do with the products that we buy. Our products are now, in general, much more complex and much more a result of an ecosystem creating them than one manufacturer in one place. Your electricity is a service. Public transport isn’t only a vehicle, it is about where it can take you and how you access the information about where it can take you. Grocery stores are a service…in fact they are many services. Services really are everywhere. And understanding this is vital to being included in the discussion and the design of what comes next. It matters who is included Because services are everywhere, it matters who is included in creating them. Whose perspective are they taking into consideration when they design something (whether it is a product or a service)? It matters if one or more group of people are left out. It can be a life or death matter in fact. In car crashes, because the body of ‘Reference Man’ (based on white men aged 25-30 and 70kg in the 1970s) is used, it is a fact that “although men are more likely to crash, women involved in collisions are nearly 50% more likely to be seriously hurt.” A similar situation is known in mobile phone sizes (they are referenced on male hands, speech recognition uses mostly men’s voices, etc) and for people of colour, face recognition technology can have a hard time recognising those with darker skin tones which leads to a higher ‘false match rate’ when identifying criminals at a much higher rate. Even for everyday things, it can make opening your phone harder. This list goes on. So, it really matters who is involved in creating services and technology that the services rely on. It matters who leads Just as it matters who is included, it matters who leads. Leaders set the goals and targets in many cases and those matter to the work that teams do. How they see the value in co-creation and how they set KPIs matters. As one form of the saying goes “we measure what we value”. And it becomes more difficult when what we value cannot be measured in traditional terms. Can we measure the joy our service brings to someone? Maybe if you can dilute that into a happiness score or a return user score. But is it really measuring joy? How about inclusion? Can we measure that? We can measure who was there. We can even dig down and measure how often different people spoke if we really want to. But can we really measure inclusion with the tools we now use? Not really. Maybe this is more about how we value things or who has designed the tools that we have at our disposal. A good leader will value things that cannot be measured in traditional tools and maybe they will build new tools. So, it definitely matters what leaders know and how they use it. Our future depends on it Futures studies teaches that the future has the potential to unfold in many different ways. The depiction of this is shown in strange sounding “Cone of Possibilities” or “Futures Cone”. We all know that decisions and plans that we make today will determine the future that comes. But is there a way to design the future that comes more purposefully? Sure, there is. With the Futures Cone there are multiple potential futures. All with different probabilities depending on the decisions that are made from individuals, communities, and whole societies in time. From the Futures Cone in the image, you will see that there are many options. It is also noted that these are shifting and flexible. Here we are shown futures that range from the preposterous to the preferable with many ‘P’ stops inbetween. And how we get to our preferable requires us to specifically design it. Through backcasting and designing the changes we want to see, we can plan the steps needed to take to get to that preferred future state. We all need to be a part of this process otherwise we will be left only with someone else’s preferred state. Someone who has the skills, knowledge, and determination to forge a future that suits them. You can be absolutely certain that Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk are all involved deeply in designing the future they want to see. It is time that the rest of us started insisting on purposefully designing a future that includes us and those around us also. Author Pamela Spokes works as a Service Designer in Metropolia’s RDI team. Originally from Canada, Pamela has years of experience in university admin focusing on international recruitment, marketing, and the international student/staff experience. With a Bachelor’s from Canada, a Master’s degree from Sweden, an MBA in Service Innovation & Design from Laurea, and her AmO from Haaga-Helia, she is interested in purposefully designed experiences that are centred around the user. Don’t be surprised if she knocks on your door to talk about learning co-creation methods through intensive learning experiences.

Lue lisää

Strengthening youth’s trust in the future
9.12.2021
Eija Raatikainen

According to OECD (2021), Finland is a high-trust society, ranking among the top performers among the OECD countries. In other words, trust is a meaningful phenomenon in Finnish society. What is trust? Trust can be seen as a simple, but also a complex phenomenon. Trust can be an approach, like an emotion, attitude, cognitive choice or even an unconscious issue, depending on theories. Thus, trust is based on individuals’ emotions, experiences, thoughts and attitudes; it can also be explored from a wider perspective, like from its relational character. There is evidence that Finnish people trust their families (as an institution) more than other institutions (1). In addition, young people also trust most people who are close to them. Trust in non-family members must be earned (2). However, there is evidence that if people just blindly trust anyone, it is likely that no one probably trusts them (3). Trust and youth guidance Improving youth’s trust in the future is important because trust has many positive consequences. It can strengthen young people's self-confidence in their own abilities, but also improve the ability to trust others. The Finnish Government (4, 5) considers guidance to be very important. It has been pointed out that there is a special need for guidance for those groups who are currently underrepresented in the participation in continuous education. Further, people must be able to trust in the future and their own opportunities, and feel to be part of the environment as a meaningful resource. (6) For example, some studies of adolescents' trust experiences (7) suggest that ‘Relationship Education’ programs can make a difference. They can enhance young people's understanding of and willingness to trust. In other words, trust can be learned, and it is never too late to learn to trust, even if it can be, in some cases, challenging. For example, Zitting (8) has pointed out that without peoples’ trust in public administration it is difficult to trust other people. This shows that ‘trust’ has its ‘to come full circle' effect. We cannot approach it from only one perspective, when a wider understanding of it is needed. Who am I? What am I able to do? What am I capable of achieving? These are the three main questions in the dialogue and guidance with young people in the FUTU project. Those questions are based on the theoretical understanding of the Social Pedagogical Approach to improve participation, agency and life management skills in everyday life practice. There is also an understanding of ‘future research' behind FUTU -projects’ understand of pedagogical guidance. Trust is one of the key elements, also to make the guidance relationship between a young person and an adult stronger. Successful guidance can empower and support participation and the feeling of meaningful belonging. In the FUTU project, we will improve future-oriented guidance to support the young people to see alternative ways to build a positive and realistic future. The aim is to see one’s own future as something that includes positive options and is worth striving. Additionally, we promote and support youth’s active participation. The pessimistic shortsightedness will be transformed into aims, inspiration and encouragement regarding the future. The young people will be empowered to plan their own future. According to some experts who took part in the FUTU project’s (9) digital training and workshops, trust as a part of youth guidance can be defined as follows: “...If the future feels scary ...the facilitator can set goals that can be achieved for the future and make a “plan” to achieve them step by step. The higher the probability that a young person achieves even a small part of the set goal, the more likely it is to build confidence in their own skills and help them achieve even bigger goals in the future.”  “For example, ...do not promise uncertain things. Create a communal, supporting and open atmosphere.” “Time is actively and regularly allocated to conversations, rather than leaving the client to ‘separately hope for conversation time’." “Trust in the future can be increased in many different ways. If it is a matter of a young person's disbelief in themselves and their own actions, one can extract successes from the young person's own past and reflect them on the current situation: how have you succeeded in the past? What kind of things has it demanded?” To sum up, according to the Youth Act (10) the aim is to promote young people’s skills and capabilities to function in society, support their growth, independence and sense of community, and support young people’s growth and living conditions. Nevertheless, studies have found (11) that realization of inclusion of children and young people requires special skills and attitudes from service professionals. Even though there are a lot of experts and professionals with a big heart and strong empathy skills, this challenge cannot be bypassed. Professionals need to have an understanding of trust as an important element of supportive guidance relationships, as well as an empowerment element in youth’s life - ‘trust resource’. How Finnish society can support young people’s trust in the future? A successful restructuring of services needs a stronger climate of dialogue and trust between state, regional and local actors. (4, 5, 6). Additionally, OECD (12) supports Finland paying more attention to people who are at risk for ‘feeling left behind’. OECD encourages Finland to understand the expectations and perceptions of different groups of society with respect to transparency and participation. By understanding trust and its diverse nature, as well as the empowering nature of it, it can be utilized in guidance work to support young people in finding their own trust resources. By supporting young persons’ self-confidence, they can become more visible to themselves. It can make a difference while fighting giving up, hopelessness and pessimism in life. (2). In the best case, trust can increase trust and improve young people's hope for the future. Trust is a serious element to take into consideration, while developing, designing and creating new services, methods and tools for youth well-being, participation and their quality of life. References Simola J., Westinen J., Pitkänen V. & Heikkilä, A. (2021) Luottamusta ilmassa, mutta kuinka paljon? Tutkimus eri sukupolvien luottamuksesta yhteiskunnan instituutioihin. Raatikainen, E. & Poikolainen, J. (2020) Young men’s experiences of trust and distrust as a framework for their future.  The Finnish Journal of Youth Research (“Nuorisotutkimus”) Vol 38, (2), 37–51. Frowen, I. (2005) Professional Trust. British Journal of Educational Studies 53(1), 34–53. Finnish Government (2020), 3.6 Fair, equal and inclusive Finland Government Programme, Finnish Government, Helsinki, 3.6 Fair, equal and inclusive Finland (valtioneuvosto.fi) Finnish Government (2020), 3.7 Finland that promotes competence, education, culture and innovation, Government Programme, Finnish Government, Helsinki, 3.7 Finland that promotes competence, education, culture and innovation (valtioneuvosto.fi) McElroy-Heltzel, S.E., Jordan, T.R., Futris, T.G., Barton W.A., Landor, A.K. & Sheats, K.J.  (2019) Sources of socialization for interpersonal trust: an exploration of low-income Black adolescents’ experiences, Journal of Youth Studies, 22:1, 124-137 Zitting, J. (2021) Luottamusta voi edistää parantamalla sosiaalista osallisuutta (DIAK.fi). Creating Positive Future - FUTU project. Creating Positive Future - FUTU | Metropolia UAS Youth Act (2017). Legislation - OKM - Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland Peltola, M. & Moisio, M. (2020) Ääniä ja äänettömyyttä palvelukentillä. Katsaus lasten ja nuorten palvelukokemuksia koskevaan tietoon. Nuorisotutkimusverkosto. OECD (2021) Drivers of Trust in Public Institutions in Finland. OECD Publishing, Paris. Creating Positive Future - FUTU | Metropolia UAS Means to achieve the project goal are promotion of future-oriented positive thinking, life management skills and ability to take action. In addition, the project can support the young people into further vocational training and transition into the job market.

Lue lisää