Traficom = The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency
Trafi/Traficom Case Study - Leadership coaching
In 2016, TRAFI (later renamed Traficom) took the decision to change its work culture. Olli Lindroos is Deputy Director-General, specialised in coaching, was made responsible for implementing the transition. His brief was to help employees accept and manage the changes, improve their resilience and their willingness to do things differently. At the centre of his mission was to create a feeling of purpose and of being appreciated and thereby achieve sustainability in this fast changing world. These were the questions he had to consider:
- When there are exceptionally big changes ahead, at which point do you arrive at the limit when people cannot take any more pressure - when even the slightest burden becomes too much?
Nobody could have foreseen the enormous changes the world had to face in 2020. The unknowns we all have to face are on a previously unimaginable scale.
Now we all have been separated from our normal work environment and asked to work from home, many are witnessing how quickly posture can deteriorate, affecting our well-being and stamina. Add to this that the boundaries between home and work are disappearing and new interactive skills are required.
What can we learn from Traficom’s work with Finnmotion.
Olli Lindroos involved Finnmotion, a proven concept of strategic exercises that increase your agility, stimulate your brain, enhance your mood and improve your performance.
Finnmotion is about posture and movement and its importance for functionality, mind and emotions. The program boosts energy by increasing the oxygen in the brain, and improves wellbeing. But it also teaches the skill of observing yourself and self-correcting your bad habits, throughout the working day. Lindroos appreciated that Finnmotion offered a practical way to activate employees’ observational skills.
Research has shown that those who have the ability to observe themselves will be more resilient and more capable to manage the changes.
Finnmotion also offers a work-dynamic analysis, a new way of measuring resistance to change and the ability to make decisions. It demonstrates how these factors are linked to the way we move.
At Trafi, this knowledge was used to demonstrate and further understand the everyday dynamics of a group and how it could be adapted to suit the working environment. Based on this analysis, the Finnmotion program was applied to benefit not just the individual employee but the entire group.
The targeted Finnmotion exercises improved employees’ physical agility and balance and this in turn improved their ability to focus
Apart from improved posture, the best results of the program were achieved in the way people were able to better manage time. Finnmotion showed that the problem was not the lack of time, but the inability to find the right work rhythm. Based on this discovery, people were able to make changes, and found this particularly beneficial.
Finnmotion also had a positive effect on the work atmosphere, giving employees a subject for conversation, and stimulating communication between divisions. As participants shared their experiences, they came to understand the importance of the small routines for changing bad habits and acquiring good ones. It motivated them to incorporate the new routines into their lives and set them on a path to mindfulness and self-care.
The Traficom – Finnmotion cooperation was a complete success. The feedback of the participants says it all:
“It’s easier to face something new when you know yourself better.”
“When your posture is good, it is easier to listen and take in new information.”
“I feel better when there is some oxygen in my brain.”
· 2016 Trafi made a decision to change their working culture towards self leading/managing culture.
· 2019 TRAFI communication department were emerged to TRAFI and named Tragicomic.
· 2019 made Traficom made a decision to transform the organisational culture towards self sustained management.