The presentation describes the short history, the current conceptualisation and the future steps of Finland's quest to promote experimental culture.

1. An experimental culture
in the making
Case Finland
Annukka Berg
Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)/Prime Minister’s Office
AARRE Workshop, 26 May 2016

2. The structure of the
presentation
2
● A short history of Finland’s quest to
promote experimental culture
● Conceptualization of experimental
culture in Finland
● The concrete steps taken by the
Prime Minister’s Office

3. 3
A short history of
Finland’s quest to
promote experimental
culture
Picture: Suvi Kokkonen

4. ● The Foresight Reports of the Prime Minister’s Office
○ On energy and climate policy (2009)
○ On sustainable growth and well-being (2013)
● In the legislature 2011 - 2015, the current PM Juha Sipilä a
member of the Parliament’s Committee for the Future
○ Hearing and a study process on experimental culture
4
Seeds planted -
Foresight Reports & Parliament’s
Committee for the Future

5. ● Ideas on experimental culture met with enthusiasm
across political party lines
○ A way to shift from stagnation/(mere) planning to
action
○ Combatting extensive “normative burden”
○ Supporting grassroots level development work made
by entrepreneurs, workers and civic actors
● In the background
○ Frustration about the unability to solve the great
challenges of our time: economic crisis, social and
health care reforms (SOTE), climate change…
○ Diminishing powers of the Parliament?
5
Hearings in the Parliament’s
Committee for the Future 2012

6. ”Time to Experiment!” (Berg 2013)
Key recommendations
6
● An office/ombudsman for
experimentation and innovation
● High profile experimentation
hubs
● Seed money
● Councelling services
● A program

7. 7
Other pioneering work in Finland

8. “A culture of experimentation will be introduced
Experimentation will aim at innovative solutions,
improvements in services, the promotion of individual initiative
and entrepreneurship, and the strengthening of regional and
local decision-making and cooperation. Experiments will make
use of citizen-driven operating practices…”
8
Programme of Prime Minister
Sipilä's Government (Chapter 8, p. 28)

9. ● An experimentation programme, including
extensive trials and several smaller
experiments, will be implemented.
● Systematic experimentation will be
introduced and a legal basis will be
created to make the arrangement of
experiments easier.
● Experimentation will reduce response
times and improve anticipation during
the process of solving social problems, and
the Government’s strategic aims will be
promoted.
9
Programme of Prime Minister
Sipilä's Government (Chapter 8, p. 28)

10. 10
Conceptualizations
of experimental
culture in Finland
Picture: Suvi Kokkonen

11. Grassroot-level
experiments are
scaled up to
societal solutions
Broad and complex
issues are
downscaled to
experiments
”Well tested
– half done
Experimental culture
Prime Minister’s Office 2016

12. Knowledge production
• Does a solution work or not?
• High quality information
• Testing
Experiments can be used for
various purposes
Broadening change
• How to spread a solution?
• Broad change
• Gathering resoruces
(knowledge, money,
networks)
Changing thinking and
action
• How does a solution change
thinking and action?
• Deeper change within a
niche
• Inviting participation
Challenging structures
• How does a solution
challenge a regime?
• Changing structures (laws,
business and operation
models)
• Creating cracks, using
momentums, offering
alternatives
Prime Minister’s Office 2016

13. How
experiments
gain wider
influence?
Prime Minister’s Office 2016

14. 14
The potential and risks
of experimenting
Steps taken by the
Prime Minister’s Office

15. 15
Experimental Finland

16. Support for experiments on
different scales
5-10
100+
1000+
Relevant for the strategic goals
and projects of the Government
Relevant for the development of
a region/sector
Relevant for the development of e.g.
individual products, companies,
schools, municipalities,
neighbourhoods, NGOs
GRASSROOTS
EXPERIMENTS
EXPERIMENTATION HUBS
STRATEGIC EXPERIMENTS
ENSURES
HELPS
PROMOTES

17. A participative process
17
● Minister Anu Vehviläinen and
Minister group on public reforms
○ Parliamentary Adivisory
Council
○ Inter-ministerial working group
● An open expert network
“Kokeilukummit”
● A road-show to regions together
with universities of applied sciences
● Active participation and presence in
various events and social media

18. Tools for experimentation
18
● A web-based toolbox on
experimentation
○ Drawing on the material
produced by various actors
across Finland (and elsewhere)
○ Edited expert articles on e.g.
designing, implementing and
evaluating experiments
● A digital crowdfunding platform
for experiments
○ In the planning phase
○ Up and running by the end of the
year 2016?

19. 19
Thanks!
Questions? Ideas?
annukka.berg@ymparisto.fi
annukka.berg@vnk.fi
@AnnukkaBerg