Futures Platform helped the City of Parkano in Finland broaden its horizons and explore different futures ahead of strategy work.
Smart and connected countryside. Increasing popularity of remote work and study. Decreasing birth rates. These were some of the topics City of Parkano’s stakeholders identified as relevant in the foresight workshops that they held ahead of their strategy renewal work. Futures Platform bolstered the effort by broadening the horizon and streamlining the foresight process with its collaborative foresight platform.
Broadening the horizon ahead of strategy work helps the City of Parkano remain resilient in a changing world
When it was time for the city of Parkano in Finland to renew its strategy and vision for 2030, there was a consensus that foresight work would be needed first.
“If we had conducted this part of the process on our own, it would have been based on our guesswork regarding rising risk and opportunities. Involving Futures Platform brought in professionalism, scientific methodology and also a breath of fresh air, so to speak – without this external expertise, it would be too easy to get stuck only with the viewpoints and matters that have traditionally been debated among the city stakeholders,” says Parkano’s City Mayor Jari Heiniluoma.
City Administrator Risto Uotila agrees, describing that Futures Platform’s trend and scenario database helped Parkano’s stakeholders to think outside the box: “When creating a new strategy, it is paramount that the scope is wide enough. With Futures Platform, we were able to broaden our horizons to a wide variety of change drivers, which forced all of us to look at the future not just from the perspective of our city and our operating environment but also more broadly. For example, what is happening out in the world that will eventually have an impact on Parkano as well, or what is going on in the private sector.”
“Futures Platform brought in professionalism, scientific methodology and a breath of fresh air – without this external expertise, it would be too easy to get stuck with the viewpoints and matters that have traditionally been debated among the city stakeholders.”
Jari Heiniluoma, Parkano City Mayor
Futures Platform’s digital foresight tool provided an interactive and visual collaboration environment
According to City Administrator Risto Uotila, another key benefit of Futures Platform was that it took the process to a convenient digital environment: “Futures Platform’s foresight radar was the most appraised element of our foresight process. All the stakeholders were delighted to use it instead of traditional classroom methods. The time of post-its is truly over.”
“All of our participants felt that being able to use a digital tool for foresight was what made the biggest difference. It was insightful, easy to use and enabled a systematic approach to assessing different trends,” adds city mayor Jari Heiniluoma.
Futures Platform’s foresight tool was used in all the stages of the project. The findings of the first research phase were presented in the form of a visual foresight radar, with a timeline from the present day to 2035 and categorised into several different sections such as demographic change, travel and traffic, education and services. During the workshops, participants used the built-in voting, rating and commenting tools to assess and shortlist the trends on the city’s radar.
Excerpt from the Construction & Urbanisation radar on Futures Platform. Log in to access the full radar and trend database.
Three workshops to refine the focus
Overall, the foresight process at Parkano consisted of five stages: background research, three rounds of workshops, and the final report.
In the first stage, background research was carried out by the in-house futurist team at Futures Platform, who collected a diverse set of different trends, change signals and potential wild card events that may impact a city like Parkano.
What followed next were three rounds of workshops – the first of which was done in a classroom and the two others were hybrid workshops – where all the stakeholders participated in examining, rating and discussing the collected phenomena. Besides council representatives, Parkano invited many other stakeholders to take part, e.g. those who work with the youth, elderly and people with disabilities, along with stakeholders from the private sector and companies
owned by the city.
For a city like Parkano, geographically located between the two larger cities of Tampere and Seinäjoki, many of the phenomena identified as important were related to how technology is changing the way people view locations and spaces. For example, the rising popularity of remote work and study can increase the attractiveness of places such as Parkano – especially if networks and connectivity are maintained at a high level, along with options for local leisure-time activities
and public services to meet the needs of the ageing population.
High network connectivity, options for local leisure-time activities and public services can attract remote workers and students to small and mid-sized cities.
Final report provides actionable insights for the strategy work ahead
As the final deliverable, all the insight produced in the workshops was further distilled into four key themes, guiding the city of Parkano to build competitive advantage in each domain: (i) Happy and vibrant Parkano, (ii) Entrepreneurial and thriving Parkano, (iii) Capable and networked Parkano, (iv) Functional and sustainable Parkano.
“These four areas are featured in the final report, and they’ve really helped us organise our thinking ahead of the actual strategy work,” Risto Uotila says, adding that the city has since sent a questionnaire to those who live in or work for Parkano, with questions categorised under these four themes. The results of this questionnaire will be added to the materials that will be used as the basis for the strategy work.
These four future visions for Parkano will be utilised in the city’s strategy work, where city stakeholders will together identify key action points to build competitive advantage in each area.
Follow these 5 steps to future-proof your city strategy using systematic foresight
RESEARCH 📈
Conduct initial background research (horizon scanning) in a systematic manner,
following future studies methodology. Experts in the field can help you do this,
offering your organisation a wide-scale overview of all the phenomena potentially
impacting the future of your city.
DISCUSS 💬
Invite all the important stakeholders to discuss the key trends and phenomena
collected during your research. This is best done with a digital tool such as Futures
Platform, where everyone can easily examine and vote on trends to identify the
most relevant ones for your city specifically. Remember to communicate clearly
that this is not yet the actual strategy work, but systematic foresight that will help the strategy process.
ANALYSE 💡
Next, your team can reflect on which trends pose risks to your organisation and
which come with opportunities. This is also a good time to start thinking of and
listing concrete measures you could take to address these opportunities and risks.
SUMMARISE 📑
Compile your findings into a final report. Remember that the report is only useful
if it is reflected on, so be sure to spread it far and wide to all relevant parties and
encourage people to read it before the strategy work begins.
UTILISE 📊
As you invite all your stakeholders back together to start working on your new
strategy, the report and the foresight work will serve as insightful background
material, together with all the other data your organisation has produced.
Log in to Futures Platform to check the latest trends and developments