Team Academy Finland - An Exemplar in Education

OPENING PAPER 1.1 1 (19)
The Academy for Systemic Change / Exemplars

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TEAM ACADEMY FINLAND’S OPENING PAPER ON EXEMPLARS

“Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed saepe cadendo. ”

”The drop excavates the stone, not with force but by falling often.”

- Team Academy’s motto III -

Please note that this Opening Paper is version 1.1 (revised from version 1.0).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 TEAM ACADEMY FINLAND BRIEFLY .........................................................................2 

1.1 Team Academy Finland ...................................................................................................2 

1.2 Use of Team Academy Methods in Further Education Programmes for Adults .............5 

2 TEAM ACADEMY FINLAND’S EXEMPLARS PROJECT TEAM..............................6 

3 OUR CHALLENGE..............................................................................................................7 

3.1 The Big Picture.................................................................................................................7 

3.2 Team Academy Finland’s Perspective on the Export of Education.................................8 

3.3 Exemplars and Our Challenge........................................................................................11 

3.4 Our 3x3 Challenge Matrix..............................................................................................12 

3.5 Some Obstacles We Face ...............................................................................................13 

4 OUR EXPERIENCE AND APPROACH..........................................................................15 

4.1 Fields of Expertice..........................................................................................................15 

4.2 Action Oriented Approach in Exemplars .......................................................................16 

5 INFO RESOURCES............................................................................................................17 

6 NOTES..................................................................................................................................18 

ATTACHMENT: TEAM ACADEMY IN NUMBERS ......................................................19 

Team Academy Finland 2011
www.tiimiakatemia.fi


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1 T E A M A C A D E M Y F IN L A N D B R IE F L Y

1.1 TEAM ACADEMY FINLAND

Team Academy Finland (also known as “Team Academy Jyväskylä” with those tricky dots
above As) is a multifaceted entity. First of all, from the formal educational point of view, it is
a BBA programme for entrepreneurship development that lasts approximately 3,5 years.
Second, looking from the organizational perspective, it is a unit within JAMK The
University of Applied Sciences and thus is part of public sector higher education consortium.
Third, when explored from the social point of view, it can be considered to be a community
of learners who operate using unique practices of learning organization. Fourth, it is a
“learning approach”, if we look at it from the perspective of pedagogy. Fifth, when looking
it from a holistic perspective that encompasses all things in life, it is a way of life and way of
doing things. And sixth, it is a brand owned by Partus Ltd but used by many parties.

There are about two hundred BBA students and six full-time staff members in Team
Academy Finland. Actually, we do not use the word “student”, but the word “teampreneur”
in order to emphasise the entrepreneurial and team member role of a learner. Also, “staff
members” are not teachers, but “team-coaches” who facilitate team’s contact sessions
(training sessions).

Each teampreneur’s learning path (“studies”) is approximately 3,5 years long and consists of
210 credits. Teampreneurs operate as part of a team that consist of 15 to 22 other
teampreneurs for this whole time. Each team organizes its activities as a real-life team-
company that is totally owned by the teampreneurs and is totally independent from Team
Academy Finland as juridical entity.

Learning during the learning path is done by doing three things:

Training sessions: Teampreneurs participate to team’s team coaching sessions twice a week
for four hours per time. They are called “training sessions”. In these sessions a learning
organization practice called “dialogue” is used. It is facilitated by a team-coach who uses
questions to steer the dialogue. Team-coach also enforces some basic rules and emphasises
some important things as the team develops.



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During training sessions experienced from projects done are exchanged, successes and
failures are shared, disputes and conflicts within a team are handled, new plans are devised
and shared visions created. Sometimes team members might organize brainstorming sessions
to solve hot problems or keep presentations and lectures to each other on theoretical subjects.

The learners themselves are responsible for the content of the training sessions, although the
team-coach might sometimes steer discussions on things that should be discussed upon.

The concept of “sosioconstructivism” is at the background of training sessions. “Sosio” refers
– of course – to social, or to team learning where learners learn with others. “Constructivism”
refers, in turn, to the idea that the learners themselves “construct” their ideas on
entrepreneurship, teams, marketing, leadership, finances, ethics, project work and so forth.

Projects: Projects is the learning process where the rubber meets the road. Teampreneurs
carry out projects to the economic life using their team company as a vehicle to get them
done. They are responsible themselves to find clients, negotiate with them on the projects,
sign contracts and do the jobs they have promised to do.

Team companies keep the money they have earned from the projects and can decide
themselves how they use it (e.g. do they pay it as salaries).

The concept of “learning by doing” is at the background of projects. Projects are reflected
upon in training sessions and also by using before action- and after action reviews. So, it is
not just “doing” but “doing and reflecting on things learnt together”.

Theory Programme: Learning by doing and training sessions are supported with a theory
programme. It consists of reading 40-60 management books that are chosen from The Book
on Books –catalogue that has approximately 1000 book recommendations to choose from. For
each book, teampreneur writes a reflective essay on it.

The key idea of theory programme is to support “applying theory to practice” and vice versa
(“abstraction” or simply “generalization”). Theories are tested in practice. Although Team
Academy’s approach is pragmatic, it really carries out methods that are similar to scientific
approach - “How does this and this work in practice? What is the model behind this and this?”



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Table below summarizes the basic components of Team Academy.

Basic Building Blocks of Team Academy Main Learning Processes of Team Academy

1. Teampreneurs (“students”) 1. Training sessions (team coaching sessions)
2. Teams (15-22 persons per team) 2. Projects (to economic life)
3. Team companies (real-life companies) 3. Theory programme (books & essays)

That’s about it but that is not all. There are many concepts, both big and small, that haven’t
been described here. Just to give you a glimpse on them, see table below or get more
information by using the sources provided at the end of this document.

Tools, methods and concepts in Team Academy (a few key theories that have had influence on
it/them in italics and in parenthesis)

1. Team coaching (Downey, Katzenbach & Smith, Marquart, Senge)
2. Before and After Action Reviews (Motorola reports) (Peters)
3. Internal community meeting days (Houston Calling) (Sthåle & Laento)
4. Network days and forums (seminars and conferences) (Sthåle & Laento)
5. Individual’s competency assessment (Skill Profile) (Nissinen)
6. Team quality assessment (Quality 47)
7. Leading Thoughts (vision, mission, values, principles, etc.) (Senge)
8. Internal leadership programs
9. Rules of dialogue (Senge, Isaacs, Bohm)
10. Brand envelope (Gad)
11. HIT MR leadership philosophy (Kouzes & Posner)
12. Leadership positions within Team Academy (4 positions)
13. Competency demonstrations (Birth Givings)
14. Around-the-World Trip (concrete goal of team)
15. Individual’s development discussions



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1.2 USE OF TEAM ACADEMY METHODS IN FURTHER EDUCATION
PROGRAMMES FOR ADULTS

In addition to Team Academy Finland’s BBA education, the “Team Academy Approach” is
also used widely to educate people in working life. Over 300 managers, entrepreneurs and
experts from the educational field (public sector teachers and private sector consultants)
participate to our adult education programmes yearly and over 1000 have graduated from
them.

The programmes are: Igniting Hearts (for start-ups), Blazing Torch (for experienced
entrepreneurs), Team Mastery (for coaches and teachers) and Innovator’s Workshop (for
developers). Also we have programme for people in sales and our own MBA programme. All
of the above mentioned programmes (except MBA) are certified by the Ministry of Education
and thus the participants receive formal degrees by completing them.

All of our adult education programmes are “mini-sized” modifications of the full BBA
programme described earlier. They last for 1,5 years and include 19 contact days. Same
methods are used in them as are in Team Academy Finland.



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2 T E A M A C A D E M Y F IN L A N D ’S E X E M P L A R S P R O J E C T T E A M

Vilma Mutka (Project Manager) vilma.vaisanen@partus.fi

Partus Ltd, Team Academy Finland’s Adult Education
Unit

Team Coach, Communications Manager

Role and area of responsibility in Exemplars: project
manager, communications, practical arrangements,
network info

Ville Keränen ville@banana.fi

Monkey Business, Team Academy Finland’s Core
Collaborator

Team Coach, International Agent

Role and area of responsibility in Exemplars: IT platform
co-developer

Jukka Hassinen jukka.hassinen@partus.fi

Partus Ltd, Team Academy Finland’s Adult Education
Unit

Management expert

Role and area of responsibility in Exemplars: materials
and theories



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3 OUR CHALLENGE

3.1 THE BIG PICTURE

The Finnish open education system has gained a great deal of interest and respect in the
international field. The success in international studies about the productivity of education,
such as PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), has lead to plenty of
interest in exporting Finnish educational processes abroad. However, the resources or
products of Finnish education do not meet the existing demand at the moment and therefore
we need to discover new innovations on exporting Finnish educational processes abroad.
(Ministry of Education and Culture: Finnish Education Export Strategy 2010.)

Nevertheless, there is ongoing research and a reform of the higher education system in
Finland striving for developing internationality in education. Therefore, it can be stated that
this demonstrates a willingness to develop the system to correspond to the needs of the
customer without forgetting the value of the original product. Moreover, by combining all of
these aspects it can be inevitably discovered that there is a need for exporting Finnish
educational processes. For Finland the developments in the export of education could mean
not just increasing export in total, but also finding new innovative solutions to the already
existing educational processes. Furthermore, for the customers it is about discovering new
learning processes and methods to develop their educational systems.

Also, thought the whole European Union, both educational institutions and politicians are
struggling with the question about entrepreneurship. The ratio of graduates employed as
entrepreneurs within few years of graduation hovers at the level of 3-5 % in EU countries. It
is in the interest of all societies to raise this number, as the working life is changing rapidly.
Finland faces also this challenge with its average 3 % (Team Academy’s result is 37 % to 47
%). This need is also reflected to the export activities, as entrepreneurship education is in
great demand everywhere.

The attitude towards entrepreneurship in Finnish society has changed dramatically during the
last 20 years from “Who cares about small-business entrepreneurs, it’s the big business that
keeps this society running” to “We need entrepreneurs to generate wealth, new work places
and tax money to preserve our dear welfare state with its free healthcare, education and
welfare benefits – and we need them fast!”. Entrepreneurship is no longer a marginal



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thing, but one of the main strategic themes of Finland and other European Union
countries.

In Central Finland Region and the City of Jyväskylä strive to inform companies and other
institutions abroad Finland on the expert services that the region of Central Finland can
provide them. These services consist of educational services that are provided both by
publicly and privately owned companies. To carry this activity out a company called
EduCluster Finland Ltd (ECF Ltd) has been established by University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä
University of Applied Sciences and Jyväskylä Educational Consortium. Also, there are other
institutions that fund and support the export activities of educational services, such as Jykes
Ltd (Jyväskylä Regional Development Company Jykes Ltd).

3.2 TEAM ACADEMY FINLAND’S PERSPECTIVE ON THE EXPORT OF
EDUCATION

Team Academy Finland is in the middle of the politics, ambitions, ideas and plans of the
export of educational services. Our community has been dreaming of exporting our learning
approach both within Finland and to the world at large for the last ten or fifteen years. Thus,
our ideas on “changing the world of education” and “promoting entrepreneurship” have been
with us from the first days of our activities. The current favourable attitude of politicians and
public sector authorities will surely help us in the upcoming years as we strive to go abroad.

The Team Academy Approach has gained a great deal of interest in European Union, mainly
through Society For Organizational Learning (SoL) network during the past 10 years. Team
Academy Finland has been active member of SoL Finland and has also organized SoL
conferences in Finland both on national and international level. Some prominent SoL
members have helped us to promote our approach, such as Mr. Etienne Colligon (Solvay,
France) and Mr. Peter Senge (USA) (by the way, if you read this: “Thank You for Your
Support!”).

Over 1000 persons, both from business and educational fields, visit Team Academy
Finland each year. Approximately 20 % of them are abroad Finland, mainly from
European Union countries. Visitors come to see our “innovative” and “fresh” approach to
learning. Phrases like: “Oh, your young people are so motivated and self-organizing!” and “I
wish that I would have had the opportunity to have my school like this!” can be heard during



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these visits. They also have a barrage of questions that we try to answer the best we can, e.g.
“What is your curriculum like?”, “Who’s in charge here?”, “If the students have so much
freedom, doesn’t this place fall in to anarchy?”, “How does team coaching differ from
teaching?”, “On what theories is Team Academy based on?” and “How do you evaluate your
students if you do not use exams?”. The Finnish dual education system with two different
kinds of higher education degree possibilities, different role of teachers (as coaches),
colourful physical learning environment, vibrant noise everywhere and strange “classrooms”
with chairs in circles and everything else raise a lot of questions, both doubtful and curious.

In year 2006 we started our first international programme, Team Mastery. It is a “support
platform” that helps the programme participants to establish “little-brother” or “little-sister”
Team Academies or similar learning centres. Currently, third program cycle of Team Mastery
is underway and fourth will start in spring of 2011.

Some of the bravest and most enthusiastic visitors and Team Mastery participants have
established Team Academies to Europe. During years 2002-2011 over ten different
learning centres have been born as illustrated in the network map below. Some of them are
just pilots or in the establishment phase, some of them are fledging units with only 10
teampreneurs and some of them are full-blown master’s programmes within universities.

Senac University
Team Academy Kaos Pilots MSLS (Brazil, Sao Paulo)
Surrey
Cambridge
Univesity Slovenia

Iceland

Team Academy Hungary
Finland & Partus
ProAcademy
(Finland, Tampere) Network Map

Team Academy
Team Academy
Euskadi
Haarlem
Mondragon
Creative Impact Team Academy Team Academy
(Madrid) Strassborough
Team Factory
Team Academy Paris
Angers



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As you can see from the network map, Team Academy Finland is not alone. Our (not just
“ours”, but everybody’s, as networks cannot be “owned”) network is on a phase where there
are lots of things happening but everybody’s doing their “own thing”. The plus side of this is
that every organization in the network will generate different kinds of solutions and models of
operating. The minus side is that without some operating guidelines and ways of doing things
the network will not grow stronger and the ideas of Team Academy Approach will be diluted.
Also, we are lacking resources (manpower and money) to provide help to each other.

Now we are at the threshold of moving to next phase in our network. The classical
questions about control, rules, power, rights and “the right way” are arising. And as the
network desperately needs resources, especially financial, the question about money is
growing. To this point, almost anybody has had the right to establish his or her own Team
Academy Finland without no obligations to pay to the brand owner and method developer,
Partus Ltd. But, to develop things, money is needed and thus some way of getting it must be
developed.

As the demand for Team Academies is growing, we need to develop some kinds of models
that allow easier and faster establishment of Team Academies. Currently we do have all
kinds of materials and ideas on it, but we do not have enough solid and robust tools or
models, that would be helpful in the establishment process.

Currently (winter 2011) we in Team Academy Finland have made strategic decisions on our
international work as follows:

1. We’ll focus on higher education institutions (universities).

2. We’ll focus primary on European Union countries (but we do exchange information
and knowledge with everybody be they from any other part of the world, of course!).

The decisions above may, of course, change.



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3.3 EXEMPLARS AND OUR CHALLENGE

"Do not wonder if I continue to raise issues which seem to be self-evident. I do it to get the
discussion moving forward in a consistent manner. I do it not to tease you, but to prevent us
from prior guessing each other's ideas and stealing words from one another's mouths. No - I
want you to develop your own views in your own way, from within your starting points."

- Socrates -

Our current challenge that we would like to have ideas, answers, questions, opinions, models,
theories, peer support, tools and “all things helpful” on from Exemplars consist of the
following questions (that may be, of course, reframed in the course of Exemplar process):

1. How to establish new Team Academies to European Union higher education
universities in a organized fashion but so that there would be enough space and room
for diversity (chaordic organization –style)?

2. How to generate Leading Thoughts and operational guidelines for our Team
Academy network and keep the network committed to them?

3. What kind of financial model for getting resources would be suitable for our
operations? How to make it fair, transparent and feasible for the network? As we
(Team Academy Finland and its adult education unit Partus Ltd) do not operate on
pro bono basis, what would be righteous amount of profit (not being greedy, that is)
that we would deserve for allowing others to use our social innovation and brand that
we have worked so hard to build for over 15 years? And for what purposes this profit
should be used?

We feel that we have stepped to a new country or area that we have never visited and that we
have no idea about. Finland is just taking its first steps in exporting education abroad and we
are at the forefront of this activity. We know that there are lots of smart people out there in
Exemplars who have faced these things and devised solutions to them. We sincerely believe
that Team Academy Approach will create great learning opportunities to the young people in
European Union and maybe in the whole world. New adventures are ahead. But as we all
know, travelling with others allows one to reflect the trip from many perspectives. That is
why we joined Exemplars.



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3.4 OUR 3X3 CHALLENGE MATRIX

US management expert Peter Senge has stated that when creating visions, it is important to
understand the difference between ends and means that are needed to achieve these ends.

On the next page you’ll find our “3x3 Challenge Matrix” where we have drafted some our
means and ends to a compact sheet. This matrix is not a final one. It is just a draft that will be
changed and modified as new opportunities and ideas emerge. In the matrix - against Senge’s
statement - means and ends are merrily confused and mixed up with each other. But as things
progress, we’ll try to follow Senge’s fine advice and sort this matrix to make it “a version
2.0” where our challenges are more clearly expressed.

1. What would success 2. What kind of capabilities 3. What kind of
look like? and skills need to be built capabilities and skills need
within the network to attain to be built within the core
these successes? group to attain these
successes?

1. How to There are 5 established In each TA unit there is need to Understanding the "big
scale Team university-level TA units have capable Team Coaches picture" and seeing the
Academies that have operated for at (with deep knowledge on team system.
to EU least 3 years. In addition, learning, team entrepreneurship
higher there are 5 promising and team coaching) Ability to model different
education initiatives. phenomena present in the
in an In each TA unit there is need to network (practices, ideas,
organized, There is strong Team have capable unit managers ways of working, etc.) and
but free Academy brand identity (with parnership building skills, share it in the network.
(chaordic) within the units and in leadership skills and a wide
fashion? the whole network. contact network). Understanding the status of
the TA network.
Team Academy In each TA unit there is a need
Finland’s vision 2013 of to have a suitable team learning "Friend leadership", network
being a leading environment and infrastructure. leadership and management
international unit in the skills.
field of teampreneurship We (need to) have the
has been realized. capabilities to have network Knowledge on cultures.
meeting forums and IT
platforms for sharing
information and knowledge as a
network.

General “skills”
(characteristics) needed to
succeed: courage, patience,
perseverance and weird sense
of humour.



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2. How to All TA units in the Skills needed to create Leading Skills and capabilities on
co-create network have adapted Thoughts and guidelines: organizing network forums
and shared Leading Thoughts dialogue and communication and communication
sustain that have been created skills. Also, understanding of platforms to the network.
Leading jointly. cultural similarities and
Thoughts differences of different TAs is Skills on developing an
and All TA units in the important. auditing process model for
guidelines network have adapted certifying Team Academies.
for TA shared guiding principles Capabilities needed to create
network? that have been created Leading Thoughts and
jointly. guidelines: network forums
where ideas are discussed and
All TA units participate decided upon
to the renewal process of
shared Leading Thoughts
and guiding principles
annually.

3. What is Each unit in the network In each TA unit there is needed Skills and capabilities of
feasible has a feasible business good relationships to funding building a model such as
and model. sources (public, private and 3rd licensing to sustain the
sustainable sector). support for TA network.
financial Partus Ltd has sufficient
model for funds to build and Also, each TA unit needs: good Support service skills and
TA? maintain the support financial management skills capabilities that are needed
services that the network and ability to develop to carry out staff training of
needs. educational programs to the TA units, disseminating
market. information and other
similar things.

3.5 SOME OBSTACLES WE FACE

“Why make life easy when you can make it hard?
There is joy in life when you have problems that you have to face and solve.”

- Adaptation from marketing expert Mr. Timo Rope’s comment on entrepreneurship -

To attain the objectives set forth in the 3x3 matrix we need to solve numerous tricky problems
and overcome more than a few obstacles. Ah, there is truly joy in facing and solving
problems.

The box below lists some of the problems and obstacles we are currently facing. It is no
means definitive list as new issues are bound to emerge and go away as we progress in our
development work.



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Some problems to solve, obstacles to overcome and challenges to be faced

1. How to shift to a new business model?
Approximately 90 % of our current revenue (and profit) comes from domestic (Finnish) markets. Selling
and implementing our coaching programmes generate this revenue. We make a living by doing things
ourselves (e.g. coaching). Creating new Team Academy units requires us to move from “direct doing” to
“indirect supporting”. This requires a new business model where some of the revenue comes from
licensing fees and providing support services (e.g. learning infrastructure). A too rapid shift from our
current business model to a new one would cause massive imbalance in finances and financial gap. How
to make the transition smoothly?
2. Engaging vision?
We do have vision concerning our international expansion (as indicated in the 3x3 matrix). However, we
have an itching feeling that not everybody in our core network is fully engaged to it. It might be that
some of our coaches might not even fully realize our intentions. How to engage everybody to support
the vision and strive towards it? And how to participate everyone to co-create and supplement the
vision? How to avoid the trap of “lofty top-down vision”?
3. New, fresh competencies
New business model (see challenge #1) requires us to develop new competencies and mindsets. Thus,
some (or all?) of us have to step away from our comfort zones and go boldly where no man or woman
has gone before. We’ll need competencies in conducting business with different cultures, in laws and
regulations, in licensing models and in many other fields. How do we change our mindsets? How do we
develop our competencies? Do we need to recruit new people who have the needed competencies?
4. The birth or death of salesman?
We Finns normally consider ourselves to be excellent experts but poor salesmen or –women. We
innovate all kinds of wonderful inventions but fail to sell them (or so do we think). Operating in
different cultures requires more skill and grace in the art of selling than in Finland. Thus, we need both
mindset and competency in selling in order to achieve our goals. How to sell? Do we need “traditional
selling” or are there effective alternatives to it? And should we recruit new salesmen and –women to
operate in international settings?



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4 O U R E X P E R IE N C E A N D A P P R O A C H

4.1 FIELDS OF EXPERTICE

In Exemplars, we would like to give and share our feedback, comments, ideas, perspectives,
feelings and experiences to other Exemplars. Good old dialogue is fine with us as is the more
fashionable “crowdsourcing”.

Below is a list on topics and themes we have experience on. Please consider it to be just a
guideline list, not a definite and absolute one. Many Exemplars may have a lot more
experience than we do in these matters.

Our Fields of Experience and Expertise

1. Team building and team leading in both educational and business settings. We have practical
experience of over 18 years in building and leading teams that operate for 3,5 years each in
higher university setting.
2. Team coaching. Ditto.
3. Team entrepreneurship. Over 18 years we have developed and used practical methods that
produce hands-on results. 47 % of our Team Academy Finland graduates are employed as
entrepreneurs within two years of graduation.
4. Coaching team coaches. We’ve got our own “coach-the-coach” –program Team Mastery.
5. Learning organizations in practice. Team Academy is a learning organization with learning
infrastructure, guiding ideas and practices. We live in learning organization every day, every
hour. We have implemented the ideas and theories of learning organization (e.g. Senge’s ideas)
to practice.
6. Higher education. As Team Academy is part of formal university system, we have knowledge
and understanding on curriculums and European Union requirements concerning education
(e.g. Bolognese process).
7. Adult education. Partus Ltd has educated over 700 entrepreneurs, managers and teachers in its
adult education programmes. Each of them last 1,5 years, so they are long processes. In all of
these programs Team Academy approach has been used.

Please challenge us with your questions and bring forth your challenges. We’ll be happy to
work with you in Exemplars!



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4.2 ACTION ORIENTED APPROACH IN EXEMPLARS

Team Academy’s culture is pragmatic. We love to experiment with ideas and apply theories
to practice. By reflecting on what happens, we create models that are refined with another
cycles of experimentation and reflection.

In Exemplars we would like to work with challenges that are hands-on challenges. By
working on and reflecting on them, we can generate both context-bound and universal models
and ideas on the themes that Exemplars explores: scaling, embodiement, systemic change,
presencing, etc. (Please see more: “The Academy: A Global Community for Collective
Capacity Building - transforming the systems that shape how we live” –briefing paper, Jan
19th 2011).

So, our approach is action oriented: first we’ll experiment and then we’ll make a model out of
our experiences.



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5 IN F O R E S O U R C E S

Partus Ltd www.partus.fi
SoL Finland www.solfinland.org
Team Academy Finland, basic info www.tiimiakatemia.fi
Team Academy Finland, information on Team http://partus.fi/LE-Jan2011-
Academy Approach (various materials) Downloadable-Materials

If you are looking for information, please start from the last link indicated above. You’ll find
there plenty of materials on Team Academy.

If you are interested on the books or theories that we use in Team Academy, please contact us
and we’ll provide you a list of our favourite books where you can find some of our key ideas.



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6 NOTES

On our euro centrism:

Through this document we have been telling things from the perspective of Finland and Europe. We
are well aware that Europe is small part of the world we live in. We do not wish to give anybody the
impression that Team Academy is “only European thing”. Team Academy Approach can be used in
wide variety of contexts (education, business, third sector, etc.) and cultures (Western, Oriental,
Arabic, American, Spanish, African, Finnish, etc.) in various ways by adapting them to the contexts
and cultures. We oppose force-feeding of any perspectives or values to anyone (e.g. educating non-
western managers to be “western managers” in “western MBA” by providing them only western ideas,
theories or beliefs on management) but we do, naturally, present our approach, ideas and even values as
alternative ways of thinking and seeing the world.

On the different organizations involved:

Team Academy Finland itself is part of public sector university. Its mission is to educate young people.
Team Academy Finland, as an organization, does not generate profits or make business, as it is 100 %
government funded. Partus Ltd is a close collaborator to Team Academy Finland. It operates as Team
Academy Finland’s adult education unit. Its mission is to educate entrepreneurs, managers and
professionals from educational field. Partus Ltd is a private company that does make (modest) profits
and is juridically and financially separate from Team Academy Finland. Partus Ltd produces services
that allow organizations to become and operate as Team Academies. Partus Ltd owns the Team
Academy trademark.

On our style of communicating with you:

None of us are native speakers of English. This is reflected in all the documents that we produce as
errors and funny misunderstandings. We hope that you’ll understand this and have many laughs when
reading our texts. Our way of communicating is relaxed and non-formal, but we are serious on the
matters we write about.

We do use “Mr.” and “Ms.” prefixes to indicate the gender of person to avoid any embarrassing
misunderstandings. Finnish language does not have separate “he” or “she” words, just “he” (fin. hän)
that can be a person of either gender. So sometimes we may make mistakes with he and she.



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A T T A C H M E N T : T E A M A C A D E M Y IN N U M B E R S

NUMBERS ON TEAM ACADEMY FINLAND

1. Numbers on Team Academy: Educational perspective
1.1. 200 students in Team Academy in 2010.
1.2. 50 students starting their BBA studies each year.
1.3. Total number of Team Academy graduates is 600 (BBA degree) during its operation 1993-
2010.
1.4. Graduation ratio in 2009 was 85 %.

2. Numbers on Team Academy: Employment perspective
2.1. 91 % of students were employed within 6 months after graduation in 2009.
2.2. 37 % of students were employed as entrepreneurs within 6 months after graduation in 2009.
47 % of students as entrepreneurs after 2 years of graduation.
2.3. 54 % of students were employed as employees (“non-entrepreuners”) within 6 months after
graduation in 2009.

3. Numbers on Team Academy: Organizational perspective
3.1. Team Academy’s yearly educational budget in 2009 was 750 000 €.
3.2. Five (5) full-time and two (2) part-time coaches in Team Academy in 2009.

4. Numbers on Team Academy: Team company perspective
4.1. There will be 12 team companies in Team Academy in autumn 2010 plus one (1).
4.2. Combined turnover of all team companies operating in Team Academy in 2009, excluding
internal money transfers between the companies, was 1,5 million €.
4.3. Number of completed projects in Team Academy in 2009 was 150.
4.4. Completed projects in Team Academy in 2009, allotted with project size as follows:
15 Class A projects = over 10 000 €
52 Class B projects = 2 000-10 000 €
83 Class C projects = under 2 000 €
4.5. Average project turnover in 2009 was 10 000 € per project.

5. Numbers on Team Academy: Impact on society
5.1. Combined amount of tax revenue generated to society from business activities carried out by
the team companies operating in Team Academy in 2009 was 330 000 €.

Note: Team Academy’s educational budget is 100% funded by the Finnish government. Team Academy’s team companies are
co-operative companies that are totally independent and are legitimately separate from the Jyväskylä University of Applied
Sciences.


Team Academy Finland - An Exemplar in Education

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