How to build a process community with Miikka Leinonen from Ghost Community

How to build a process community with Miikka Leinonen from Ghost Community

#010: Learn from Miikka Leinonen how to build a community and find out how this can be applied to your process to develop and leverage a process community.

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In this episode, I’m speaking with Miikka Leinonen about how to build a community and we are transferring his experience to processes to learn how to build a process community. – A community of all the people working in a specific business process. I became aware of his work on LinkedIn, where he is publishing valuable impulses on community building. So I invited him to the podcast to find out more on how to build communities.

Today’s Guest

Miikka Leinonen

Miikka is Community Advisor at Ghost Community and Strategic Innovation Advisor at Ghost Company, based in Helsinki, Finland. – On their LinkedIn profile they say: Ghost Company. Not an agency. Not a consultancy. A Ghost Company. 😊

Previously, he worked as a Creative Director and Visual Strategist in different companies for many years and now he’s focused on helping companies build corporate communities.

You’ll learn

• Which three elements you need to successfully build a community
• What the three different types of communities are and how to use these to get all the benefits
• How to build a community in general and how to apply this to processes to develop and leverage a process community for your own business process
• Which difficulty Miikka sees and how to approach this when developing a formal process community instead of an informal community

Resources

• Miikka Leinonen on LinkedIn
• Ghost Community website
• Ghost Company website
• Episode 5 of the New Process Podcast on how a process purpose pushes your process to the next level
• My deep dive article on how to build a process community

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Transcript

Please note that the transcript was generated automatically and only slightly adjusted. It does not claim to be a perfect transcription.

Miikka (00:00:00) – I think people are smart and people are interested in being part of a community because it is very natural for us. It is more natural than the corporate structures that we have nowadays. So, um, building a community is something that, that people want to do. People wanna belong somewhere, so let’s use that, and I would hope that business would become more humane and more just more natural. That’s my wish.

Mirko (00:00:55) – Yeah. Welcome to episode 10 of the New Process podcast. Today, it’s all about how to build a process community, and therefore I’m speaking with Miikka Leinonen. Miikka is community advisor at Ghost Community and Strategic Innovation Advisor at Ghost, not an agency, not a consultancy, they call it Ghost Company, based in Helsinki, Finland. And I became aware of his work on LinkedIn where he is publishing valuable impulses on community building. So I invited him to the podcast to find out more on how to build communities. And this is what we’re going to explore in this episode. So you’ll learn a lot about community building, like the elements you need to build a community, different types of communities, and how to build a community at all. So maybe, uh, process community , and I’m going to push it even further in the recap after the interview. So there, I try to combine what I just learned with my thoughts, uh, on process communities. So enjoy the episode with Miikka Leinonen

Mirko (00:02:12) – Yeah, Miikka, welcome to this episode of the New Process podcast. It’s great to have you here. I, as I already said, I found you on LinkedIn as an expert for community building. I really like your post now. I’m, I’m happy that you are here and you can share with our listeners a little bit more what you are doing as a community advisor and so on. So, Miikka, welcome to the podcast.

Miikka (00:02:35) – Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. Great to be here.

Mirko (00:02:38) – Yeah. Cool. So then let’s start right away and start with the first check-in question. So, in an aircraft, what do you prefer? ILE or Windows Window seat.

Miikka (00:02:50) – Yeah. I, when I travel, if I travel, um, I, I, I try to have a window seat because I have a slight fear of flying . Uh, so, so it’s better for me to see where the plane is and, and look out the window that rather than, than look inside the plane. Uh, so, so I, I sort of, I’m in the sky, not in the plane. So that, that’s my philosophy. . But, but I, yeah, I, so as said, I, I have a slight fear of flying, but I understand that, and I used to fly before Covid, uh, fairly, uh, a lot I would say. And I, I think it’s important to, to travel, not much, uh, because of environmental reasons. Of course, it’s, it’s not good. And, and I’m happy to stay at home, but it’s important to, to visit places so you don’t start thinking too locally, so you’re not rooted into, into particular place, but, but you understand that there are other ways of thinking and, and other places in the world where people have different backgrounds and different cultures and, and sort of be more international. I think that’s important.

Mirko (00:04:00) – Yeah, definitely. I can fully agree. That’s also my, my experience and what I try to teach our daughters, for example, as well, to be open there and yeah. Experience other cultures and so on. Yeah. That’s, that’s cool. And, um, what is your favorite airport?

Miikka (00:04:17) – Well, sadly, I would say my, my favorite airport is Helsinki because it’s, uh, it’s of course my home airport. It’s, it’s close by and it’s, it’s, it’s fairly small. So that’s many good things about that. And I think the, uh, before the pandemic, I think my, my record time was, uh, 30 minutes from home to the gate, so that’s

Mirko (00:04:46) – Really good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s cool. I also love the smaller airports, because you can be very fast from, from where you are to, to the plane there. Yeah. That’s, that’s cool. Um, yeah, I was just thinking about Frankfurt Airport, where I started a lot of times, um, flying back to Hamburg and just, uh, checking how much time do I have to get from the office to the plane, and will, will it be delayed? And I made it there, it within 30 minutes as well, from the office into the plane. Wow. Just, but only, uh, because I knew there will be a delay and I’ll make it anyways. Ah, ah, um, yeah. That’s, that’s funny. That’s cool. Yeah. Okay. And the, the third check-in question goes already a little bit into the direction of processes here. Uh, what was the best process you have ever experienced?

Miikka (00:05:37) – Well, um, I, I think there are many, many good processes, um, that, that I’ve been part of. Many, many interesting processes. Um, and, and I think, um, the, the best way to describe a, a well, um, working process is that you don’t see the process at all. You’re just in the flow. You’re carried somehow, and, and, and you don’t see the structures. And that has become one of my, my sort of way of, of, of recognizing, um, badly functioning processes is that if you can see the structures mm-hmm. , there is something wrong with the structures. So, for example, a a nice event can be a, a process where people are led comfortably through the whole, whole, let’s say a weekend where people don’t see any hiccups and, and people don’t see what’s happening behind the curtain. People are just enjoying the, the time and time spent together. And, and when, when something is built well, um, so it becomes invisible. So a anything that, that is somehow, um, hidden somewhere and, and still smooth and, and, uh, um, well, working, I think those are good processes. Mm-hmm. .

Mirko (00:07:01) – Yeah. That’s, that’s cool. Yeah. Perfect. So thanks for the check-in. And, uh, now we are going into the boarding. So getting closer to the content, to the flight of, uh, this episode. Um, you know, it’s all about processes here in the new Process podcast. So how would you describe your relationship to processes?

Miikka (00:07:22) – Mm. I divide . I don’t know if everything in, in work, like there, there are projects or their processes, and I, I love, um, planning both, but I, I hate executing processes and I’ve, I’ve learned that there, there are people who love processes and people who are excellent at, at running processes. And it took me a while to admit this to myself that, uh, whenever there is a, there’s a, yeah, a process or a project. I love the, the, yeah, I compared that to, um, like, um, a hundred meter dash, uh, a sport. And I’m, I’m interested in the, the first, let’s say five meters of that, uh, event. And then I’m bored, then I want to do something else, . And, and, and I, I’ve understood that that’s not the way any process works, that there is somebody who, who is willing to run only the five meters. But luckily there, there are people who are more interested in, in, in the, the rest of the process. There are people who, who really enjoy, uh, taking the box and seeing the end results. That’s not my thing. Mm-hmm.

Mirko (00:08:45) – . Okay. Yeah. Then that’s interesting. But I think that fits to, to your job, what you’re doing, I would say. Yeah. It’s not about having routines there. It’s, um, setting up new things, innovating things, and, um, building communities,  in there. I I’m really interested in, um, so you are working as a so-called community advisor, uh, for ghost community. Yeah. And, uh, can, can you elaborate a little bit more on what that really is? What are you doing as a community advisor?

Miikka (00:09:19) – Well, we, well, if we divide the world of communities and we just slice it into bit smaller chunks, then there are like the whole nonprofit world. And then there are, uh, these, like, I, I don’t even call them communities, but like, more like social media and let’s say startups. They, they wanna have a community, uh, around them, so, so they get a better valuation. But for us, we see community, something that is in the corporations, we see that to be very interesting. How can we transform the way corporations work, like internally or with their partners, their stakeholders, with their clients, and how can we help them form communities and change the mindset from, from top down and from this siloed way of working? So that, that’s our area of business and, and interest.

Mirko (00:10:24) – Okay. And can you give an example of a specific community and, uh, how you are supporting the organization to build and, uh, develop that community?

Miikka (00:10:35) – Well, let’s take an example of an, of an internal, um, mm-hmm.  a process. Let’s say, uh, there, there’s a, um, a company who wants to, they wanna renew their strategy and, and how do they do that? They can do it by, um, having management retreats and start from there. And, and they can hire consultants to do the, to help them with the strategy and, and, and keep it in, in a small circle of people. And, and then they need to somehow bring it to the whole organization. And that’s sort of the old way of working. And what we are promoting is, is that how can we involve everybody in the process? How can we bring people, uh, to the same table and give everybody a voice? And, and that, that is somehow, somebody might call that co-creation mm-hmm. , but we wanna call that like a community approach to, to strategy building.

Miikka (00:11:29) – And then how do we apply that strategy? Of course, then the same, same works here. We wanna bring people together and, and explore the ideas. How will this affect our team? How will this affect my work? How should we work together? And, and how should we change the, the ways of working in the company based on the strategy that we have built together? So, so, uh, we are not, we don’t wanna break the silos, but we wanna create more flexible organisms on top of the silos and, and, and, and also flowing, um, around the company. So it’s, it’s not, people are not working in boxes, but, but sort of could be people can be, mm. People are allowed to, to spill their ideas over those, those boxes and, and work together with, with other people who have similar interests and mm-hmm.  sort of to, to create more flexibility and, and more like this fluid, um, organisms in, in, um, today’s business. I don’t know if that makes any sense, or does that help you? Is it, is it an example or just more,

Mirko (00:12:46) – Yeah, yeah. And that’s, that’s, that’s quite good. And I have an idea of, uh, how a community like this and an corporation could look like. And to go a little bit deeper into that, what are the tools and methods you are using to build this community?

Miikka (00:13:01) – Normally, what, what we do is that we, um, of course we wanna have some sort of a structure. We wanna, we, we do a plan for the, for the community, but how we typically start is, is in a very agile way. We bring people together to, to, uh, to get a sense of, of what they want and, and how they see the community forming. Uh, so we do have a plan, but, but we are willing to change the plan, uh, after the couple of first meetings with, with people. So, so it’s not driven by us, but it is driven hopefully by the people themselves. Mm-hmm. .

Mirko (00:13:46) – Okay. That’s really interesting. I already tried to bring that together with processes, , so that, that’s, uh, really interesting. Let’s, let’s go into that direction more and, um, uh, what, what would you recommend to the community , the new process community? That’s funny, um, out there to, to rethink process. What are your, I would say three top recommendations to rethink processes based on your experience as a community advisor?

Miikka (00:14:16) – Well, we have a basic structure where we think like, what are the needs of the people? Like, why are they there? Mm-hmm. , what do they want? And, and of course, people, people wanna do a good job. People wanna, people wanna, uh, somehow get things done. And, and there are, uh, people wanna learn new things. And, and there are these fairly small things, but we want, we need to understand what they are, because people in the, in the beginning, at least, people don’t want to be part of a community. People want a shortcut. People wanna, uh, they want something for themselves. We need to understand what that is. And, and after that, we need to, uh, understand how can we build some, some trust within between people. And, and when we have this trust, people start sharing. And then we have sort of a, the, the basic components of, of, uh, maybe not, uh, uh, already a community, but anyway, a functioning network of people that there, we, uh, the, the network is providing value for individuals, and there is enough trust that people are willing to share. And that’s sort of, we get the ball rolling from, from there. And, and that is the, the, the basis of, of any community.

Miikka (00:15:41) – And, and, and from that, if we go further, then we need to have, um, the sense of ownership. People need to somehow recognize that, that I can influence this. I can, I can guide this process. I have power. So people have the sense of ownership in, in the whole, whole community. They, they’re not just, uh, in, in the seat, but they, they can do stuff. And I think what is, what is, uh, sometimes, um, missing is, is talk about a purpose that is also important mm-hmm. , and it doesn’t have to be lifesaving. It’s, it’s, it’s, doesn’t have to be a huge purpose, but it needs to be something that people share in the process. That people see that there’s a common goal. It can be something more tactical, and it doesn’t have to be enormous, but, but talk about the purpose. Why are we here? And, and that bonds people together, that people are doing the same thing. I think it needs to be bit bigger than, than, than like individuals and individual goals. Um, and it needs to be something that people, uh, can align to. Um, so if we have those components, then, then people are, are more able to work together. And, and, and, and, and hopefully that becomes more seamless and, and more shared. Long answer. Sorry.

Mirko (00:17:12) – No, no, that’s, that’s perfect. I just have a follow up question on, on the purpose thing there. Are you having something like a workshop format to, is there something you would call a community purpose? Or how do you approach this?

Miikka (00:17:28) – I think like, to tackle two basic questions is like, um, ask people, why are you here? What do you hope to get out of this personally? Mm-hmm. , what’s, what’s in it for you? That’s a simple question. And, and if there’s enough trust, people can answer honestly. Mm-hmm. . And, and the, the, the other other question, we, we, is sort like a guiding us, us towards the purpose is like, why is it important that we are here? And, and typically what the, the answers we get are they, they are, uh, um, interesting. They are, uh, warm. They are something that people can really relate to and, and share. Mm-hmm. . So two simple questions. Mm-hmm. , why are you here? What do you hope to get out of this? And, and, and why is it important that we are all here doing this? Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm.

Mirko (00:18:30) – . Okay. Yeah, that’s, um, it fits perfectly to, uh, what I am talking about is called process purpose. So that’s, uh, the first phase of the new process lifecycle where you as a process owner, so as the one leading a process community, and now we are getting closer to , the, the deep dive process, uh, community questions, which I have on my list here. And, um, that’s the first step of this lifecycle. So when you are improving a process, uh, in the beginning, you should think about the purpose of this process and, uh, bring the people together, the people working in as well as on the process, and ask them, um, why are we here? Why do we have this process? And then, um, develop something like a process purpose statement, which then can be used to inspire the people and to extend the community, involve more and more people, and, um, bring that process to life. So that’s super interesting. And, uh, I think we, we definitely need to follow up on that and have a closer look onto what you’re doing there.

Miikka (00:19:37) – And, and I think I, I think it’s also important to revisit that purpose from time to time. Yeah. And if, if the group has new members or if it, um, so like a is lost at some point, I think it’s always good to, to revisit the purpose and, and because that aligns people and that brings people together and, and, um, so the, the, the small things are, are meaningless when you talk about the purpose.

Mirko (00:20:07) – Yeah, absolutely. So gives guidance for process execution when we’re talking of processes here as well. So, yeah. And that’s cool. And, uh, what I really would love to know, uh, what your recommendations are for building a process community. But before I’m going to ask you that, uh, I think it makes sense to explain a little bit more about what I think a process community is. Um, so yes, in my, my world, uh, a process community would be all the people working in a specific business process. So like having in a larger organization, um, worldwide recruiting process. And there is a so-called process owner management person, which is accountable for the existence of this process in that, uh, organization. And also being responsible for improving that process, bringing in innovations, setting up new IT tools to hire people and so on. And then roll that out, train the people working in the process, like the recruiters all around the world so that they know how to use the tools, the methods, and even the process purpose.

Mirko (00:21:16) – So why do we have this here? And, uh, how do we contribute to the, um, organizational purpose? Uh, just to give you one example, so for me, this is a process community, all the people working in this HR recruiting process, for example, and there is someone moderating this community or building this community, uh, like the process owner, and he always gets support by a team of people, um, that are working on that. So this is what I would call a process community. And now, now my question is, what is your recommendation? If I am the, the owner of this, uh, global recruiting process in a larger organization, what would you recommend to me? How should I build my community, develop that? What should I do?

Miikka (00:22:03) – Um, I think, um, first you should establish like, what is the community you want? Um, and let’s, let’s have couple of examples. Do you wanna build a, a learning community? Do you wanna build a community where people share what they know and and enjoy that? Or, or do you wanna tough Yeah. Build, uh, do you wanna build, um, um, a community of practice where people who do the same stuff, uh, do it together and, and sort of keep each other informed and, and, uh, um, so day-to-day activities done together? Or, or is it, is it like, maybe the third option is, is it like a community for change? Is it something that, that we’re, there’s a big, so a bit more rebellious idea. Is it something that, that people wanna, is it something where people want to change something? And, um, so, and, and, uh, those, maybe those three types of communities, is it like a learning community, community of practice or, or change community and, and those who have a bit of, of distinctions and, and, uh, ways of working and, and, and maybe the, the level of passion and, and all those, they’re, they’re a bit different.

Miikka (00:23:24) – But I think it’s, it’s, it’s important to, to decide like, what kind of a community are you building? And, and of the, we have like a basic structure. How we typically approach things is, is that we, we try to bring people together and, and, and share time. Maybe, uh, an hour, two hours, that’s, that’s enough, but, but as many people as possible. And then, uh, maybe do that once or twice and, and, uh, ask interesting questions, have discussions. And from that we typically find the, the, the people who are more passionate and mm-hmm.  and who wanna have some role in the community. And, and typically we call that like the core team of the community. And, and they’re, they’re volunteers who wanna do stuff. And, and that’s sort of the easiest way to do it, is to have a, a raise of hands, like, like who wants to, who, who wants to be in the court team? Yeah. And, and typically you easily get the, the handful of people. And, and then you sort of, after that you sort of have two communities. You have the core team, which is a small community, and then, then you have the bigger community, and then need to figure out how we can build the core team and, and build the trust and, and sharing and ownership and all that in the core team. And then how can we help the core team actually run the community?

Mirko (00:25:04) – Mm-hmm. . Okay. And what would you recommend to the core team to, to run the, the overall community then?

Miikka (00:25:12) – Well, in, in the beginning, of course, the, the core team needs, uh, a lot of support mm-hmm. , because they, they are, they are volunteers. They don’t have the time for that. And, and, and, and, and frankly, in, in many cases, people, even though they are given the, the, the sense of ownership, they don’t know what to do with it because they, they sort of a, might be a, a new way working. And, and it is something if they are more familiar with, with the corporate way, and, and they have this mindset that, that needs this need decision needs to be coming from, from the manager or, or somebody else. Mm-hmm. . And, and, and so they’re, they’re not able to, uh, in the beginning to, to grasp the, the ownership. So, so they, they need a lot of support, but, but slowly give that ownership to them and, and, and ask, like, and, and I think the easiest way to do that is, is to organize a, an event with the core team mm-hmm. , let’s say that, that we, let’s, let’s have a, a, an online workshop together and, and have a brainstorming se session with, with the core team, think about what, what, what we could do. And, and then talk about different roles. Is there somebody who wants to facilitate something? Is there somebody who wants to do the invitations? Is there something, some other role? So people, people start to get the idea of, of ownership and, and, and start to work together.

Mirko (00:26:43) – Okay. And then, um, what, what this team, or should this team do to Yeah. Moderate this overall community here from the core team’s perspective? So how do they involve the people? Like, like, take an example. Um, you mentioned these three types of, uh, communities, and I would take all three  for process community, but it always depends on, um, where you are in the process life cycle. So like, um, as I already said, the first step is to develop process purpose. And now we know why this process is here, but often like a recruiting process, the company is already there. We now know our purpose, and there maybe is a strategy which we would like to fulfill or contribute to with our process. And now we, um, develop a new recruiting process and we want to roll that out, uh, implement this process. So there are recruiters all around the world. We have this core team of people who were also working on the new process. And, um, now what would you recommend with regards to the community? How should they implement this process? Or even before, while they are developing the new process, uh, itself, what should they do with the, the bigger community out there, not being part of the core team? Does that make sense? Yeah.

Miikka (00:28:00) – Uh, in this, in this sort of, I, I will take this as a, as a, a fictional case, and so I will have a fictional Yeah. Solution. I would gather as many people as possible around this topic. Um, and, and from those I would get the, the core team I would spend some time with, with the core team and, and try to build this sense of ownership with them and, and start, um, actually doing something. Because of course, any community, it, it, of course, yeah. This is a, a sort of a side note, but, but community can be something also that does not exist really. Mm-hmm.  doesn’t have have any activities. It can be only a mindset that, that you have a, that you feel like you belong to something, and that is also a community, but that mm-hmm. , let’s set that aside.

Miikka (00:28:49) – Uh, uh, every community needs some actions there, there needs to be some sort of a backbone to the community mm-hmm. . So, so there needs to be calendar, there needs to be events, there needs to be something that people can really, uh, grasp mm-hmm.  or there, there can be certain tasks and, and for example, like the, the community can decide that, that we wanna, uh, produce, uh, videos, we wanna produce white papers, we wanna, we wanna do something, but there, there needs to be something. And tho those needs to be somehow set, uh, and, and, and presented to, to the larger community that, that this is what we are doing. This is the grid. Mm-hmm. , this is the, the, the tangible outcomes of this community. Um, and, and, uh, um, I think with, with the core team, I would, um, start, start planning how we congregate, how we get together, and, um, in, in the core team, I, I typically, the core team is sort of like a change community.

Miikka (00:30:00) – Mm-hmm. , what motivates them is that they see that the world is not perfect, and they, they, they, they wanna change it. And let’s say, let’s take this recruiting process, uh, we will probably get in the core team, people who, who see that, yeah, they’re, they’re, it’s, it’s a mess. And, and we have now this, this per perfect solution, and we really need to implement this. So, so we will affect the lives of, of thousands of people or, or millions of people. And, and we need to get this done now because this is important. So that, that could be the key motivator for the court team. And then, then your job in the background is, is to help them fulfill that purpose mm-hmm.  and, and keep the, keep the fire going. And, and they will then sort of go, uh, figure out what could be the motivator for the larger community.

Miikka (00:31:00) – It, it probably is not the same. And, and maybe the larger community is more like a learning community. It is a community where you bring people to, uh, in the beginning it could be sort of lectures, keynote speeches and all that mm-hmm. , but that could be transformed into more discussions and, and sharing and learning from each other. So it doesn’t have to start from, uh, like a, a community. It can start from, uh, events and, and, and something that really slowly builds up into, into more community type or, or network type of of thing.

Mirko (00:31:40) – Okay.

Miikka (00:31:41) – Bit of a bit of a maybe complex answer,

Mirko (00:31:45) – Sorry. Yeah. But in the end, it’s not that complex or it’s bringing the people together, working on a common thing, like, like a process and improving that and sharing the spirit. And that, that’s super fascinating. Yeah. Cool. Great. Yeah. Uh,

Miikka (00:32:00) – And, and, and what we are also offering for our, our corporate clients is, is this community management that there, there is a, a paid person in the background mm-hmm.  taking care of the nitty gritty small stuff and, and reminding people of, of things. And, and there’s also, of course, a risk that this, this per person becomes the, the leader of the community. And, and we wanna avoid that. So, so, uh, they, they should not take the, the ownership of the community. They sh just should be there as a, as a, like a silent secretary reminding people of, of their, their, uh, promises and, and, and keep keeping their, their schedules and all that.

Mirko (00:32:49) – Yeah. Yeah. That’s, and I already have a picture in mind how, how this would’ve looked like in, in, in my process, which I was working for a year ago, and how, um, yeah, I would have used this support, um, to yeah, moderate and, uh, build and yeah, continuously develop the, the community of the process I was working for. And that’s super interesting, and I hope that our listeners have already first ideas how this could look like for, for their specific business process. It could be any process in a company like, uh, recruiting process, sales production, whatever. Or even if, um, the listeners are responsible for the operations of business process management, which is also a process in an organization, then they are also running a BPM community there, uh, and could apply these ideas as well. And, um, yeah. And that’s super fascinating, Miikka, thank you for these insights. Um, just to, to sum it up, what would be your key message to the new process podcast listeners? Uh, what should they keep in mind to rethink processes based on what you just said? What’s your key message there with regards to community building?

Miikka (00:34:06) – The phrase that I need to remind myself of, I, I need to repeat this over and over and over and over again in my head, is, how can we help people do this for themselves? Mm-hmm.  and I, I think, I think it’s, it’s easy to say this, but, but as said, I keep forgetting it myself all the time and, and, and I start planning things and I, and I start, uh, making assumptions of, of people’s needs and, and and such. And, but to, to approach everything with this mindset and this question, like, how can we help people do this for themselves? I think that that is key, key to community and, and, and key to giving the ownership and purpose and, and the, the reigns of, of people, the people’s future to themselves and not, not try to manage everything.

Mirko (00:35:12) – Mm-hmm. . Okay. Very good. Thank you for this advice. And, um, if the people out there are interested to learn more about what you are doing, where can they go to? Where do they find you and, uh, what you are doing?

Miikka (00:35:27) – Yeah, we have a very minimalistic website, ghost community.fi. Uh, we don’t wanna invest our time into that because we, we suck at that, but, um, I’m, yeah, you, yeah. You can, uh, find me on LinkedIn, uh, either follow or, or connect with me. I’m, I’m, I’m happy to have, have happy to meet new people and, and happy to interact in on LinkedIn. That’s basically, I, I think my favorite medium now, so, so find me and, and let’s connect.

Mirko (00:36:05) – Yeah. Perfect. I’ll put the link to your profile into the show notes. So thanks. You can easily find you there. And, um, yeah. Finally, before we land, uh, the aircraft on this episode, um, looking into the future, uh, what would be your recommendation to the listeners as well as to me, um, which other experts we should have a look at, um, into which method we should look into to rethink processes?

Miikka (00:36:35) – Mm. Um, there, there are new books coming out all the time about communities, so, so keep your eyes open. I, I think it is, it is trending right now. There, there are new companies popping up with different approaches, uh, to this topic. And I think, um, I think also exploring yourself, testing, uh, figuring out what could work in your, your business and, and your work. I think, uh, at least for me, that that is the, the most natural way is to, to be very agile and, and start testing, um, and, and develop your own methods and, and approaches. That’s always been my thing. Mm-hmm. .

Mirko (00:37:28) – Okay. Cool. Thank you. And, um, yeah, I think we already landed, um, this episode, but before we, uh, get out of the aircraft, is there anything I have missed? Is there something you would like to share with the listeners in addition to what you just said?

Miikka (00:37:46) – Um, yes. I, I think, um, I think people are smart and, and people are interested in, in being part of a community because it is very natural for us. It is more natural than, than the, the corporate structures that we have nowadays. So, um, building a community is something that, that people wanna do. People wanna belong somewhere, and, and so let’s, let’s use that. And, and I think let’s, let’s, I, I would hope that that business would become more humane and, and more just more natural.

Mirko (00:38:36) – Mm-hmm. .

Miikka (00:38:37) – Yeah. That’s my wish.

Mirko (00:38:39) – Perfect. Thank you. And, uh, yeah, finally, how would you describe our flight with just three words you just experienced here?

Miikka (00:38:50) – Um, interesting. R rambling. Um, and, um, I would say learning

Mirko (00:39:01) – . Okay. Yeah. That, that’s good. Yeah. Should always be an inspiring experience for all of us, right? For me, it was definitely, uh,

Miikka (00:39:10) – For me too. Yeah. I think it’s, even though I, I, I took most, most of the airtime, I think to, to be asked these interesting questions and, and, and having this other angle that, that you’re poking me from, from a, like a bit of a different and weird angle. I think it’s, it’s, it’s fresh

Mirko (00:39:30) – . Very good. I think these are the perfect, uh, closing words here. Miikka, thank you very much for being on the New Process podcast and, uh, looking forward to cooperating with you in Yes, this in other ways. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Miikka (00:39:46) – Thank you. Bye.

Speaker 1 (00:39:48) – Let’s recap today’s new process. Inspiration. Inspiration.

Mirko (00:39:53) – I just love what he said that I was poking him from a different and weird angle. Yeah. Okay. I’m still a process guy.  for me, process are everywhere. And I was wondering all the time how Tomp apply what he just said. Two processes, and this is what I’m going to try to do in the recap here as well. So first, Miikka told us about the three elements you need to build a community. The first one is trust. To start a community, the people need to trust each other before they start sharing. The second element is ownership. People need to take ownership, so need to take ownership for the community. And the third element is purpose. There has to be a purpose, a common goal for the community. So an answer to the question, why are we here? This bonds people together and knowing what you hope to get out of this community, that’s very important as a purpose.

Mirko (00:40:54) – So that’s the third element. And I think this can be directly transferred to processes as well. So maybe you remember the episode on process purpose. People working together in a process are a community, and they need common purpose, which they can share. So the people working in the process are a process community. And then Miikka told us about the three types of C communities. The first type is learning community, where people share what they know and, uh, can learn new things within this community. The second type is community of practice. So a community where all the people are doing the same stuff, like working in one process. And the third is a community for change. A community of people who wanna change something, as he said, for the people in the community of change. For them, the world is not perfect and the people want to change something.

Mirko (00:41:54) – So that’s the third type community for change. In my experience, I would say that process communities are somehow all three types, depending on where they are in the process lifecycle can be learning community within the implementation phase. When we’re talking about trainings and events on how to tell the people how the new process looks like, or can be a community of practice, whenever the people are working in one process and they are talking to each other to exchange about the process itself, and finally can be a community for change, especially in the beginning of the life cycle and the purpose and the strategy in the design phase, that’s where the people come together and wanna change something to contribute, to fulfill the purpose of the community. Miikka also told us more about the steps on how to build a community. So there, the first step is to bring the people together.

Mirko (00:42:54) – I, I think that’s easy. And then to identify the passionate people for something like a core team, which then as an inner circle is a community for change. And in the core team, you then try to fulfill the three elements he told us about. So first, to build trust, to share ownership, and to create a common purpose. And based on this, then this core team can in another step create a backbone for the community, a common action, something tangible and tangible outcome of the community. And, uh, this is what I would say with regards to a process community, um, that would be the business process itself. So the business process is the outcome of a process community. And now we have to make this more tangible, not just having process documentation, which you can use and talk about. I’m thinking about making it experienceable, um, like when you set up trainings to tell the people about process changes, you have workshops, um, to discuss about the process or even setting up events, um, to inspire the people.

Mirko (00:44:11) – Yeah, creating inspiring experiences. Maybe this is already a teaser for the next episodes coming up, besides the ones talking about the tools, but more about that at the end of the episode. But let’s pick it up again and try to dive even deeper into how to apply what we just heard to processes to process communities. So there, I would say we often, if you are applying something like the new process, role concept there, uh, we often have already parts of the people for the core team, like having the process owner, the process architect, or even team of process architects and the process managers of the different process, instances of the process. So this could be already a formal core team of the process community, and then they have to build the bigger process community of the people working in the process all around the world.

Mirko (00:45:13) – So it’s the core team or the task of the process owner, the process architect, and the process managers within the purpose phase, the strategy phase, and the design phase to build this idea of the community and then roll it out and implement that, uh, by establishing trainings or holding workshops or even bigger events like simulations or business games. And, uh, yeah, in the wrap up, uh, after the interview, um, Miikka already warned me that these formal structures of having a process owner and process architects and process managers is signed can be a little bit difficult compared to informal structures. So keep in mind that process owners, process architects and process managers from a formal team may be a little bit different with regards to passion and motivation. So could be that it’s necessary to build something like a core team out of these roles, to have a team of passionate people to push the community ahead. Yeah. And then create inspiring experiences.  and I, I hope that today’s episode was also a little bit, uh, kind of an inspiration for you and that you can apply some of these ideas to your own process as well as an outlook. In the next episode, I’m going to talk to Ola Tillman. He is an innovation and communications consultant from Berlin, and we are going to talk about how to pitch your process. So stay tuned for the next episode. Have a great day. Bye-bye.