Our excellent team works in Lempäälä in the production of fusible adhesive and in the mortar and levelling plant. The different shifts have hardly seen each other at all during the high season, when we have worked separately. Siloing between shifts has occurred, which we used SmoothTeam simulation to reduce. 

Spontaneous praise from others and practical insights

We have been looking for tools on how to make teams work better. SmoothTeam was a good lift from HR - the simulation worked very well! Through the story, the team knitted together, we are all one team. During the simulation there was a lot of spontaneous praise from others, for example, "I chose you as the best performer because you are so happy". Another memorable statement was "if I could choose the employees in my own company, I would hire everyone on this team". You don't normally hear this kind of praise and thanks so much in production. 

We also found people in the team who like to talk and listen. In the future, people who talk to each other can find each other and this will improve wellbeing at work.

The aim of the simulation is to develop interaction and psychological safety

In the simulation, participants realised that people are different. Many learned to better understand why others act the way they do. In this way, they became more aware of the signals they give to others in the work environment. During the discussions, some participants also opened up about their private lives, which is rare. This led to a deeper understanding of the colleague.

We want everyone to be able to voice their opinion without fear of conflict. Everyone's opinions are taken into account. We strive to create psychological safety. 

Learning to respect diversity as a team

One important finding was that all of the team felt that dealing with conflict was an unwelcome or alien topic for them. This is a valuable thing to be aware of, and now we as chairs can offer support in this area.

We also had a good discussion about criticality. It was appreciated by everyone in the team. We are a team that is critical, and that means no harm. By being critical, we don't want to bully others, we want to improve things. In the past, it has been easy to come up with human interpretations, for example, that others' criticism is negative and mine is positive. Through the simulation, we realised that others may have thought the same and we will be able to interpret each other more positively in the future.

SmoothTeam is perfect for production teams

SmoothTeam is a truly holistic tool with a lot of potential. We have employees nearing retirement as well as younger employees, and it was easy for all of them to use SmoothTeam. The simulation worked well over the phones and usability was excellent. 

We do not see a situation where SmoothTeam would not work. Simulations certainly work well at different levels of the organisation and in different environments. We ourselves will continue to use the service for our production teams.

Joni Leppänen
Work Manager

Joonas Kupiainen
Production Manager