Together with VTT, Espoo has developed an impact leadership model – a pioneering approach to holistic city management that helps to understand cause-and-effect relationships, improve decision quality and steer actions toward sustainable citizen wellbeing.
Key facts
Espoo wanted to understand the true, long-term effects of its decisions – across economy, environment and wellbeing – and to ensure its strategy could be managed holistically.
In collaboration with VTT, Espoo created an impact leadership model, building comprehensive frameworks and indicators for data-driven, systemic decision-making. VTT supported Espoo through strategic guidance, modelling and capacity building across the city organisation.
Espoo now has the tools to positively impact the quality of life in the city. Pilot projects on, for example, city planning, early education and elderly fitness have improved the everyday lives of citizens.
Espoo is Finland’s second-largest city, known for its innovative and sustainable approach to urban development. With more than 310,000 residents and five distinct urban centres, Espoo is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area and a finalist in the World Smart City Awards 2024 for its pioneering work in impact leadership.
Seeing the full picture in a complex city system
When COVID-19 struck in 2020, Espoo faced the same challenges as cities around the world: disruptions to schools, local businesses and social life – all with ripple effects across the economy and wellbeing of residents. But Espoo also saw this crisis as a turning point.
“At that time, we started looking at things from a phenomenon-based perspective where everything affects everything,” recalls Piia Wollstén, Director for Digital Services Development at the City of Espoo. “We wanted to better control the whole picture so that we could respond more confidently to different signals, not just react to crises.”
The city realised that its traditional decision-making structures – often financially or legally driven – did not fully capture the interconnections between social, economic and environmental factors. The pandemic became a wake-up call for a new kind of leadership: one that would allow Espoo to manage its strategy based on impact.
“There was a need in Espoo to get a comprehensive overall view to support strategic management,” explains Kirsi Hyytinen, Research Team Leader for Future Proof Societies at VTT. “Espoo wanted to understand how growth and renewal can be generated in the city, and how to direct all measures so that they create wellbeing, vitality and renewal in a future proof manner,” she adds.
Building the impact leadership model
Prior to the first wave of the pandemic, Espoo and VTT had launched a long-term collaboration in 2019 to develop a holistic Impact Leadership Programme. The work began with creating a holistic framework and indicators to accelerate and direct the impacts of city actions. Over time, the collaboration evolved into a deeper partnership, including outsourcing VTT’s Principal Scientist Peter Ylén to Espoo’s own data development team.
VTT and Espoo built a model that links data and strategy in a systemic way. The goal was to make the city’s vast datasets usable for decision-makers and to help them see how changes in one area affect others. For example, how investments in sports services improve health outcomes and reduce social isolation. VTT’s CityTune® data modelling and simulation tool was tested as part of the work, providing simulation capabilities for exploring different policy options and their long-term impacts.
Strengthening Espoo’s internal capabilities has been an important part of the collaboration. To achieve this, Ylén has led extensive training for city employees on systems thinking and data in managing complex systems.
“We have developed large-scale capacity building in the city organisation so that people at all levels, not just top management, can use such tools in their decision-making,” Ylén says.
The training has provided practical methods for planning strategies and improving everyday decision-making. The participants have learned to identify key performance and risk factors, understand human motivations and design organisational structures that support holistic outcomes.
Systemic modelling helped uncover complex interdependencies between urban design, individual behaviours and policy decisions, providing Espoo with clearer insights into which factors to target with development actions.
Pilots that make impact visible
During the collaboration, VTT has provided Espoo with:
A comprehensive impact framework and operation model to ensure future-proof impact leadership throughout the city organisation
Training programmes on systems thinking and data in managing complex systems
Integration of quantitative data analytics with qualitative research to support decision-making.
To test and apply the model, Espoo has carried out several pilot projects. One example focused on unorganised parking in the developing Finnoo district, which is a common phenomenon in emerging urban areas.
“Systemic modelling helped uncover complex interdependencies between urban design, individual behaviours and policy decisions, providing Espoo with clearer insights into which factors to target with development actions,” explains Espoo’s Anni Orttenvuori-Ganter, Lead Data and Knowledge Architect.
Other pilot projects focused on wellbeing and inclusion, including programmes for immigrant integration, early childhood education, and cultural and fitness services. For example, a senior bracelet initiative encouraged older residents to exercise with peers, fostering social connections and supporting long-term health.
The pilots demonstrate how the tools and models are only a means to an end. They can now be used to achieve concrete results in improving the quality of life of citizens.
A new way of leading with meaningful impacts
Today, Espoo’s impact leadership approach serves as a cornerstone of its strategic management and has been recognised internationally. The city was the only Nordic finalist in the World Smart City Awards 2024 for its holistic model of data-driven, human-centred governance.
“Previously, higher-level decision-making and the data base were out of sync. Now, Espoo can align the city’s vision with a fact-based understanding of impacts,” says Hyytinen.
“We wanted to demonstrate what other meaningful impacts we have achieved besides the economic ones. Our success is reflected in how residents experience living in Espoo, for example with regards to safety, smooth everyday life, opportunities for entrepreneurship and high-quality schooling. That’s the true measure of impact,” Wollstén concludes.
