The Finnish Psychological Association’s future is dynamic and operant

The whole organization took part in brightening the Finnish Psychological Association’s future

The 60-year-old Finnish Psychological Association tried new operating models and pondered its’ future in an inclusive process. The dialogue participants generated ideas on the most important priorities for the association in the upcoming years. The multiphase project gathered up the participants’ innovative ideas and created a clear vision of what the association should invest in.

The opportunities and development areas were first discussed with the associations members and then further processed in the association’s board’s common online dialogue. The simmered ideas were re-evaluated again in the spring of 2019, when all the association’s stakeholders took part in the dialogue to concretize the most important and investment requiring factors.

Short- and long-term considerations

Due to the engaging process, all the actors of the association got a chance to have an impact on validating the most important development topics of the future. The association could form a common view of what is important in the short and long term.

It is important for the association to notice which themes and topics must be discussed and supported in order to keep the members satisfied and help the association grow stronger. The dialogue participants were also challenged to think outside the box while looking into the future: “What completely new action should the Finnish Psychological Association support in the future?”

The most important development themes can be urged forward by a systematic influencing plan, training the members of the association, identifying risk groups, increasing lobbying and bringing forth research results.

“Hearing the voices of the member associations has been very important to us. The valuable visions and opinions support our renewal and show us which way we must move towards in the future. Now we know the topics we must invest in and how we can serve our members better. The collaboration with Fountain Park helped make our work more transparent and operant. We can promote our know-how more actively and with more pride”, says the President of the association, Annarilla Ahtola.

For more information, contact Jari Latvalahti & Anu Valtari