South Karelia Wellbeing Services County: Co-designing a new leadership model

The Wellbeing Services County had been formed by combining several organizations, each with its own history, structures, and ways of working. As a result, the organization had become complex, with overlapping roles, inconsistent job titles, and unclear responsibilities.

The leadership model needed to be redesigned to support the integration of social and healthcare services and to align the organization with its strategic objectives.

The project centered on broad participation throughout the design process. Open dialogue between senior leaders and frontline managers ensured that the right problems were addressed and that a wide range of organizational alternatives could be explored.

Rather than simply reshuffling organizational charts, Futurice challenged participants to rethink traditional organizational design and explore more innovative ways of structuring leadership and services.

The project included:

• Three full-day workshops with senior and middle management
• Two remote workshops with frontline managers
• Close collaboration with the project's core team
• Reviews of the emerging model in three executive leadership meetings

We began by analyzing previous studies and existing views on EKHVA's organizational culture and structure. Together, we established a shared set of design principles and objectives that guided the workshops. These sessions helped identify current challenges, organizational bottlenecks, and the desired outcomes for the future leadership model.

Participants then co-created, evaluated, and refined numerous organizational alternatives. Workshop methods ranged from structured design exercises to sociodrama, helping participants explore complex service interactions from new perspectives. Ultimately, five different models were synthesized into a single solution that gained broad organizational support and generated enthusiasm for implementation.

The new leadership model is being introduced in three phases over a two-year period.

The project demonstrated how a creative, participatory approach to organizational design can bring people together around a shared challenge and a shared solution.

One of its most significant outcomes was the dialogue it fostered among leaders from different parts of the social and healthcare systems. Working together in a professionally facilitated process deepened mutual understanding, strengthened relationships, and fostered greater trust across organizational boundaries.

That trust made it possible to challenge long-established assumptions. Instead of organizing around hierarchical structures, the new model places the customer's service journey at its center. At the same time, the design recognizes the unique needs of different service areas while creating enough consistency across the organization to enable more effective collaboration.

About client

The South Karelia Wellbeing Services County (EKHVA) is responsible for organizing public social services, healthcare, and rescue services for approximately 127,000 residents across nine municipalities in South Karelia: Imatra, Lappeenranta, Lemi, Luumäki, Parikkala, Rautjärvi, Ruokolahti, Savitaipale, and Taipalsaari.