FLIP Solutions went to the Ecovillage of Keuruu and Teamacademy of Jyväskylä as a first Learning Journey. Learning Journey is a mandatory part of our curriculum, and its purpose is to make a project which develops the team in the way needed at that point in the Proakatemia journey. In this essay, I open my Motorola of the Learning Journey: planning, goal, team effort and the project itself in every part of the trip.

What went well?

The team came up with the goal of a learning journey one day before the trip started, and the goal was to have and improve the atmosphere in the team and also have a fun time together. We succeed with that goal. During the learning journey, the atmosphere stayed at a good level and people were with a positive attitude most of the time. We succeed to spend time together and have a fun relaxing time. The environment of Ecovillage supported us to be present and just spend time together because in the wintertime, there is not that much to do as a free time and somehow the environment got us to leave our phones and electronic devices more often to rest.

We also got good feedback from Ecovillage, and we could help them to do some work they needed help with. We were doing voluntary work there to help for fixing and cleaning premises, cooking food for Ecovillage people and for us and do some marketing material for example videos and taking pictures. I myself were doing writing task with my two team members. Our job was to write the introduction document of Ecovillage in electronic form. Even though the tasks we did there, were quite easy, it was nice to hear that they were helpful and people in Ecovillage precited our work.

What could go better?

Getting the project for the learning journey was not easy, or that was what I heard about it. Planning and getting the project seemed to be difficult and that is why we ended up doing work for free accommodation. Even though the result was good, and we enjoyed our learning journey, the transparency of the planning process could be more open and clearer. Because there were uncertainty and assumptions about the trip, there were too many worries about how we are going to do everything. We ended up in a situation where we understood that people who were planning the trip were hesitant to ask for help and talk about the trip because it did not go as they would like and people who waited for the plan were hesitant to ask straight through because they felt that planners are not happy to share.

So, open talk and a transparent planning process could go better and that would also avoid unnecessary assumptions and concerns. We learned about that though and ended up with the clarification and common understanding that we need to trust each other and be more open to sharing, both positive and negative things.

What did we learn?

We learn about life in Ecovillage, that is for sure. I think many of our team members learned a different point of view about life: What is to live strongly by values without the pressure of doing things the same way that other people? Life and living in Ecovillage teaches about selflessness when people are for example cooking and doing things for the common well. That kind of mindset of selflessness is hard to learn anywhere else than living with a big amount of people. That is also something we could take into the learning at Proakatemia, not living with a group of people, but turning the mindset from oneself to others. That is what we learn during the Proakatemia journey, but there is a lot of individual thinking we could let go of. At least at the very beginning, it can be hard to think as a team and group, about what is good for us, not for me. People are strangers at first, but the purpose is to be a solid community where people trust and work for a common well.

In a money-oriented society is good to remember, that everything is not about money. At Ecovillage it was visible that people are not money-oriented, and they follow different motives than money and goods. They also told us the main idea of Ecovillage is to be a non-profit community, so they do work that much they can live there and cover expenses. It is easy to forget, that there are other motives and purposes in life than money or things you can get with it. How much do we think about money or push ourselves to the limits just to gain money for living or pay for our depth? Or course, there needs to be a certain amount of money to handle life costs, but many of us are focused on just do money to buy things or just to get rich. That is not a bad motive either, but it can cause a bit cold mindset. When living in a place where money is not important and the meaning of life and activity comes from something else, there is a good chance to let go of pressure which is caused by society and busy business culture. I believe that it gives a good opportunity to stop and calm down to think about what is meaningful and important in life.

We also visited at Team academy of Jyväskylä and learned how they work there. It was nice to see in practice what kind of place there is and also how they manage their training sessions. We were divided into two groups to visit training sessions. That training session where I visited was about company culture. That was an interesting topic and a very important topic regarding developing a company and creating a good atmosphere to work in. It was nice that even though we were strangers to team entrepreneurs there, they were very open to talking about their company culture and their difficulties there. I learned that even though it can feel like own team is the only one who has a problem, and those problems seem to be huge, those similar problems are also very normal in other places and other team companies too. So, it is as difficult and problematic everywhere and we are not that special in that sense, fortunately.

What do I take into the practice?

From the planning and how the whole journey was set up, we learned that we need to be more open about our planning and learning process as a team to avoid unnecessary assumptions and concerns. We are still quite afraid to share our opinions and real thoughts because of the fear of saying something that other people can feel bad about. But that is one of the biggest problems and also the thing that causes many times difficulties. So, we learned that we need to be more honest and open, still.

I will take into practice the mindset and calm attitude that I could feel at Ecovillage. It was nice to be in that kind of place where was no hurry and there were no strict time limits to get things done. Even though I love to-do lists and schedules, they also cause me stress and sometimes it is hard to get over all undone things even though it would be time to rest and spend free time. What are some things I should learn: To keep that relaxed attitude to avoid too high-stress levels and remember that there is something more important than work, even though work is very important to me.

I put into practice also to think again about my personal values and how they are shown in my daily life. I do that sometimes to stay on track with my values but that is sometimes easy to forget. When everyday life is busy and full of everything, it is easy to forget own values and those most important things. And if there is something that goes against own values, is there a willingness to make changes to live by values?

Some things I would like to put into the practice from the Team academy of Jyväskylä is to think about our team’s company culture and talk about what kind of culture we want to highlight in our team. That would be interesting to create the analysis based on the theoretical background we went through in Jyväskylä and investigate some theories to add on.

The learning journey was teachable, and it offered new experiences. The most important thing was to get a team together to improve team spirit after a very hard wintertime. We succeed with that!