Team Academy as Learning Living Lab

Phil. Lic. Juha Ruuska, Team Academy (Tiimiakatemia), School of Services and Business Management, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä, Finland

juha.ruuska@jamk.fi

Piotr Krawczyk, School of Services and Business Management, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä, Finland

“Do you want to go on a trip around the world and learn some marketing on the side? Come to class 147 at 3 p.m. to hear more!”

Introduction of Team Academy• Team Academy was established 1993 by Johannes Partanen in Jyväskylä, Finland

• Numerous awards for innovative learning methods and entrepreneurship development

– Centre of Excellence in Education (2000)

– Centre of Excellence in Entrepreneurship

• 2009 37% of the students were self-employed as entrepreneneurs within six months after graduation (OPALA 2013)

• 2009 47% of the students were self-employed as entrepreneneurs after two years after graduation (OPALA 2013)

• National average on choosing entrepreunership as career path after graduation in Finland is less than 5%.

• Team Academy learning concept is at use in several colleges and universities around the world including Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Hungary, United Kingdom (starting three programs in 2013), Spain, Brazil and Argentina.

• International brand and a learning community of over 6000 users of the learning methods, 850 teampreneurs studying in different team academies (TALN 2013)

• Team Academy Jyväskylä is a Degree Programme of Entrepreneurship Development at JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Bachelor Degree Education

• The annual turnover of the 11 team companies in 2012 was 2,05 million euros. 

Motivation, aim and the theoretical framework of the

article• Given the track record, it was surprising that only few academic

publications exist on Team Academy - need for introductory article

• The first aim of the article is to present the learning concept of Team Academy as "Learning Living Lab“

• The second aim is to describe the existing learning environment and culture based on empirical evidence captured in qualitative data 

• The third aim is to set up a theoretical framework for interpretation of the data

• Additional aim is to define future research and development agenda for the study of the Team Academy phenomena.  

• Theoretical framework is socioconstructivist and applies articulation / discourse theory by Laclau and Moffet, developed by Stuart Hall (1977,1985, 1996, see article)

• Central concepts discourse and culture

Data and method

• Primary data was gathered in group interviews of Team entrepreneneurs (N=26) and Coaches (N=5) We also interviewed a representatives of Partus Ltd (N=2), which is a company responsible of the Team Academy Adult Education (School of team Coaches)

• We also applies ethnographical method, observations are documented in diaries during team training sessions and reflections during August 2012 – March 2013

Description of the Learning Concept

• In Team Academy, students learn in teams through their legally

independent co-operatives, which they establish in the beginning of their studies.

• The co-operative acts as a platform for authentic learning-by-doing

• "Teampreneurs" have weekly training sessions (instead of classes) with their coach, who is responsible of the team learning

• Co-operatives co-create services with customers and execute real projects

Team Academy as Learning Living Lab

• “It’s not a school, it is like life”..

• We see Team Academy as a place for authentic, experiental and experimental learning and, as we conceptualize in this article - a Learning Living Lab

• By “Living Lab” we mean co-creation and design of innovations by users and producers in real-life experimentation environment (ENoLL 2013).

 • In this article, we see Team Academy as a Learning Living Lab, where

teampreneurs (team entrepreneurs / students) are seen both as empowered and active users of the learning environment, and also as entrepreneurs (innovators), who co-create new services with their clients.

• Students become team entrepreneurs in Team Academy by establishing their co-operatives with their fellow teampreneurs with no actual business plan. The plan is to engage their customers and the peer community of teampreneurs into a co-creation process

Learning (Business) Practises and the Otherness of School

• Social setting (have to) support the empowerment of team entrepreneurs

– Dedicated office space – Living Lab

– From teaching to experience economy! Producing learning experiences

– Community events: Houston call, Rocket days, Happy (torment) Days, Customer weeks

• Training sessions are planned by the co-operative– Dialogue – thinking together

– Putting theory into practise: Book points, presentations and applying theory into practise in projects

• From Customer visits to projects: learning-by-doing – Reflection of projects in training sessions

• Social role of the Team Coach– Reflects asks, give theories, challenges, motivates, give support , encourage

– Coaching Programmes in Leadership, Marketing and innovation

Learning (Business) Practises and the Otherness of School (2)

• Almost every learning and discourse practise is about identifying in “authentic” business practise and so they are differentiations of school practises.

• The word “school” and the practise of “going to school” is causing immediate reaction as the teampreneurs identify not as students but as entrepreneurs: “we are not in school, we’re coming to work in our own business office every morning”.

• This is a element of of culture that is passed to the first year team entrepreneurs, also by the coaches, and so affecting the identifying prosess as entrepreneurs, not as students.

• Still at least part of the teampreneurs identify also as students. Some might even talk about going to “school” on purpose as they resist too strong attitudes towards “studying” (Interview 1). They are also legally students as they are a part of the co-operative.

Training session at Team Academy

The Construction of Team Entrepreneur’s identity

• Characteristic of an “free” teampreneur who is ready to take challenges, risks and to throw him/herself into the personal “discomfort-zone” and do fast and bold experimentations. It is also desirable to be able to accept and to be proud of failures. This all should be “fun”, “creative”, playful and a bit crazy sometimes. Uptightness, and formality is not desirable, straightforwardness, authentic, open, social and laid-back attitude is preferred

• Being struck by the fact that they are entrepreneurs, not students

• Team Process – dialogue, chaos, responsibility and trust

• Skills for learning : intrinsic need for learning through projects

• Increase of Self-direction and Self-knowledge

• Team and community culture affects innovation capability

Discussion and Future Research

• Living Lab concept puts co-creation of new services/ products into the fore

– Future development area

• Limitations: more data has to be collected and analysed

• Some development ideas (from the interviews):

– Better support for start-ups

– Increase openness (Living Lab)

– Multidisciplinary teams

Thank You!Phil. Lic. Juha Ruuska, Team Academy (Tiimiakatemia), School of Services

and Business Management, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, Jyväskylä, Finland

juha.ruuska@jamk.fihttp://www.tiimiakatemia.fi/en/

+358 40 595 0482