My Oulu: Equality Work Begins with Listening

Today, I would like to share one of them with you:

”People want to talk about these topics more than I expected.”

Creating Space for Conversation

When we began planning city of Oulu staff equality and anti-racism workshops, the primary aim of the workshops was to identify training needs across different service areas. In practice, however, the workshops became much more than that.

They developed into spaces where people wanted to share their experiences, observations and questions. The discussions explored everyday working life and people’s experiences of equality within their work communities and in their interactions with clients and in wider society

I realised that many people have a need to pause and talk about these issues, issues for which there is not always time, space or opportunity in everyday work life.

Equality and anti-racism can be sensitive and challenging subjects. However, my experience has been that people are genuinely interested in discussing them, sharing their experiences, and deepening their understanding, when time and a safe environment is provided for the discussions to take place.

”Where Are You From?”

In some of the discussions, we reflected on how the same question can raise very different thoughts and feelings in different people.

For me, it might feel pleasant to be asked where I am from when travelling abroad. The question can convey curiosity and genuine interest, serving as an opening to conversations. It may be asked because something about me, such as my skin colour, hair or other visible characteristic, leads the other person to assume that I am probably not local.

For someone else, however, the very same question may carry a completely different meaning. For example, a Finnish person with brown skin may hear this question repeatedly in their everyday life. In that context, the question may not feel like an expression of interest. Instead, it can reinforce feelings of exclusion or convey a message that they are not seen as Finnish.

An individual question may seem insignificant and may be asked with the best of intentions. Yet when similar encounters occur repeatedly, they can leave a lasting impact by increasing feelings of exclusion and influencing the feeling of belonging and being accepted by the surrounding society.

These conversations are very valuable because they make visible the different ways people experience the world around them. They lie at the heart of equality work, offering us an opportunity to consider perspectives we may never have encountered ourselves and to reflect on our own assumptions.

Listening Instead of Having All the Answers

I also learned that a workshop facilitator does not need to present themselves as a flawless expert. Quite the opposite. Trust is often built when we are willing to be open about our own learning journeys, share our experiences, acknowledge mistakes and talk honestly about what we are still learning. At their best, workshops become shared learning environments where learning takes place in many directions.

More important than having ready-made answers was genuinely and with an open mind listening to the thoughts, experiences and questions that people brought to the discussion. When we dare to listen to one another and reflect together, learning can take place on a much deeper level.

149 Encounters and 1,385 Voices

A total of 149 people took part in the workshops, and I am grateful for every one of them. The staff diversity and equality survey received 1,385 responses, an excellent result for a new staff survey.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the work by sharing their time, experiences and ideas. We look forward to continuing our work later this autumn through staff training on equality and anti-racism.

Paula Lähdesmäki-Wilson, Project Coordinator, Oulu for All -project