How do you make sure that a strategy built over months of work does not remain just a document? Minna Rantama, Strategy Manager at HSL, explains how gamified conversations with Topaasia helped build a shared understanding of the new strategy while producing valuable insight into what the personnel really think.
HSL, Helsinki Region Transport, is a joint local authority with over 400 employees. In 2025, the organisation prepared a new strategy for 2026–2029 with broad participation: nine owner municipalities, public officials, political decision-makers, customers and stakeholders were all involved in the process.
Once the strategy was ready, a familiar challenge lay ahead: how to make it understandable to the whole organisation and bring it into everyday work?
Mere communication is not enough in strategy work
Minna Rantama is responsible for HSL's strategy creation and implementation processes. She recognises the most common problem: a strategy is created, it ends up in a drawer, and the desired change never starts to happen.
"You can't just start executing, first you need to understand together. When you think about how much energy has gone into creating the strategy, it's foolish to skimp on the implementation", Minna sums up.
HSL decided to invest specifically in building understanding of the strategy. Topaasia was taken into use as a tool for building shared understanding.
Playing made the strategy approachable
Over the winter, a total of 53 Topaasia sessions were played at HSL, proceeding in three rounds:
- What is inspiring about the strategy? – open discussion
- What is hardest to understand? – anonymous round
- What matters most for renewal? – open discussion
The significance of the anonymous round stood out in particular. When people could raise issues anonymously, the threshold for thinking out loud was lowered. There was no need to fear criticising the strategy; instead, you could openly say what you did not understand.
"Playing made the strategy look easier. The social dynamics were better thanks to the conversation, and psychological safety grew", Minna says.
In an expert organisation of 400 people, it was especially important that leadership was committed. Even top management ran game sessions themselves instead of just delegating them onwards.
The results spoke for themselves: as many as 75% of personnel understand the strategy well
The Topaasia sessions quickly produced concrete information, much faster than traditional workshops or surveys would have. It became clear which things inspire people, what is hard to understand, and what matters most for renewal.
For example, the concept of "open data architecture" emerged as by far the "hardest to understand". Minna says findings like these are valuable: they could be addressed in follow-up actions and in planning communications.
In the personnel survey conducted at the turn of 2026, 75% of personnel said they understand the strategy well or very well – an exceptionally high figure for an expert organisation of 400 people. According to Minna, the Topaasia sessions are likely one significant factor behind this result.
Two themes stood out in feedback from managers: gamified methods make it easier to build understanding of things, and getting quieter participants involved in the conversation became easier with the game.
More than a single strategy round
Minna sees the potential uses of Topaasia as broader than just a tool for building strategy understanding. Topaasia fits different phases of the strategy process from planning to execution, and it is worth using more often and in different ways.
"You could use this already when creating the strategy. But you should make sure the whole strategy process is participatory. There's no point in making the strategy with the management team in a corner office and hoping it gets put into practice", Minna emphasises.
At HSL, the results of the Topaasia sessions have been used as part of the organisation's own change capability model, which is based on the ADKAR framework. The information produced by the game sessions helps to see where people are in understanding the change and committing to it.
A recommendation for other organisations
Minna recommends using Topaasia especially in the strategy understanding phase, as long as the groundwork is in order.
"Yes, it's worth it. But if the strategy has been drawn up only as a leadership cabinet exercise, then you have bigger problems and Topaasia alone won't save the situation. But if the strategy has been made in a participatory way and people feel they have been involved, this is a really good addition in the understanding phase."
Thank you HSL and Minna!
Is your strategy ready, but everyday work hasn't changed yet?
Topaasia turns strategy into a conversation everyone takes part in. Even the quietest ones.
See also: Topaasia as a strategic management tool · Topaasia for strategy work
More on strategy implementation: