📝 usncan Note: 8 Leadership Lessons American Cities Can Learn From Finland
Disclaimer: This content has been prepared based on currently trending topics to increase your awareness.
How Helsinki’s Approach to Governance Offers Practical Solutions for America’s Urban Challenges
Mayor Daniel Sazonov of Helsinki, Finland shares his top leadership traits.
City of Helsinki
American cities face soaring costs, overwhelmed public services, partisan gridlock, and eroding citizen trust in government. Finland’s capital Helsinki offers a different perspective on urban leadership. Mayor Daniel Sazonov, elected in June, oversees the largest city in a country that tops world happiness rankings.
In this exclusive interview with Forbes contributor Kristen Edgreen Kaufman, Sazonov shares how Helsinki addresses the same urban challenges facing American cities—from childcare costs to crime prevention to education funding—through practical, data-driven leadership that transcends political divisions. Helsinki hosted Kaufman last month as part of a Fulbright Specialist grant she received for her work in city diplomacy. This interview has been condensed and edited.
1. Lead With Happiness
As the youngest mayor in Helsinki’s modern history, you lead the capital of the world’s happiest country. What are the municipal and policy dimensions of happiness? What are strategies that US mayors could adapt to improve citizen wellbeing?
When happiness is measured, it’s about people’s satisfaction with their lives, and that connects strongly to the work that cities do. …Of course, it’s a difficult question to define happiness. Helsinki is responsible for a range of things, from early childhood education to social services and rescue services to city planning. Even compared to European capitals, the range is really wide. The city is involved in all stages of people’s lives.
In Helsinki, we work on having a well-functioning everyday life. It’s about the city’s services, but also about how the city plans [for] the human scale in everything we do. Helsinki is big and vibrant, well connected to other global capitals, but at the same time, small enough [for a] feeling of community.
My newly launched city strategy emphasizes neighborhoods. That’s something we can learn from North American cities—that idea of a neighborhood not [just] as part of the city’s plan for service provision, but actually how people feel connected to their communities. It’s about city services, but also private services. For a citizen of Helsinki, it is important to have well-functioning schools and healthcare services nearby, but also good grocery stores and sports clubs and NGOs.
We emphasize that feeling of belonging to your own neighborhood and being an active part of it, not just a citizen living in a multi-story housing block.
2. Citizenship Starts Young
Here in Helsinki, childcare infrastructure is the envy of many American cities. In the US, we often think of childcare as a private responsibility. How do you conceive of it? Is childcare infrastructure? What’s the economic logic behind treating childcare like roads or water systems?
It’s not just about economic calculus. We see economic benefits if we look at macroeconomic studies done by our National Institute for Economic Research [VATT], that show the quality of childcare services … is connected with the employment of mothers—not just in the short term but also long-term income.
That’s also why Finnish childcare has developed as it has— to bring mothers into the [labor] market. But it’s also part of the education system. Education doesn’t start when you’re six or seven years old in the first grade of elementary school, but actually at three or four years old. Studies show early childhood education has a strong effect on later performance in education.
From the perspective of Helsinki and the bigger cities of Finland, [childcare] is important for integration of children from non-Finnish or non-Swedish speaking families [Editor’s note: Swedish is an official language of Finland]. Our policy is to get those children who come from families that don’t speak Finnish or Swedish at home into early childhood education as young as possible to make them fully integrated into society.
The earlier we start integration measures, the better the results. Some parts [of that policy] are in the hands of the city, but we also need more [central] government measures. Some social benefit incentives don’t work in the right direction.
For example, we have mothers who get higher benefits if the older children are also kept at home and not in early childhood education. …The city is doing its own part, yet we really need changes in the benefit system to achieve the goal of getting all children, especially those who are not from Finnish- or Swedish-speaking families, into early childhood education in order to succeed with integration.
Aerial zoomed-in drone photo of the well-known Oodi library building in the central Helsinki.
getty
3. Seek Issue-Based Coalitions
You’re conservative by Helsinki standards, working with a left-green council majority. What’s your strategy for finding common ground with political opponents? Many cities in the US struggle with partisan conflict that slows progress on basic services and infrastructure. So how do you separate ideology from effective government?
The definitions are so different in different countries. In the Finnish context, [calling me a] center-right market-oriented liberal might be accurate. On our city council—whether right-wing or left-wing—the majority share basic values and the idea of an international and liberal Helsinki.
Of course, there are differences over economic policies or city planning questions, but not much on identity politics. We concentrate on everyday life. If you discuss public transport, schools, healthcare, or social services, there’s wide support for the Finnish welfare model [and]for high-quality education run by the city rather than private institutions.
The Finnish municipal governance model is not about government and opposition. Council majorities actually vary from question to question. As the National Coalition Party, we can find ourselves cooperating with the Green Party on some questions, with Social Democrats on others, with right-wing parties on others.
After our Civil War in 1917-18, rebuilding started from the cities. Just months after the Civil War ended, the Red side [Finnish Socialist Workers’ Republic] and the White [anti-communist] side came together and started solving these everyday matters. That tradition still lasts in city politics. When we discuss practical issues, it’s about 90-95% finding the best solution to solve concrete questions—not about trying to find things that divide us. It’s hard work finding common ground. It would be easier to do politics by shouting and picking fights with opponents, but it takes much more work to negotiate for common solutions.
4. Invest in Teachers
Finland constantly ranks at the top in education outcomes, and teaching is one of the most respected professions here. What’s Helsinki’s strategy for attracting high quality educators? And how does this connect to your broader vision of the city?
The teaching profession is very respected in Finland. Teachers are highly educated. They have higher university degrees. There’s a national curriculum they have to follow, but they have substantial freedom in their daily work.
In Helsinki, we really invest in education. If you look at our city strategy that will be adopted today at our council meeting, one big decision we’ve made is putting tougher economic [efficiency] requirements on other city operations…in order to invest more in education.
When the city is growing, it’s not about direct budget cuts—the budget is still growing—but reallocating our resources to invest more in education and in children and young people in Helsinki.
We will invest to lower the number of children per teacher, especially in first and second grade. We will add more education in Finnish language, in reading and writing. I hope these things can attract teachers to Helsinki as well, when they see that Helsinki is a city that appreciates and invests in education.
5. Keep Schools Right-Sized
If you look at a city like Los Angeles, empty schools stay open even if there’s a 46% enrollment drop. How does Helsinki approach right-sizing educational infrastructure? What’s your process for making these politically sensitive decisions?
For the past few years, we’ve been in a happy situation where the problem has been how to speed up building new schools and especially early childhood education units, because the city population has been growing. The number of young children of school age is growing rapidly. It’s different from most Finnish cities and municipalities.
10-15 years ago, I started in city politics at the body responsible for schools and kindergartens. Back then, we had to make those more difficult decisions. Of course there’s always resistance in neighborhoods. But policymakers are pretty reasonable when you go through the facts. If the number of children is decreasing, keeping empty facilities isn’t free. Putting euros into one thing means less for something else. Compare spending two million on empty facilities versus hiring 30 more teachers or building new sports facilities—when people get that context, they’re more prepared to make difficult decisions.
The Helsingin Kaupungintalo or Helsinki City Hall in the capital of Finland. (Photo by: Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Universal Images Group via Getty Images
6. A Holistic Approach to Crime
Helsinki has taken a distinctive approach to crime—you host roundtables that bring together police, NGOs, religious organizations and city services to address youth exclusion before it leads to criminal activity. Your predecessor emphasized zero tolerance for racism, hate speech and violence, emphasizing prevention over punishment. How do you measure the return on investment of these prevention programs compared to traditional law enforcement?
My philosophy is to use all the tools we have—softer measures and also law enforcement. Helsinki doesn’t have its own police department; police are completely run by the central government. So, we naturally concentrate more on youth work, social services, cooperation with NGOs and such things.
We’re building even closer cooperation with the Helsinki Police Department. I personally will join a police patrol on Friday night.
To debate whether you should do prevention programs or law enforcement, it’s the wrong debate. It’s about both.
New York City has increased police enforcement. Helsinki focuses more on multi-stakeholder cooperation and early intervention. In your system, when do social workers respond first versus police? How do you decide which is sent in? How do these different agencies work together?
They all do their own work at the same time. With substance abuse, for example, it’s done simultaneously—social workers in the streets having conversations with those people. At the same time, police do their work to ensure there’s no dealing in the streets. For young people, there are separate models for intervention. If a 15-year-old commits a crime, police involve social workers as well. With our new agreement with the Helsinki police, we have a coordinator in our education department who has direct connections with the police.
It’s not about who does what first, but how we coordinate between city and police.
7. Prevention is Better than Response
How has Helsinki handled homelessness?
We’ve really concentrated on homelessness. I’m proud that we’ve reduced long-term homelessness by 50% in the past four years. That was one of my priorities as deputy mayor responsible for social services and healthcare. Through my advocacy, the national government established a program to eliminate long-term homelessness.
You have to do many things at the same time. Of course, we need shelters. Then the key to Finnish success in reducing homelessness is the housing-first model, where the logic is that you’re not required to quit using alcohol or narcotics. The idea is that the first thing we do is place you in a housing unit and then start to work on the other problems you have.
Then there has to be enough social housing. And there has to be housing in general—Helsinki has built enough housing in the past 10 years to keep rental prices from rocketing like in many European capitals. Then you need social work. You need more social workers on the streets.
Especially in my previous position as deputy mayor, the number one reason for international delegations in Helsinki to visit social services was this homelessness question: shelters or social services or housing-first or social housing. You have to do all these things at the same time. You don’t solve homelessness by just finding one NGO working with homeless people.
Finland has one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world, while the US sees 39% of released prisoners commit crimes again within three years. As mayor, you’ve talked about preventing youth exclusion and creating pathways back into society. What specific city-level employment or reintegration programs has Helsinki developed for people with criminal records? And how do you measure their success?
Those leaving jail are a really important group. High numbers of people don’t have homes when they come from jail. One concrete action point is the social work done with prisoners in prison. The central government runs prison and probation services, and they consider rehabilitation programs really important.
As a city, it’s a wide range of work. It’s about housing, substance abuse rehabilitation, and healthcare provided in prisons. With Helsinki’s advocacy, the central government started an ambitious program to eradicate hepatitis C. Prisons are actually a good place to solve healthcare problems.
Then there’s assistance with the finances of prisoners, and vocational education in prisons, and work placement. The approach is to solve as many things as possible while people are in prison. Housing, education, jobs, healthcare, finances.
For prisoners’ finances, you help them through job training?
[We help] with restructuring debts and finding a path toward a more stable personal situation. Social workers go through the person’s finances and try to find the reasons why the person is in debt. There are also NGOs and foundations that help restructure individual debt, because you can have expensive short-term loans.A view from the sea to the harbour and market place of Helsinki, 02 July 1998. (Photo credit should read JUSSI NOUSIAINEN/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
8. Life Lessons for Leading
You grew up in Helsinki public housing and oversaw social services as deputy mayor. This gives you experience on both sides of the social welfare system. As a leader who’s seen both sides, what lessons of your life or political office shape Helsinki’s welfare policies today?
What’s important for all politicians is to understand the different life situations that people in Helsinki have. Support for the welfare state is really born in Finnish politics. One of the most important goals is creating a society where everyone can have the ability to succeed through education, hard work, and entrepreneurship.
Of course [we need] a social benefit system. But I think the most important thing—also for me, looking at my background—is that we build a system, especially in education, that gives all people, regardless of their background, the possibility to thrive and improve their situation and build a life they can be satisfied with—to really be happy, as the happiness studies show.
You’ve risen to this role at a young age (32). What leadership lessons could be shared with other US mayors?
We’ve discussed education, neighborhoods and strengthening a sense of community in Helsinki. It’s also important to mention growth and economic development. We often end up talking just about the city’s role in delivering the welfare state, but the city also has an important role in facilitating economic development.
I’m extremely proud about the startup ecosystem we’ve built in Helsinki. Slush [a founder-focused startup event] is known worldwide. You cannot just concentrate on services and welfare, but you also can’t just concentrate on economic growth, because then you might lose social cohesion. There has to be balance.
For leadership advice—my way has been concentrating on practical matters rather than identity politics: building coalitions, finding solutions through negotiations with those who represent different ends of the political sphere. Building understanding with those you don’t agree with is the answer to sustainable development of a city or country.
It’s easier to deliver when you cooperate and work together rather than concentrate on political games. Of course, you don’t have to agree on everything—there are elections, and politics has to be present as part of democracy. But delivery and democracy are stronger when you operate with true cooperation. In Finland, with eight parties in Parliament, it’s crucial to cooperate.
