The benefits of stepping out of your corporate comfort zone
How cross-sector collaborations are providing new approaches to solving problems and different lenses to see the world
by Caroline Blight with contributing editors Daniela Kreimer & Romina Carrillo
Sometimes we need to view a situation or problem from a different angle to come up with new and innovative solutions. But this can be difficult when we are entrenched in habitual ways of working. Stepping out of our normal day-to-day roles can totally change the way we approach workplace challenges — and how we interact with others in our private lives, too.
Ana Escobar Maravilla, Head of Quality Medicine Mexico & CAmCar at pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, has experienced how powerful this experience can be after taking part in the Executive in Residence program¹ visited different way of working and gain insights into new concepts in mental health care, with the help of Kukunori NGO founder and Ashoka Fellow Markus Raivio.²
The opportunity was part of Boehringer Ingelheim and Ashoka’s Making More Health initiative. Ashoka, the largest network of system-changing social entrepreneurs worldwide, creates an individually tailored placement with an Ashoka Fellow for a Boehringer Ingelheim executive. The Fellows taking part in the program are tackling health care issues in innovative ways.
And as employees work alongside these impactful social entrepreneurs, they get to view problems and solutions through a different lens — which can be enlightening and very applicable in their daily work at Boehringer Ingelheim.
Personal experience powering purpose
Ana has always had an interest in approaches to mental health because of her own experiences. “When I started reading the purpose of Kukunori, I really wanted to be part of it. It’s not only for people with a mental health diagnosis but also for all of us,” she says. “I have a chronic disease without cure and that affects your mental health, I also have a close relative with schizophrenia and here in Mexico we don’t have a culture to support people with mental issues. Most people just moved into a hospital at the expense of their family and left there for their safety and that of others.”
“It’s really sad, my relative is now struggling with loneliness and depression too. When I went to Finland and saw the improvement in people with similar challenges, it showed me a different approach to mental illness and how lives (patients and family) can be changed. I am really connected with this programme,” Ana states.
Kukunori was established in 2012 with the aim to redesign mental healthcare, focusing on co-creative partnerships that support individuals’ skills and interests. It connects 43 Finnish non-profits supporting wellbeing, arts, and culture while also reducing inequality.
Through the Executive in Residence program, Ana got the opportunity to see Markus’s ground-breaking methods in action.
Markus enhances the health and well-being of those facing mental health issues at Kukunori through his Guided Functional Peer Support model (GFP) and Culture Houses.
With an innovative combination of occupational therapy, human development, and special education, Kukunori’s model focuses on hope and recovery rather than labelling and highlighting what someone cannot do. The Culture Houses are inspirational spaces where clients tutor and learn from each other based on their personal interests and strengths. They create together — art, music and drama — and these shared activities cultivate a sense of agency and collaboration. Trained mental health professionals are present, but as facilitators and enablers — not therapists.
After working together remotely, Ana travelled to Finland to see the benefits of Markus’s innovative strategies for herself and to help work out how these could be rolled out in other regions.
After the shock of arriving in the Finnish winter, where temperatures are certainly in contrast to those in Mexico City, the pair toured a number of Houses and found the time travelling between each was perfect for sharing ideas and tackling challenges. During this time, Markus noticed how the process led to him seeing his organisation through a new lens.
“Showing Ana around and explaining how the Houses operate made me see them very differently,” he says. “She noticed how different each of the Culture Houses felt and how their systems were individual. This struck me — it makes a difference if the Houses are in the countryside or a town. It was good for me to visit some of the Houses I had not seen for a while and see them through someone else’s eyes,”, Markus says.
He talks further about the impact of Ana being an in-person collaborator: “For everyone working in the Houses it was a big thing to have a guest from Mexico City to see how they operate. Ana gave us so many insights and such encouragement — she certainly gave us more than she took. And for her to have gone on and presented the concept in Mexico and Canada was a big thing for us. Ana has also helped us understand how we can scale up our work in other countries, and we are so grateful that we now have our mission explained in Spanish too thanks to her, we were blown away with that.”
Returning with a different approach and outlook
The experience has proved life-changing for Ana both at work and home. On arrival back in her role at Boehringer Ingelheim, she noticed a difference in how she interacted with her team. “I can see situations and challenges from a different perspective,” she explains. “I look at everything before taking a decision now but previously I would use just the information I had in front of me. I think about the broader picture and when I am with my colleagues I feel I am a better listener and try to see if they are trying to tell me something behind the words, as it were.”
Ana also says that “the experience has made me more empathetic and taught me to be more patient. As well as finding my listening skills have improved, I also look at body language more because it says a lot. This was something I learned at the Culture Houses, how much communication was gained through body language. The power of collaboration was also something I experienced and have integrated into the way I work too. Markus is so peaceful, he transmits this in the workplace — I’m trying to do the same!”
Outside of the office, Ana has noticed she perceives the world in a different way.
This has led to a change in the way she sees the future and possibilities for her family member who is in a mental health institution, where growth is not viewed as an option. “I told her, ‘You can do a lot of things for yourself, you can reach whatever you want, you can take part of the society again, finishing your studies.’ It’s hard to know how she is really feeling but I try to be more empathic listening and understanding her between-lines.”
Continuing to make a difference
Inspiration and passion are both qualities Ana has embedded in her work since returning to Mexico. Having been deeply touched by her time spent with Markus, she is keen to help roll out his innovate model in other regions, although this has not been easy. The way in which the structure and Culture Houses are supported by Finnish government funding is not achievable in all countries.
As well as examining how the practical side of implementation would work, Ana acknowledges that a cultural shift in how mental health is treated and regarded is also needed in some cases as well.
After translating the NGO’s philosophy and methods into Spanish, she has proposed the concept in both Mexico and Canada and although there is much work to be done, she is keen to see the model adopted after positive feedback from clinical practitioners in both countries.
And Ana — who is now taking a changemaker mindset approach of finding solutions and new ways of working — insists that the challenges she faces will not stop her. “Even if I can help open just one Culture House in Mexico, I know it will help so many people,” she says.
“The program has impacted my personal life and my job…You learn so much, become more sensitive not only with yourself and your family but also with society,” says Ana. “I’ve been sharing these experiences with my colleagues in the office — and they are keen to know more about it and taking part of this and other programs. I honestly think we all need to be more aware and sensitive of what’s going on around the globe”. She finalizes with this powerful idea: “It is a pride to work for a company that gives the opportunity to identify how our daily job impacts patients’ lives.”
Approaching tasks and challenges with empathy, an open mind and a more compassionate outlook has led to personal growth and, with it, business growth as well. And with the many benefits of collaboration, both Ana and Markus are looking forward to working together further and individually improving health outcomes for people worldwide.
[1]: Executive in Residence is an Ashoka program which fosters high-impact collaborations between companies and leading social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows) that have the potential to change the dynamics of traditional markets, enhance competitiveness, and create systemic social impact. Learn more about it here: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/program/ashoka-executive-residence
[2]: Read a piece featuring Markus and Aapo Kotkavuori, Project Manager of Kukunori, and learn more about the innovation and impact of “walking football.”
