From a nurse to People Lead – Susanna Lisma found meaning in leading people 

Susanna Lisma’s career story is extraordinary. She worked for 25 years in public healthcare, first as a nurse and after that in different leadership roles. Lisma still has a hard time figuring out how a vocation of saving lives changed to a job in a tech company. 

“I never thought I would end up in a work community like this. My path has been rather unusual” Lisma ponders. 

Lisma began her career as a home care and ward nurse in the early 2000’s and progressed to working in ER and Operating rooms. One of the main things for her has always been continuous learning, since her nature craves challenges. After over a decade in public health service working as a nurse, Lisma decided she wanted to expand her experience. She started studying leadership, which landed her assignments as head nurse and chief of service in health care.  

“After working for 25 years in the public health care sector I felt that it had nothing new to offer. It is important for me to be able to see things from different perspectives. So, I decided to expand my horizon and see if my expertise in leadership would be valued in other industries.” 

Master’s thesis brought Lisma to Simucube 

Lisma enrolled in the Master’s Program in Knowledge Management and Leadership, a specialization within the Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration in LUT business school. When finding a topic for the Master’s thesis became relevant, her friend suggested Simucube.  

“I didn’t know Simucube even existed. My friend had seen on LinkedIn that Simucube was looking for a thesis worker to conduct research on a four-day workweek trial. At first, I wasn’t quite sure about the topic, but after talking with our HR my mind shifted. I thought, this might actually be an interesting topic and Simucube is a good environment to do the trial.” 

Lisma’s thesis is now finished, and she has graduated with a Master of Economics and Business Administration degree. The results of her thesis were interesting. As you can imagine, everyone expected the results to be overly positive. Why wouldn’t a four-day workweek increase employee happiness and well-being? Nevertheless, the results were not so unambiguous. According to Lisma, this emphasizes the need for well-planned trials.  

“Some people felt that they were more energetic and there were positive effects in their personal life, but for some, the results were not so good. For those who already had a little bit too much on their plate, the experiment was quite stressful. “ 

Helping people in the DNA 

After finishing her thesis, Lisma applied for and got offered a position as a People Lead in the Simucube R&D team. She had enjoyed the company’s atmosphere and culture, but the offer sparked an internal conflict within her.  

“For twenty-five years, I had been responsible for people’s health and well-being. I contributed to keeping people alive. Work was meaningful, and over the years, it had become part of my identity. Even though it was my own choice to change careers, the magnitude of the decision surprised me. I felt agony over whether my work had meaning” Lisma recalls.  

For Lisma, helping people is in her DNA. It took some time and self-reflection, but she realized that she can still help people at Simucube.  

“My background in health and well-being allows me to contribute to the development of well-being here. I can leverage my strengths, and I consider this to be of great importance and significance.” 

After the realization, the decision to accept the position was easy. The role of People Lead was new at Simucube, so the first thing Lisma had to do was investigate what is needed from her. As the pieces started to fall into place, she found out she had a lot to offer. 

“I talked to people a lot and started to realize that I can really make an impact on their lives. My work is very human centric, which I really like. Earlier, I never had time to face everyone as individuals. I like to think of it as service-focused leadership.” 

“Everything is possible” 

Lisma enjoys interacting with people, and one-to-one discussions are the most rewarding part of her job. As the People Lead of the R&D team, Lisma finds that her focus is to make people’s everyday work-life easier.  

“I am not a subject matter expert in this area, but our team is. First, I found it a bit scary, and I was worried about how I could possibly contribute. Now I have noticed that maybe the fact that I am not aware of every detail in the substance matters, could actually be my biggest strength. I can look at things from a different perspective” Lisma reveals.  

In addition to the People Lead role in the R&D team, Lisma is also responsible for the development of leadership at Simucube. She enjoys working at Simucube, and she sees the leadership development as a welcome challenge for her. As mentioned before, the possibility to push herself to learn new things is important to her. Lisma also feels that the people at Simucube make it special to address these challenges here and now. 

“People here are fantastic and our true Superpower. I get to have inspiring conversations and learn something new every day. We have a strong sense of community, and we have a lot of events and get-togethers here at the office.” 

For Lisma, becoming part of Simucube’s community was somewhat unexpected, given her background as a nurse and healthcare leader. She reminds you that you don’t have to have a specific background to work at Simucube – or anywhere for that matter. 

“Everything is possible. There is no need to commit to a specific future. Anything can happen, and you can become great at anything you put your mind to” Lisma concludes.  

Learn more about working at Simucube