During a sunny October week in Prague, 17 representatives from Caritas organisations in Europe met for two days to explore knowledge management (KM) They came together as a dynamic and diverse group from across Europe to better understand key concepts, to share cases and challenges and to develop good practice.

Ruth Jolly, Senior Consultant with IMA International, designed and facilitated this workshop to look collectively at how the Caritas network in this region can share and use its rich knowledge.

The united strength of its 49 member organisations in 46 European countries makes Caritas Europa one of the major social actors in Europe. It seeks to analyse and fight poverty and social exclusion and promote true, integral human development, social justice and sustainable social systems. Addressing how to access knowledge to this end was a significant undertaking.  What more might be achieved when the right people have the right knowledge in the right form at the right time?

Delegates were energised by the workshop’s ‘inspiring elements’ to see how KM is essential to learning, strategizing and increasing impact: how tacit knowledge converts to explicit for the good of the whole, how knowledge flows are the make or break of internal communications and external coordination and how the use of knowledge is at the heart of policy setting and advocacy.

But more than the fundamental concepts, individuals found they could easily make positive changes right away. ‘I have a real plan and know how to start the process with real tools and examples’

Delegates made commitments at organisation and network levels, genuinely applying learning to the reality of their context. This practical application differentiated the workshop from theoretical programmes which celebrate KM more as a discipline than a way of working.  ‘This workshop met my expectations and more. It helped me understand what systematic approach we need and the tools to use and how to not lose the knowledge of our employees. With everything laid out it became clear where to move on to’

And with amusement Caritas delegates recognised how daily organisational life becomes a lot easier and more motivating with good KM. The case for developing good KM was made.

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We also run open courses. Please see links for our upcoming KM training and calendar for all open course.