Testimonials
Coffey International Development, in association with the Canadian Urban Institute, engaged Dr Helen Paige to prepare and facilitate a Knowledge Cafe workshop in Manila to address two critical areas for our AusAID program - how donor organisations can improve coordination to maximise use of limited resources; and how to develop partnership approaches to ensure interventions deliver maximum benefit. The objective was to generate as many ideas as possible by exposing participants to meaningful discussions at all levels through a series of targeted questions. The main problem in the past has been that key experts in this area have become saturated in their thinking by continuous workshops and conferences and hence a new, more stimulating approach was needed. Dr Paige designed a workshop and series of questions that took advantage of the culture of the participants to socialise and talk, while providing the stimuli to ensure they stayed alert during proceedings and contributed new and exciting ideas in the process. Following the workshop, Dr Paige worked with the team to synthesise the results and distribute a summary of ideas to all participants within 24 hours. Participants commented on this positive and uplifting approach and all felt like they made a valued contribution to something worthwhile. For Coffey it enabled the company to extract many more ideas within a shorter time period than conventional workshop approaches, and it has now been developed and used in other regions and activities.
Cheers
David Goodwins
Project Director
Geospatial Information Systems
'Just a short note to thank you for your valuable inputs into our KM activity relating to the LGDP project in the Philippines.
As you know, this was out first attempt to come to grips with the "active harvesting of knowledge" from an ODA project as it entered its final stages of activity.
The results of the Cafe methodology were judged as very positive by the stakeholders/ partners involved. We believe your guidance and oversight of the process proved critical in ensuring our company's investment in time and money was productive and useful.
I hope you find the resources developed as an outcome of this activity of interest.
I have just returned from PNG where we rolled out a country-wide KM strategy involving all our AusAID funded projects. Again the KM Cafe methodology was fully discussed and applied as a useful tool for the effective management of "lessons learnt" during the project life cycle.
Once again, our sincere thanks for your contributions to our ongoing work in this area.'
Best wishes
BOB WILSON
Knowledge Manager
Coffey International Development
TAFESA Professional Development Day - July 2008
'We want to thank you for all the time you put into facilitating the Professional Development day for out staff ...
Your commendable efforts on the day ensured a successful outcome for the Business Services team. You were able to energise a very diverse group of people in a creative and efficient manner. The day was facilitated in a highly professional style and your attention to detail was appreciated.
We would be delighted to use your services again in the future and highly recommend your services to any organisation with complete confidence'.
Educational Managers, Business Services
Australian Legal Practice Management Association (South Australia) ALPMA Seminar - July 2008>
The Best Feature of the Presentation Workshop was:
- The method of involving all participants
- Sharing of knowledge
- Ideas/communication
- Other peoples’ ideas
- Networking – discussion
- Practical application
- Interactive Nature
- Interacting with other attendees
Knowledge Management Presentations
Feedback from participants at The Australian Legal Practice Management Association (SA) on the topic of 'Learning to Share - Helping Lawyers Come to Grips with KM '
'the best feature of the presentation was the interaction between participants'
'the message being reinforced with regard to what you really already know. Gives you an incentive to take up active pursuit of this (Knowledge Management) again'
'the speaker was extremely knowledgeable and was cognizant of the challenges surrounding the introduction of KM in law firms ie knowledge sharing etc'.
For tailored, personalised and high impact consulting, contact Dr Helen Paige at AKN.
