ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
TURNING INSIGHTS INTO ACTION: THE POWER OF AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
An enabling environment turns individual tacit knowledge into collective action by creating the right conditions for insights to be shared, tested, and applied.
Tacit knowledge—shaped by lived experience, intuition, and practice—is often difficult to articulate but essential for adaptive decision-making.
When organisations prioritise open dialogue, trust, and adaptive learning, they unlock this knowledge, enabling teams to refine strategies, challenge assumptions, and respond effectively to complex challenges.
Leaders play a crucial role in fostering this culture by making space for learning, encouraging reflection, and ensuring that tacit knowledge isn’t just recognised but actively used.
Strengthening facilitation, mentoring, and coaching capacities helps embed learning into daily work, making knowledge exchange a natural and continuous process.
Workshops designed around tacit knowledge and adaptive learning reinforced these principles by embedding collaborative design, leadership reflection, and real-time adaptation into the process.
Leaders were not just participants—they actively facilitated discussions, co-designed sessions, and practised creating enabling environments within their teams.
Using models like FIND (Focus, Inquire, Notice, Do), workshops structured learning to surface unspoken insights, challenge assumptions, and translate tacit knowledge into action.
This approach demonstrated that adaptive learning isn’t about following a rigid framework—it’s about staying responsive, valuing lived experience, and ensuring that the rich, often hidden, knowledge within teams drives meaningful change.
What you know can help others — if you share it.
Tacit knowledge, shaped by experience, reflection, and practice, is valuable to the individual—but its real power lies in being shared and used.
Scenario: Tapping into Local Expertise – An international NGO struggles to reach marginalized groups in hard-to-access areas. Rather than relying solely on external assessments, international staff engage directly with national colleagues—both within their own organisation and partner organisations—as well as minority rights groups. Their deep community ties provide critical insights that reshape outreach strategies, building trust and improving access.
The Right Environment Turns Individual Insights into Collective Action.
The transformation of tacit knowledge into accessible and useful collective knowledge for decision-making is possible when there are enabling conditions, such as resources, leadership support, and adaptive learning capacities, to sustain the process.
When organisations create the right conditions, insights don’t stay locked in individuals’ minds; they flow through teams, shaping better decisions and driving real change. This happens when leaders make space for learning, teams embed reflection into daily routines, and individuals develop the confidence to challenge assumptions and trust their lived experience.
"What I liked about this training is the sitting arrangement, all the monsters of distraction were removed thus we got more time to engage fully in the sessions."
Mohammed Jeyte, SADO (NNGO)
Scenario: Coordinating Drought Response: – A national NGO and an international agency are responding to drought. Instead of working in silos, they hold regular joint debriefs where field staff openly share real-time challenges. By fostering trust and open dialogue, they adapt distribution plans based on community feedback, ensuring aid reaches those most in need faster.
The use of tacit knowledge blooms in environments where people feel safe to share, challenge ideas, and build on each other's experiences. Creating the right conditions makes knowledge exchange and use more natural, relevant, and actionable. Key elements include:
LEADERSHIP – CREATING SPACE FOR LEARNING
Leaders determine whether tacit knowledge flourishes or remains siloed.
An enabling environment isn’t about top-down control—it’s about cultivating a space where people feel safe to share experiences, challenge ideas, and turn insights into action. This demands leaders who go beyond directing; they actively shape a culture where:
Problems are seen as learning opportunities, not just operational hurdles to fix.
Scenario: – Instead of treating a delayed activity as a failure, a team holds a short debrief to explore what caused the delay, what could be done differently next time, and what insights can be applied to other projects.
Leaders don’t need all the answers, Instead, success is defined by the team’s ability to think, adapt, and solve challenges together.
Scenario: – A team member raises a challenge in a meeting, and instead of the manager providing a solution, they ask, “What do others think?” This invites team-led problem-solving and encourages shared ownership of solutions.
Honest, open questioning is the norm, where diverse perspectives are not only welcomed but seen as essential for better decisions.
Scenario: – In a strategic planning session, facilitators encourage participants to challenge assumptions by asking, “What might we be missing?” and ensure that insights from junior staff and field teams are given equal weight in decision-making.
Hajir Hussein, REACH Somalia (Local INGO Staff)
Hajir Hussein, REACH Somalia (Local INGO Staff)
RESOURCING THE TRANSFER OF TACIT KNOWLEDGE
Harnessing tacit knowledge doesn’t always require additional resources—it requires intentionality.
When embedded into existing activities, knowledge exchange becomes part of how organisations operate rather than an extra task. Routine meetings, joint field trips, periodic reviews, and day-to-day collaboration can all serve as spaces for meaningful learning when structured to facilitate open exchange.
The key is making existing processes more effective by:
Training teams and leaders to integrate knowledge-sharing into their roles.
Scenario: – A programme manager includes a five-minute reflection at the end of every team meeting, asking, “What’s one thing we/you learned this week that others should know?
Using structured facilitation to bring out insights naturally during discussions.
Scenario: – In a quarterly review, a facilitator prompts teams with open-ended questions like, "What challenges came up, how did we handle them, and what can we do differently next time?" instead of just reviewing targets.
Leveraging technology for seamless virtual collaboration.
Scenario: – A WhatsApp group allows field staff to quickly share real-time observations, which are then discussed in a standing monthly call to draw out patterns and lessons
Enhancing existing workflows to ensure knowledge is applied, not just shared.
Scenario: – After an emergency response, teams not only document lessons learned but also assign clear action points for integrating those insights into future contingency planning.
Turning everyday interactions into opportunities for learning and adaptation.
Rather than collecting tacit knowledge in isolation, the focus is on enabling its flow and use
STRENGTHENING ADAPTIVE LEARNING CAPACITIES
Better Conversations, Better Decisions, Stronger Impact
Adaptive learning works when reflection, facilitation, and critical thinking are built into everyday practices—not treated as separate activities. Organisations enable this by embedding learning into decision-making, teams by making reflection routine, and individuals by challenging assumptions and trusting their lived experience.
Strengthening organizational facilitation, mentoring, and coaching capacity ensures that insights don’t just surface but are actively used to drive change.
Lena Cherotich, CHC Facilitator
- Organisational level: Leaders integrate structured reflection into decision-making, ensuring frontline insights shape strategy. Flexible policies, like adaptive funding, allow teams to adapt to emerging needs.
- Team level: Quick debriefs become part of routine meetings, keeping learning and action connected. Strong facilitation techniques ensure diverse voices shape decisions.
- Individual level: Staff sharpen critical thinking by questioning assumptions and considering multiple perspectives. Mentoring and coaching build confidence in using lived experiences as valuable knowledge for navigating uncertainty.
Scenario: Making Space for Honest Dialogue: – A country office sets up regular peer-led learning sessions where staff can safely discuss what’s working and what’s not. These open conversations help break down silos, strengthen trust, and lead to more coordinated decision-making across teams.
Margot Charles - Country Director, ACTED Somalia (INGO)
Margot Charles - Country Director, ACTED Somalia (INGO)
Creating the Conditions: How We Used Tacit Learning in Workshop Design and Delivery
Psychologists Richard Erskine and Elisabeth Trautman identified eight key relational needs that shape how people engage, learn, and collaborate. When these needs are met, individuals feel secure, valued, and motivated to contribute—essential conditions for effective learning and adaptive thinking.
Creating the Conditions: Facilitating Group Learning Through Intentional Design
Creating the right conditions for sharing tacit knowledge goes beyond structured discussions—it requires an environment where people feel secure enough to contribute openly, confident that their perspectives are valued, and engaged in a shared learning process.
When participants feel recognised, included, and able to shape discussions, they are more likely to challenge assumptions, surface unspoken insights, and co-create meaningful solutions.
The workshops were designed to foster this dynamic, using models like FIND (Focus, Inquire, Notice, Do) and adaptive facilitation to ensure learning was reciprocal, grounded in real experiences, and driven by collective engagement rather than a single voice.
By positioning leaders as enablers of this process, the workshops strengthened trust, deepened collaboration, and created space for real-time adaptation.
Empowering Leadership for Tacit Knowledge Workshop Co-Design
This project was designed for leaders to learn by doing—experiencing what enables tacit learning while actively creating that environment for their teams. At the same time, participants focused on two immediately useful themes: collaboration and access. Co-design involved working with the partnership senior management team ( SMT) to:
Co-design for Buy-in and Ownership: The initial consultation with the SMT took place in two steps. First, a group session introduced the workshop objectives and approach. This was followed by one-on-one calls with the CHC team to explore specific needs, concerns, and expectations. This process ensured SMT’s learner readiness by allowing them to engage with the approach before implementation. Additionally, SMT co-designed key elements, including the timing of the workshops and the criteria for participant selection, ensuring relevance and alignment with organisational priorities.
Safe Space for Leadership Reflection: The first two-day workshop, designed exclusively for leaders, provided space to explore their own learning styles, assumptions, and barriers to using tacit knowledge. They examined power dynamics, inclusion, and strategies for fostering honest conversations—all within a safe environment with no pressure to be ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’
Through this process, they deepened their understanding of tacit learning within their organisations and partnerships. Using criteria established during pre-workshop consultations, a broader group of participants was pre-selected for the second workshop. Leaders then played an active role in co-designing this workshop, ensuring it was relevant and structured for meaningful knowledge exchange. They also prepared to facilitate discussions, create an enabling environment, and listen to diverse perspectives on the chosen themes.
This approach strengthened leadership capacity and marked the beginning of leaders being visibly engaged in creating an enabling environment for learning.
Discussions on Power Dynamics during the workshop
Discussions on Power Dynamics during the workshop
Built-in Flexibility & Learner-Centred Approach: Facilitators approached the workshops with openness and adaptability, recognising that learning is an evolving process. Pause-and-reflect sessions were embedded throughout, allowing participants to share feedback on the process.
This feedback directly shaped real-time adjustments in facilitation techniques, workshop content, and time management. When immediate changes weren’t possible, facilitators kept open lines of communication with the SMT and participants, ensuring transparency and trust.
This learner-centred approach made participants feel heard and valued, strengthening engagement. By staying responsive to evolving needs, the process itself became a demonstration of how to share and use tacit knowledge effectively.
Use of practical and user-friendly learning model – THE FIND MODEL
Jumping to solutions blinds us to the insights that truly matter—pausing to understand leads to better action.
The FIND model—Focus, Inquire, Notice, Do—offers a structured, intentional, and inclusive approach to learning by ensuring tacit knowledge is surfaced, shared, and applied. Inspired by Kolb’s learning cycle, FIND creates a continuous loop of doing, thinking, and refining. It encourages collaboration, challenges assumptions, and deepens understanding. In the workshops, this model helped structure discussions, making knowledge exchange more deliberate and ensuring diverse perspectives shaped collective learning and action.
Focus: Participants used guiding questions to define their learning themes, ensuring relevance and diverse perspectives. For example, the theme of ‘improving access’ initially focused on organisational challenges but expanded to include community barriers like language, power dynamics, and security.
Inquire: Deep reflection techniques, such as metaphors, drawing and role plays, helped participants challenge assumptions and explore different perspectives on their chosen themes.
Notice: Participants paused to reflect on emerging insights, questioning how new understandings reshaped their initial perspectives and who would be impacted by potential changes.
Do: The focus shifted to applying insights, using questions to identify opportunities rather than limitations. By recognizing their collective expertise, diversity of tacit knowledge and resources, participants committed to a follow-up meeting to explore their shared identity, mission, and goals.
Ladan Mohamed, GREDO (National NGO Staff)
Ladan Mohamed, GREDO (National NGO Staff)
MORE STORIES
COLLABORATION
Collaboration isn’t just about working together—it’s about bringing the right people into the right conversations at the right time to solve complex challenges.
ADAPTATION
Adapting isn’t just about making adjustments—it’s about staying responsive to real-world challenges. It means regularly assessing what’s working, what’s not, and making meaningful shifts based on evidence, experience, and feedback.
OUR PARTNERS
This project was supported by the UK Humanitarian Innovation Hub (UKHIH) and funded by UK International Development in collaboration with our learning partners in Somalia: GREDO, MCAN, SADO, REACH IMPACT &ACTED SOMALIA
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