The Knot does not operate in some kind of vacuum and shows this social awareness by having set out a set of values that show in its work. These values, laid down in a mission statement, show that The Knot has a philosophy, a goal and ways to get there, which form a unique identity.

The mission statement makes two things clear. First of all that The Knot operates in a social, economical and cultural framework and has certain ideas about that. Secondly it is a tool, a guiding principle, in the work carried out by The Knot. This illustrates itself in the now following mission statement.

MISSION STATEMENT

  1. The Knot is established as a pan European non-governmental trainers association. It focuses on offering services to both non-governmental and governmental, as well as profit guided structures. It does so to:
    • Empower people and organisations in society in the pan-European region
    • Stimulate regional, national and international cooperation
    • Build cross-cultural bridges
  2. The Knot does this with a clear view on society. In working in so many regions of Europe, it encounters with many different social arrangements. The Knot shows a clear respect to the fundamental human rights and freedoms. These rights and freedoms create the path along which society should be organised, but do not completely determine the final outcome. The Knot thus will use its vision on society as an input to its activities, but will respect the conclusion that are based on the needs, culture and believes of people and organisations in the specific regions. 
  3. The Knot stands for a professional ideological approach. It wants to bring the level of personal and organisational development to a higher level with a clear approach. Its work is based on practical experiences and inputs from the profit and non-profit field. With its actions it wants to improve the quality of research, training, stimulate tighter networks, empower organisations and much more. All of this with a global vision on society, where people can actively participating and be heard.

  4. The Knot is not just providing standard developed answers for its target groups, but it has a flexible and dynamic approach in facing challenges or answering needs of its partners. Starting from a basic framework and from the wishes of the organisation, it develops and creates together with them the right approach. Tailor made in contradiction to ‘one size fits all’.
  5. The Knot takes experimental and experiential learning as a fundamental attitude. Trough its thorough research and day-to-day work it is constantly looking at and searching for new methodologies and techniques that can be used to improve the work of the organisation. Using and experimenting with these new techniques is a constant process in giving the organisation the best approach of tackling the challenges in its work. Besides experimenting, experiential learning is essential in working with people and organisations. This all based on the principle that with words you experience less than with the experience itself.
  6. Equality is a central theme in the work that The Knot is undertaking. The knowledge of the participants in its activities or the organisations it is working with is actively used as a basic resource instrument for the content of the activity or the cooperation. This philosophy is based on the 1 + 1 = 3 approach. That means that the outcome of the work from a group or team, who shares and work together towards a specific goal, is greater than the sum of the inputs of the individuals.
  7. Empowering people and organisations in society is an ongoing process and is therefore highly valued in The Knot. Organisations, both non-profit as profit all over Europe mostly do not have the opportunity to go deeper into a certain aspects of their development, because their work is too diverse. Therefore they do not have the time and resources to tackle specific topics when it comes to change and or further development. The Knot considers it an important task to empower people and organisations on a permanent basis, by sharing knowledge trough actively working together over a long period, even when the collaboration is short, to make the effect long lasting.
  8. The Knot will combine two sectors of work, namely the profit and non-profit sector. Transferring knowledge between the non-profit and the profit sector and the exchanging of methodologies and approaches are points that will get an ongoing attention. The outcomes and results of these interactions will be used towards the further development of the Knot to reach its aims and objectives. To do so it will offer a set of services and trainings for enterprises, based on the experience in international non-profit sector, and will use the outcomes from that vice versa.
  9. Finally, The Knot will focus on the synergy between all the different elements in its work and for all the aims and objectives that the organisation stands for. Next to that it also works towards creating synergy of work done by other organisations, to make it stronger as a whole. The Knot should therefore not be seen as an organisation on its own, but as a strong partner in a larger network, for a stronger network.
Last modified: 13 December 2016

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