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can be many things, but the point is that a symbol is invested with meaning by us
and expresses forms of understanding derived from our past collective experiences.
The sociological view is that organizations exist in the minds of the members. Stories
about culture show how it acts as a sense-making device. Also, culture is unifying and
refers to the processes that bind the organization together. Culture is thus consensual
and not confl icted. The idea of corporate culture reinforces the unifying strengths
of central goals and creates a sense of common responsibility. Culture is also holistic
and refers to the essence — the reality of the organization; what it is like to work
there, how people deal with each other, and what behaviors are expected. The example
of the Nokia way, illustrated in box 7.3, describes one such holistic approach to
culture.
Culture is rooted deep in unconscious sources, but is represented in superfi cial
practices and behavior codes and embodied in cultural artifacts. In order to best
accommodate this, some initial steps to creating a knowledge-sharing culture could
include:
• Having knowledge journalists begin interviewing key people to document projects,
best practices, lessons learned, and good stories
• Instituting KM get-togethers, which could be breakfasts, lunch and learn sessions —
any type of informal gathering to help people get to know one another, sometimes
with thematic talks and to show managerial support
• Newsletters to publicize KM initiatives and celebrate good role models
• KM pilot projects such as expertise location systems, intranets with space devoted
to different communities of practice
• Change performance evaluation criteria to refl ect and assess knowledge-sharing
competencies and accomplishments
• Censure knowledge hoarders and reward effective knowledge-sharers
• Redesign workplaces to allow for gathering places ( Cook 1997 ; Gladwell 2000 ).

The redesign of workplaces extends beyond simple physical offi ce layout designs
to a process of facilitating more effective knowledge sharing. Owen (1997) developed
the notion of open space technology (OST) as a large group facilitation process.
In practice, OST meetings take on many forms and variations, but they follow the
same general guidelines. OST meetings begin with all the participants sitting in a
circle, and no items on the agenda. The meeting opens with an agenda setting
exercise following which the group self-organizes into smaller discussion groups.
Discussion group conveners are responsible for providing a report of the discussions,