Sharing and dispersal of knowledge is very much vital for any successful workspace. Nowadays, with the increasing presence of shared workspaces, this has become even more essential. Take for example a typical coworking space in Bangalore, a city known for its highly creative professionals. How do they help each other? Do they learn from each other? Let’s take a look.

So, how do knowledge dynamics work in coworking spaces? A study conducted by Ignasi Capdevila, a PhD student at HEC Montreal management school described coworking spaces as ‘microclusters’. In his thesis, he says “The literature on knowledge creation in economic geography has often focused on the territorialor organizational level, without considering the multi-scalar aspect of innovation and knowledgedynamic. It is important to fill this gap by analysing the knowledge dynamics that takeplace in localized emerging communities in Coworking Spaces (CWS) as well as their impact atthe local and global levels.” He also points out that not all shared offices are coworking spaces.

A coworking space is more than just a space shared by different businesses and companies. There’s a completely different dynamism prevalent in coworking spaces; they are a community, a creative, open environment where ideas fly back and forth and knowledge is traded and shared. It’s more than just a place to work, it’s a community of people working collaboratively and openly. Plenty of start-ups find their beginnings in coworking spaces, mostly from a shared idea, a vision. Plenty of business owners and would-be entrepreneurs develop their ideas in collaborative environments like these. Anything could spark an idea, a throwaway comment, a discussion with fellow employees and members.

There are so many ways that ideas can get triggered in a coworking space. Ideas could be born from a brainstorming session or a community event for other members of the coworking space. They could be born from speaking to a mentor, a senior entrepreneur or an investor. Skills are all too commonly shared too in coworking spaces. Take two different businesses working side-by-side, one a smartphone company, and another an app developer. Can you see how they could benefit from sharing knowledge? The smartphone company can share ideas on hardware configurations, customer base and how to build an app for that particular smartphone’s operating system. The app developer can use this data to create and refine his app and aim it at the demographic it’s looking at.

It’s more than just about base knowledge too. Many coworking spaces have mentors on hand and regularly invite industry professionals and thought-leaders to share their experiences and their knowledge, which definitely contributes to the knowledge dynamics of coworking spaces.

As you can see, coworking spaces are more than just shared workspaces. They are about forming a community, where each individual can support and aid their fellow coworkers, share thoughts and ideas for the betterment of their little community. This is the basic dynamic that makes an idea of coworking space so much more interesting and beneficial.