Lilia, Nonaka did useful work in this area.

Here's a useful quote and a pointer to his thinking:

http://hypergogue.posterous.com/back-to-basics-nonaka-and-tacit-knowledge

"The fundamental principle of organizational design at the Japanese companies I have studied is redundancy — the conscious overlapping of company information, business activities, and managerial responsibilities. …

Redundancy is important because it encourages frequent dialogue and communication. This helps create a “common cognitive ground” among employees and thus facilitates the transfer of tacit knowledge. Since members of the organization share overlapping information, they can sense what others are struggling to articulate. Redundancy also spreads new explicit knowledge through the organization so it can be internalized by employees."

I think (I may be wrong) that much of what we understand about communication and socialising is that we meet to exchange news and that these meetings are powered by difference.

It's counter-intuitive for most people that we meet to go over common ground. The news is incidental.