Sensemaking in Organizations

"To talk about sensemaking is to talk about reality as an ongoing accomplishment that takes form when people make retrospective sense of the situations in which they find themselves and their creations." Definition and process.

"To talk about sensemaking is to talk about reality as an ongoing accomplishment that takes form when people make retrospective sense of the situations in which they find themselves and their creations." Definition and process. Sensemaking is the cognitive process by which people give meaning to their experiences. It involves: Noticing and bracketing information from the environment Labeling and categorizing to stabilize the streaming of experience Retrospectively developing plausible explanations for what they notice Enacting the environment to test their interpretations Key characteristics. Sensemaking is: Ongoing and never-ending Grounded in identity construction Social and relational Focused on extracted cues Driven by plausibility rather than accuracy Importance in organizations. Sensemaking is crucial for: Decision-making in ambiguous situations Organizational learning and adaptation Crisis management and response Strategic planning and execution

"Organizations are networks of intersubjectively shared meanings that are sustained through the development and use of a common language and everyday social interaction." Intersubjectivity in organizations. Organizations exist as: Collective minds formed through shared experiences and interpretations Systems of coordinated actions based on mutual understanding Environments where individual sensemaking processes converge and diverge Organizational culture. Shared meanings manifest as: Common language and jargon Shared stories and narratives Collective rituals and practices Tacit assumptions and beliefs Dynamics of organizational sensemaking. Organizations continuously evolve through: Negotiation of meaning between members Adaptation to external changes and internal shifts Resolution of conflicts between different interpretations Integration of new members and ideas into existing frameworks

"The recipe 'How can I know what I think until I see what I say?' has four pronouns, all four of which point to the person doing the sensemaking." Individual identity in sensemaking. People make sense of situations based on: Their self-concept and how they want to be perceived Past experiences and future aspirations Multiple, sometimes conflicting, identities they hold Organizational identity. Organizations develop a sense of self through: Collective understanding of "who we are" as an entity Shared beliefs about core values and mission Distinctive competencies and characteristics Identity and action. Identity influences sensemaking by: Shaping what people notice and how they interpret it Motivating certain actions and discouraging others Providing a framework for understanding successes and failures

"The important point is that retrospective sensemaking is an activity in which many possible meanings may need to be synthesized, because many different projects are under way at the time reflection takes place." The role of hindsight. Retrospection in sensemaking involves: Looking back at past events to explain current situations Reinterpreting past experiences in light of new information…