Sensemaking

What is sensemaking?

Sensemaking or sense-making “is the process through which individuals work to understand novel, unexpected or confusing events.” (Dyer 2016) or experiences. In other words the process of sense-making is the practice of working out what meanings people are attributing to their experiences. Sense making  gives a clear idea as to what the prevailing beliefs, thinking and actions are likely to be of those individuals and groups.

Additionally, sensemaking research methods enables organisations to see areas of agreement and conflict, especially at a cultural level.

Sense making theory

Sensemaking is a growing area of research with over 124,000 (as at 2017) research papers published on the topic.

References

Dyer, R. (2016) Cultural sense-making integration into risk mitigation strategies towards megaproject success. International Journal of Project Management