Thinking about Sense-making

[Dave Snowden]

• I define it as “How do we make sense of the world so we can act in it” and the school of thought here (based on some of the literature one of the five schools of thought and the most recent) is known as naturalising sense-making which means using natural science as a constraint for meaning making in uncertainty.

Introduction

• Sense-making/sensemaking are terms commonly understood as the processes through which people interpret and give meaning to their experiences
• The three different spelling variations (i.e., sense-making, sensemaking, sense making) are used deliberately by the authors included here, in different academic discourse communities that share some common thrusts
• The terms originally focused on the five senses but have expanded in meaning to cover physical, emotional, spiritual, and intuitional responses posited as involved in human sense-makings of their worlds, both internal and external
• Since the 1970s, sense-making/sensemaking has been used by researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds, with significant applications in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI), cognitive systems engineering, knowledge management, communication studies, and library/information science (human information behavior)
• At the highest level of abstraction, the differences in the underlying theories used by researchers can best be understood in tensions between cognitivist and constructivist strands and the focus on either a micro or macro framework
• As the different streams of attention differ in so many ways (e.g., context, informants, methods, intended audiences, etc.), comparisons are difficult
  
• It is necessary to understand the historical origins, philosophical assumptions, and methodological roots of five major research approaches labeled as sense-making or sensemaking:
  • Dervin’s sense-making in user studies, human information behavior; Weick’s sensemaking in organizational communication
  • Snowden’s organizational sense-making in knowledge management
  • Russell’s sensemaking in HCI
  • Klein’s sensemaking in cognitive systems engineering
    
• Applications of the approaches, emerging perspectives, and uses are reviewed
• Applications increasingly merge some sense-making/sensemaking ideas together or use sense-making/sensemaking with other theories (e.g., Brenda Dervin: Sense-Making Methodology: Methodology, Daniel Russell: Sensemaking and Searching: Philosophy and Methodology, Gary Klein: Sensemaking in Cognitive Systems Engineering: Application).

General Overviews

• Dervin and Naumer 2009 and Dervin and Naumer 2010 provide overviews of these five sensemaking theories of Dervin, Weick, Snowden, Russell, and Klein, and Golob 2018 provides an update.
• Kolko 2010 provides a theory-based comparison of the five sensemaking approaches in the context of system design.
• Lam 2014 systematically compares the theories of Dervin, Weick, and Snowden, examining knowledge creation, sharing, and utilization
• Browning and Boudès 2005 focuses on narrative in comparing the models of Weick and Snowden
• Maitlis and Christianson 2014 reviews research on sensemaking as a process in organizations
• Reviews emphasize the need for meta-synthesis of research:
  • Urquhart 2011 discusses the process of meta-synthesis for information behavior research
  • Ward, et al. 2018 provides a critical interpretive synthesis of research on adaptation and skill that uses Klein’s later models of sensemaking