The Practice of Sensemaking

When things start to go off-track—whether it’s a project slipping, a team misfiring, or a system showing signs of strain—my first instinct isn’t to react. It’s to pause.

I try to make sense of where we are, imagine the best possible outcome from here, build a plan, and get to work. That rhythm—pause, orient, act—has shaped how I lead. Especially in complex, high-pressure moments, I’ve learned that clarity rarely comes from urgency. It comes from attention.

Slowing Down Under Pressure

I once took a leadership assessment that mapped how I respond under stress. It noted that while I’m often driven by results and forward motion, I tend to slow things down when things go wrong. I step back. I want to understand what’s happening before deciding what to do next.

That felt right. I’ve seen it again and again in my work. When a project derails or a team dynamic gets messy, I don’t push harder or throw out the plan. I pause. I look for what’s actually true. I ask questions. I surface assumptions. I try to locate the problem clearly enough that we can move forward with confidence.

That slowing down isn’t hesitation—it’s how I reset orientation. It’s how I make meaning before making moves.

Orient Before You Act

This is what leadership theorist Deborah Ancona calls sensemaking—the practice of helping yourself and others understand what’s happening, without rushing to fix or explain it away. It’s about naming the signals, surfacing the patterns, and locating yourself honestly in the mess.

Most bad decisions don’t come from bad intentions. They come from moving too quickly with too little orientation—missing context, untested assumptions, habits that no longer apply. But sensemaking isn’t about waiting for perfect clarity. You’ll never have the full picture. What you can have is a better sense of where you are, what’s shifting, and what matters most right now. Slowing down helps you ground your next move. And then the next. It’s an ongoing discipline of paying attention and adjusting as you go.

Evaluation as Sensemaking

I approach performance evaluation the same way.

Too often, evaluation becomes a form of judgment—an attempt to rank, sort, or finalize a person’s trajectory. But the kind of evaluation I believe in is quieter, more curious. It’s not about rating people. It’s about helping them—and the organization—make better sense of where they are.

When we take the time to reflect honestly on someone’s strengths, struggles, and growth areas, we’re not just checking boxes. We’re naming what’s real. We’re offering a map. And ideally, we’re doing it in a way that builds energy for the road ahead—not just accountability for the past.

That’s how I try to structure evaluation in the teams I lead. Not as a one-time event, but as an ongoing process of shared orientation. Clear language. Mutual expectations. Regular check-ins that ask, Where are we now? What’s working? What’s missing? What’s next?

Evaluation, at its best, is another form of sensemaking—a way to create alignment, not anxiety.

Not Clarity, but Orientation

Sensemaking doesn’t always lead to instant clarity. That’s not the point. What it does is give us bearings—a shared understanding of what’s true, what’s uncertain, and what matters now.

It’s easy to feel like we’re failing if we don’t have an immediate solution. But I’ve learned that pausing to name what’s really happening—without spin, without panic—is a leadership move in itself. It builds trust. It creates space. And it makes it possible to move forward with intention instead of impulse.