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Weick's sensemaking is an organizational concept explaining how actors form coherent interpretations and action options from fragmentary information. It emphasizes retrospective interpretation, social processes and identity construction, and is applicable to crises, change and ambiguity in organizations.
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Karl E. Weick’s sensemaking describes how people develop an actionable, continuously revised interpretation from ambiguous events.
Weick established the organizational-science concept, especially through his 1995 book Sensemaking in Organizations. The approach foregrounded interpretation, identity, social interaction, and retrospective ordering of experience.
People notice a disruption or signal, select cues from what happened, and jointly give them a plausible meaning. That meaning guides action; consequences reshape the next interpretation. Plausibility and continuity matter alongside retrospective accuracy.
Through action, actors partly create the situation they later interpret.
How an organization or person understands itself shapes which cues appear relevant.
Experiences are often connected after the fact into an intelligible account.
The approach helps explain uncertainty, change, and divergent situation reports in organizations. It does not replace fact checking: plausible stories can be incomplete and need observation, dialogue, and counterexamples.
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