Making sense of sense-making – and how this skill could be your sustainability super-power
Recently I've had a few conversations with highly talented and successful people. They worked in different organisations, held different roles and had very different careers. Yet each of them mentioned the same thing.
Sense-making.
This was not something I’d given much thought to. I was curious, so I started reading and researching the topic. And the more I explored it, the more I realised that sense-making sits at the heart of many of the ‘soft’ skills we talk about in sustainability: coaching, facilitation, systems thinking, collaboration and leadership.
And I’m attracted to people who can make sense of complexity; I wonder if many of us are. The podcasts I listen to; the books I read are all from people who use sense-making to unpick and explain 21st Century life.
And I’ve come to realise that sense making is vital skill for professionals (not just podcasters and authors) in 2026 and beyond.
Let me explain.
From the ‘information age’ to the ‘interpretation age’
Up until recently personal and business success was often linked to having access to information.
But today that's no longer the case.
Most of us have more information than we know what to do with. We have dashboards, reports, podcasts, newsletters, webinars, LinkedIn posts, and now AI tools capable of generating answers to almost any question in seconds.
Michael Hudson, writing in Forbes, argues that we're moving from the Information Age into what could be considered the Interpretation Age: a world where the differentiating skill is no longer finding and retaining information but helping people understand what it means and what to do next.
And, of course, this matters because AI is speeding this up.
AI provides information and content summaries. And it can provide some options for what to do, too, but AI doesn’t have all the context you do. It can’t see the system you’re operating within.
That's where sense-making comes in.
The leaders and professionals who add value won't necessarily be those with the quickest answer. They'll be the ones who can help people interpret what's happening, understand the implications, connect seemingly unrelated ideas and decide how to move forward.
As leadership thinker Neil Perkin argues, sense-making sits at the intersection of AI, decision-making and adaptability, three things that are fundamentally reshaping how work gets done.
In a world where information is abundant and AI can generate endless possibilities, judgement, interpretation and collective understanding become increasingly valuable.
That’s sense-making skill.
Sure, but what is sense-making?
Researcher Gary Klein and colleagues describe sense-making as:
"A motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places, and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively."
This definition because it moves beyond simply understanding information, and it talks about connections – which brings in a systems thinking approaches.
Sense-making is about understanding relationships, spotting patterns, exploring implications and deciding how to act. It’s the gap between knowing and doing.
What does this mean for sustainability?
How does all this link in with sustainability? Glad you asked.
Sustainability is not a simple problem; it’s systemic, interconnected and constantly evolving.
And the challenge isn't just technical, it's also profoundly human.
Every sustainability professional eventually runs into the same reality: you cannot spreadsheet your way through complexity. Strategies and report aren’t enough.
You need people to understand what's happening, interpret what it means for them and identify what they can do.
In other words, you need sense-making.
How do leaders – and you – practise sense-making?
If sense-making is the ability to create meaning and understanding in complex situations, the obvious question is: how?
From what I’ve learnt there are two skills lie at the heart of it: coaching and facilitation.
Neither skill is about providing answers.
Both are about helping people make sense of what they are seeing, hearing and experiencing.
Use coaching skills
When faced with uncertainty, many leaders feel pressure to have the answer.
But on complex topics like sustainability, the answer rarely sits with one person. Knowledge is distributed throughout the team or organisation.
This is where coaching skills become valuable.
A coaching approach assumes that people around you hold important insights, observations and expertise. Rather than jumping straight to solutions, leaders create space for reflection and inquiry.
Leaders using coaching skills ask questions such as:
What are you noticing?
What feels most important here?
What patterns are emerging?
What assumptions are we making?
What aren't we seeing?
What might this mean for our team, customers or organisation?
These questions help people move beyond reporting information and towards interpreting it.
They help teams make meaning together.
Perhaps most importantly, coaching leaders (see Ian Days great work here) trust that understanding can emerge through conversation rather than needing to be provided from the top.
Use facilitation skills to build shared meaning
Coaching is often one-to-one or within small groups, but facilitation helps do the same work at a larger scale.
Karl Weick's research suggests that sense-making is fundamentally social. We understand complex situations by talking them through with others, comparing perspectives and building a shared understanding.
Good facilitation creates the conditions for that to happen.
It helps people:
hear different viewpoints
connect ideas across silos
explore uncertainty without rushing to conclusions
identify patterns and themes
build a common understanding of what is happening
come to decisions and commit to action
In sustainability, this is especially important because the challenges are complex, systemic and collaborative.
Facilitation helps organisations combine perspectives into a wider understanding of the system and where action is needed.
Sense-making Is Less About Answers and More About Conversations
And of course, neither coaching and facilitation are about giving people information.
They're about with helping people surface ideas and interpret information.
In a world of AI, information abundance and increasing complexity, I believe that this may become one of the most valuable things leaders can do.
Not provide certainty; not provide all the answers.
But create the conditions in which people can make sense of complexity together and find their next meaningful action.
For more support on facilitation and coaching, check out my services.