Book Excerpt: Sensemaking

Here’s an excerpt from my new book (working title, due 2023), A Test for Our Time: Crisis Leadership in the Next Normal. It echoes this week’s theme about sensemaking:

For OraSure, the job of consciously choosing important facets of knowledge or clusters of insight and making them understandable and presented even-handed began with me. We didn’t name it sensemaking, but in effect, we practiced this type of interpreting. In October 2021, I wrote:

If you're struggling to keep your inner peace during this pandemic, know that you're not alone. Here are some things that have helped me get through it:

1. Accept that things are different right now and that they may never go back to exactly the way they were before.
2. Recognize the different aspects of grief that you may be feeling, such as loss, isolation, and uncertainty. Allow yourself to experience these emotions and reach out for support if needed.
3. Find activities, old or new, that fulfill you and bring you joy.
4. Focus on maintaining strong relationships with your loved ones. Lean on them for support and talk to them about your struggles.
5. Build regular practices into your life that promote resilience, such as getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, meditating, being self-compassionate, and saying no when needed.

Taking care of yourself is crucial during times of stress – make sure you're doing things that make you feel good physically and mentally.

Leaders need to model vulnerability in their interpreting process. This means being open to imperfection and acknowledging the limits of our understanding. By doing so, we can learn from experience and act accordingly. In my view, we must help people make sense not only of their work lives but also of the other aspects of their lives that were affected by the pandemic, such as isolation and loneliness. By modeling sensemaking, we can provide a valuable service to others who are struggling to make sense of their own lives in these difficult times.

OraSure's success during the pandemic can be attributed to our focus on the present and our ability to "mental time travel" to the past and future. The key to successful leadership is compassion, empowerment, accountability, engagement, and interpreting. Aligning the entire organization around its mission is crucial for empowering leaders and employees.

Leaders also need to treat others as equals and listen actively to learn from people to make sense of it all and share that information. Like much advice, it’s easy to understand and difficult to do consistently and collectively. But for the next normal replete with unimaginable crises, we must aim to do so completely.?

I welcome your feedback.

#Sensemaking #Compassion #Empowerment #Accountability #Engagement #Interpreting #ATestForOurTime #CrisisLeadership #NextNormal

[Image credit: brandongustafson.me]