The 3 things we miss out on when we don't 'make sense'

I’ve been writing about the power of sensemaking; the Institute for the Future identified it as a top skill for these times.

Information overload, busy schedules, more meetings than we’d like - and we get swamped with information we need to make sense of.

Sometimes this is information outside of our domain of expertise so there's learning we need to do too ... as well as the sensemaking.

Individually we read things, listen and make sense, alone.

But there’s also the practice of being able to make sense of information together, as a team or group; this is collective sensemaking.

Unfortunately we tend to default to dated ways of working. You know, meetings that follow old style formats of 18th Century Parliamentary procedures with agendas, minutes, attendance, apologies, general business, meeting closed, next meeting ... blah blah yawn!

The problem with this linear, archaic way of working is that

1️⃣ Ideas get overlooked

2️⃣ Decisions don't get made

3️⃣ Problems remain unsolved.

A status quo remains. Then we try again at the next meeting.

*groan

You CAN make a cultural shift using Collective Sensemaking.

7 reasons why Collective Sensemaking is needed in workplaces today

1. The need and drive for collaboration; we are better together, but how do we 'do' collaboration?

2. The work to be done. What is it exactly? Help the team make sense of it and then get out of their way.

3. Those collaborative spaces in many workplaces. How do we make the most of the people and the space?

4. The increasing need to engage, consult and genuinely co-create with customers, stakeholders and communities.

5. Engaging the growing diversity in our communities.

6. How we can be ‘thrown together’ to work with others on a project and we need to start performing together well... immediately.

7. To validate our initial ideas and decisions, prior to giving more time, money and resources to them.

When our meetings don't work, people are uncertain and change is ongoing, we need to help people make sense of what's going on... and quick.

What do you think? Where and when do we need to make more or better sense of what's going on... together? Love to hear your comments below.

Look at where you're looking

Teamwork takes longer than it needs to because we struggle as a group to make sense of what’s going on. No wonder! We’ve never been more distracted, looking at devices, laptops, watches & journals as relief from the boredom, complication and irrelevance of meetings.

Check the distractions here:

⬇️ The guy (left) is looking at a Spotify playlist

➡️ She’s mindful with her coffee

↘️ Sunglasses dude is checking spreadsheets, emails or Slack 

🔀 The two on the right are writing in a journal, one just checked her Fitbit or Apple watch 

There are 5 laptops, 6 devices, 4 note pads and a folder-thingy.

We're perpetually distracted by other visual points of interest, stealing our focus from the team's work.

One person might be going OK making sense, but another two or three people may have ‘lost the threads’ of what's really going on.

Look where people are looking. Unless and until you have what I call a ‘Common Visual Point of Context’, you’ll all be drawn to you own ‘Individual Points of Relief’ (or Distraction). 

About that meeting you were in that just didn't make sense...🤯

We're familiar with the dull meeting, droning on, not achieving anything. But just as frustrating is the meeting that's a messy, confusing and complicated sh*t storm. Things are tricky, frustrating, perhaps complex. All those different views and ideas!

How do you find your way out of it all towards a conclusion or outcome? This is the everyday struggle of the 'meeting that doesn’t make sense.' It’s grossly inefficient to all sit around a table and try to talk through everything on the agenda.

That's a big ask of words alone.

I’ve posted previously on 'sensemaking'; how we understand the deeper meaning of what’s going on. Well there’s 'Collective Sensemaking' too: how we work things out as a group, team, project ... together, collectively.

A team trying to work out what the heck is happening, planning for an uncertain future under changing conditions, would do well to know not just how to make sense individually, alone ... but how to make sense collectively, together.

Oh the waste of unnecessary work

Oh, the waste of unnecessary work! We can be head down, diligently working away on a project or task and yet not know when it’s time to be done with it, to test it or share it or press 'go', launch or go live.

That's because it takes hindsight for us to make sense of things.

It could be that some of what we have done may have been a waste. Some of our time and effort may have been wasted. When we are deep in it we are too close and connected, too attached to it. We can be attached to the expectations we have or the standards we think we need to reach or the end results we think we are reaching for.

So how do we get hindsight sooner? How do you get yourself in a position where you can look back on what you’ve done ... sooner?

Put it out there, pilot, test and trial it. Even if it's not done yet. Then you’ll get feedback and insights and you’ll make sense of that. That’s hindsight.

Most people can press 'go' sooner on a project or task or piece of work. Sooner than they think. Are you holding back from pressing 'go'?

>> Where could you ‘go live’ with something today so the power of valuable hindsight arrives sooner?