From anxiety to action

In these times of great change and uncertainty, anxiety can show up. 

What’s happening? 
How will things change again? 
What will happen next? 

There are many questions and confusion can be common. 

To help allay fears, reduce anxiety and take a step towards greater certainty, Sensemaking can help. 

Healthcare workers for example, are making great use of Sensemaking. 

Working in changing and uncertain situations means they need to ‘make sense’ of what’s occurring. It helps them professionally and personally and is part of the delivery of healthcare services. 

To make sense, we can use stories, data, tools and templates. 

You can ask: 
- What’s going on? 
- What’s the story?
- What do we need to do? 

It’s a deliberate step that can help any of us shift from the swirls of anxiety ... to the steps of powerful action. 

Sensemaking as a way of coping and understanding

If overwhelm, stress or uncertainty creeps up and dumps on you, get out a pen and paper... and map it all out. 

- Map out the overwhelm: what’s going on?  

- Map out the stress: what’s happening - what are you thinking about? 

- Map out the uncertainty: what do you know and what could you do about that? 

Rather than endless thinking thinking thinking, sensemaking can help because it involves the visualization of what can seem like a mess of information. 

We’re able to get perspective on where we are and what’s going on so it begins to make more sense to us. 

It doesn’t need to be fancy. 

A simple page of shapes, lines and words can be enlightening and uplifting. 

There are no rules. Your map doesn’t have to be a certain way. 

It’s the act of making a map that helps get the tangle out of your internal mind and out onto an external page. 

Sensemaking is one of the key capabilities of adaptability : to be able to respond to and deal with change. 

If we don’t map to make sense of things, they don’t make sense no matter how much thinking we do. 

Everything is an idea

Our opinions are ideas. 
Messages are ideas too. 
Statements and questions are. 

Movies are ideas. 
Products and services are as well. 
Blogs, posts and comments are. 

Our opinions and beliefs are ideas. 
Same with our impressions and perspectives. 

Ideas are everywhere. 

They’re how we understand what something is and how we communicate about it. 

Don’t be too upset if what you’re trying to communicate doesn’t change someone’s opinion immediately. It’s your idea, landing up against their ideas. 

We’re presented with so many ideas every day, it’s no wonder some of them don’t get through!

It may take a little while or some repeated attempts. 

Our world is a big mix of ideas, hitting up against one another, circling, collecting in groups, moving, swarming and changing shape. 

Get more of your ideas out into circulation and there’s more of a chance for happy collisions, random landings and repeated connections. 

It’s most certainly a numbers game. 

The great reminder

‘This book is a great reminder’
‘This story is a great reminder’
‘Thank you : what a great reminder...’

So what do we mean?

◻️We knew it already. Tick. 
◻️We knew it but didn’t do anything with it last time. No problem. 
◻️We forgot it, have now been reminded of it and still won’t do anything with it. Also no problem. 
◻️We forgot it and this time we will do something with it. Aha - action time!


There’s so much information we’re reading and listening to, trying to make sense of to make ourselves better. 

The great reminder tells you that you knew it already. Do you want to do something with it for the longer term? 

You don’t have to. 

We can’t put EVERY piece of advice we read into practice!

But if it’s a great reminder for you, what does it remind you of ... AND what might you decide to do with it this time around? 


Q: What do you think when you say ‘that’s a great reminder?’ 

Why does it resonate

When something resonates, it reverberates. The sound is prolonged and full. 

When something resonates for someone, it’s having that full reverberation with them, echoing, resounding, filling space. 

It’s like the sound in an opera house, specifically designed for reverberation. Or the drawn out ‘donnnnnnnggg’ of a bell. 

Resonance in humans is a pretty big deal!

‘This really resonated with me’, is a comment we’ll read or hear from people. They’re sharing the effect a message, story or experience had for them. 

Take notice when someone says that it resonated. It tells you about what’s important to them, what’s on their mind, and what they might need. 

It highlights what connected and reverberated for them. 

And it’s so important today... in times where we’ve been socially distanced, working remotely, and dealing with significant change. 

We can notice when something resonates for us, too. 

It means we’ve struck something - important, meaningful and valuable.