Sensemaking is working out what may be happening so that we can decide what to do next.
It becomes important when information is incomplete, events are changing, or people interpret the same situation differently. People compare what they have observed, question assumptions and build a shared working explanation—not a claim to perfect certainty.
That explanation must remain open to evidence and revision. Sensemaking fails when the first plausible story becomes fixed, inconvenient information is excluded, or authority determines what everyone is permitted to notice.
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