Sensemaking: the art of transforming organizations through meaning
Action plans, KPIs, organizational charts — companies are not short on tools to manage their transformations. These mechanisms are reassuring. Yet failure remains common. Why? Because people don’t act based on abstract instructions, but according to the meaning they give to situations.
This is precisely what Karl Weick, a major theorist of organizational management, calls sensemaking. According to him, we don’t first make decisions and then seek to make sense of them afterward. It’s the opposite: we first create meaning, and it is only from that meaning that we can act.
In other words, transformation doesn’t happen only through strategic plans, but through the ability of people to interpret what is happening to them and to integrate it into a coherent story.
The strategic role of narratives
Narrative is the raw material of sensemaking. Because it connects facts, emotions, and values, it makes action possible.
Every organization is shaped by dominant stories — those of performance, meritocracy, or autonomy. These narratives structure daily behaviors. But when they become disconnected from real experience, they stop being reference points and turn into constraints.
At the same time, other stories — often marginal, carried by the peripheries — emerge as weak signals: they outline new ways of thinking and acting, sometimes foreshadowing future transformations.
Ignoring these narratives means running the risk of widening the gap between the declared strategy and the meaning lived on the ground. The result: mistrust, resistance, and disengagement.
From strategy to experience: why narrative matters
Integrating narrative into change management allows action where traditional tools fail.
- Align strategy and lived experience: a shared narrative brings the global vision closer to operational and human reality.
- Create coherence in uncertainty: in a volatile environment, narrative becomes a guiding thread when plans fall apart.
- Foster engagement: people don’t commit to a performance indicator, but to a story in which they can see themselves.
- Highlight “small wins”: the small wins dear to Weick feed a story of progress and strengthen collective confidence.
The example of an industrial company
Consider an industrial group engaged in a large-scale modernization program. The official narrative could be summed up in one slogan: “Innovate to stay competitive.”
But on the ground, a very different story was circulating: “Our know-how is disappearing; we’re being replaced by machines.”
Between these two stories, a gulf — leading to mistrust, resistance, and disengagement.
Instead of persisting with top-down communication, management chose another path: narrative sensemaking.
They organized storytelling workshops, collected lived experiences, and wove a new thread into their strategic narrative: “Passing on and transforming our know-how.”
Most importantly, they positioned employees as active contributors to quality in the digital age.
The shift was clear: resistance faded, adoption of new tools increased, and collective pride returned. It wasn’t the plan that changed — it was the story that carried it.
Rewriting the company’s story
The main lesson: resistance to change rarely stems from a rational problem. It arises from a narrative conflict.
To succeed, transformation must be conceived as a collective rewriting of the company’s story.
As Karl Weick puts it:
“How can I know what I think until I see what I say?”
We discover our beliefs and intentions through the stories we tell.
Therefore, narrative is not the packaging of strategy — it is its core. Without narrative, there can be no shared meaning.
Without shared meaning, there can be no coordinated action.
To go further
- Weick, K. (1995). Sensemaking in Organizations. Sage.
- Gabriel, Y. (2000). Storytelling in Organizations. Oxford.
- Czarniawska, B. (1997). Narrating the Organization. University of Chicago Press.
