Sensemaking, a term coined by organizational psychologist Karl Weick, means exactly what it says: making sense of the world around you. It involves translating a soup of data, information, changing trends, and experiences into a map or model of what is going on. What are the relevant issues and trends that relate to your situation? Who has encountered a situation or problem like this before, and what can you learn from it as you formulate your own plans? 

Sensemaking sounds simple, but it is mentally challenging and often lonely work that requires courage to stretch yourself and others out of familiar ways of thinking and acting in order to meet the world anew. Because sensemaking is so critical for leadership, but is not well-understood or emphasized, we will spend a little extra time on it here.

Relating, like sensemaking, is a leadership capability that until recently did not receive as much attention as the more traditional concept of leaders as visionaries and inventors. But today’s flatter, networked organizations press leaders to build trust, influence other people, and engage in two-way dialogue rather than giving orders and demanding compliance.

Relational leaders do this through a balance of inquiry—listening with a genuine intent to understand—and advocacy—stating opinions and explaining the reasoning behind them without aggression or defensiveness (Ancona et al., 2007; Argyris & Schön, 1995). This process is not free from conflict; healthy debate is necessary for good decision-making. Relational leaders blend inquiry and advocacy to keep dialogues respectful and focused toward a common goal, while also welcoming tough questions and divergent opinions.

Visioning involves generating an inspiring picture of a future state, one that gives people a sense of meaning about what they are doing. Visioning is, in essence, about telling a good story that opens people’s hearts and minds to new possibilities.

Elon Musk is perhaps one of the best modern-day business storytellers and visionaries. The mission of his company, Tesla Motors, is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable transport.” The company revolutionized the electric car industry and rebranded its stodgy image with the first Tesla product: an ultra-fast sports car with a sleek design and a 200+ mile-per-hour range, which was unheard-of at the time.

Inventing is like the familiar business concept of execution, but with an added splash of creativity to develop new structures and cultures for organizing work and producing outputs. The early Ford assembly line and the famed Toyota Production System (TPS) both executed the manufacturing of cars, but Toyota’s approach was a radical departure from Ford’s assembly line method.

The TPS integrated new physical systems for controlling quality and production speed, such as “kanban” signs; new cultures of democratic teamwork and psychological safety (Edmondson, 1999; Nembhard & Edmondson, 2011); and new processes such as training workers in kaizen—or continuous improvement methods. The result: substantially higher quality and lower rates of problems experienced by Toyota customers, according to J. D. Power and Associates studies done at the time.