CONCEPT
Sensemaking (Klein)
The effortful, conscious process of constructing a coherent interpretation of a situation that does not match any recognized pattern — the cognitive mode experts shift into when recognition fails.
Sensemaking is the second of two cognitive modes Klein documents in experienced practitioners. Where recognition is rapid and automatic, sensemaking is deliberate and effortful. It activates when the current situation does not match stored patterns — when the expert experiences what Klein calls recognition failure. The process is iterative: the expert generates a tentative frame, tests it against available evidence, seeks additional information to resolve ambiguities, and modifies or abandons the frame when evidence demands. Sensemaking has an irreducibly social dimension — the interpretation is shaped by colleagues, institutional context, and the relational history of trust that determines how information is weighed. It is also the meta-cognitive hallmark of genuine expertise: the novice fails to recognize recognition failure; the expert recognizes the failure itself as a signal requiring active sensemaking.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Klein's research on sensemaking was conducted in domains where its failures kill people. The Three Mile Island operators had the data that would have revealed the reactor's actual state,