Team sensemaking

Abstract

Team sensemaking, in many ways, is more critical than individual sensemaking. It poses additional coordination requirements and it offers additional ways for sensemaking to break down. It is more difficult to accomplish, and it may be a larger contributor to accidents than failures at the individual level. In this article, we describe team sensemaking as a macrocognitive function–the sensemaking that has to be performed by a team rather than by individuals. Team sensemaking is defined as the process by which a team manages and coordinates its efforts to explain the current situation and to anticipate future situations, typically under uncertain or ambiguous conditions. We describe emergent strategies for accomplishing different aspects of team sensemaking and describe emergent requirements for sensemaking at the team level. We use an example to illustrate team sensemaking in action and its emergent strategies and requirements. Finally, we identify some research methods for studying team sensemaking.