quarta-feira, setembro 08, 2021

"sensemaking is about how to stay in touch with context"

É por causa de trechos como os que se seguem que digo que Weick escreve poesia:

"When he said, “I don ’ t know,” that was a strong act of leadership, not a weak one. It was strong because it positioned him for the sensemaking that he needed to do, not for the decision making that would come later as a minor by - product of sensemaking. To lead in the future is to be less in thrall of decision making — and more in thrall of sensemaking.

...

Think first of the world ... It is a world that is partly unknowable and unpredictable. It is a world into which people have been thrown. By thrown, I mean that people can’t avoid acting, can’t step back and reflect on their actions, can’t predict the effects of their actions, have no choice but to deal with interpretations whose correctness cannot be settled once and for all, and they can ’ t remain silent. Anything they say shapes both events and themselves. These are the givens that shape sensemaking.

...

It is the combination of thrown-ness, unknowability, and unpredictability that makes having some direction, any direction, the central issue for human beings, and by implication, the central issue for leaders. Sensemaking is about navigating by means of a compass rather than a map. “Maps, by definition, can help only in known worlds — worlds that have been charted before. Compasses are helpful when you are not sure where you are and can get only a general sense of direction”. Maps may be the mainstay of performance, but the compass and the compass needle, which function much like human values, are the mainstays of learning and renewal. If people find themselves in a world that is only partially charted, and if leaders also admit that they too don’t know, then both are more likely to mobilize resources for direction making rather than for performance."

Leio isto e penso na reacção dos governos ao covid-19. Se calhar mais preocupados em passar uma imagem, do que em aprender. Ainda este fim de semana pensava naquela medida de encolher os horários dos supermercados. Porquê? Que consequências gerou? Que bem trouxe? Que mal evitou? Ou vice-versa.

"“I don’t know.” The effective leader is someone who searches for the better question, accepts inexperience, stays in motion, channels decisions to those with the best knowledge of the matter at hand, crafts good stories, is obsessed with updating, encourages improvisation, and is deeply aware of personal ignorance. People who act this way help others make sense of what they are facing. Sensemaking is not about rules and options and decisions. Sensemaking does not presume that there are generic right answers about things like taking risks or following rules. Instead, sensemaking is about how to stay in touch with context.

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When bewildered people ask, “What’s the story? ” the crucial thing is to get them moving, observing, updating, and arguing about feasibility and plausibility. A powerful means to do this is for the leader to answer the question by saying, “I don’t know what the story is, but let ’ s find out.” That reply is more subtle than it sounds. A plausible story is actually not something that one “ finds.” When the leader says, “let’ s find out,” what the leader really means is, let’s create the story. The good story is not simply lying out there waiting to be detected. Instead, the good story comes from experience that is reworked, enacted into the world, and rediscovered as though it were something external."

O trecho que se segue diz tanto sobre o que vivemos durante este ano e meio:

"“If I make a decision it is a possession, I take pride in it, I tend to defend it and not listen to those who question it. If I make sense, then this is more dynamic and I listen and I can change it. A decision is something you polish. Sensemaking is a direction for the next period.”

When [Gleason] perceives his work as decision making, he feels that he postpones action so he can get the decision “right” and that after he makes the decision, he finds himself defending it rather than revising it to suit changing circumstances. Polishing and defending eat up valuable time and encourage blind spots. If, instead, [Gleason] treats an unfolding fire as a problem in sense making, then he gives his crew a direction for some indefinite period, a direction that by definition is dynamic, open to  revision at any time, self-correcting, responsive, and with more of its rationale being transparent."

Trechos retirados de "Making Sense of the Organization, Volume 2 - The Impermanent Organization" de Karl E. Weick. 

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