It’s August 12, 2022. The novelist Salman Rushdie is onstage at a literary festival, about to speak, when an attacker rushes him with a knife. In those terrifying moments, Rushdie later recounted, he froze—”rooted to the spot like a rabbit-in-the-headlights.” While others heroically intervened, saving his life, Rushdie’s experience highlights a common human reaction to sudden, overwhelming threats. As Rushdie explained, the sudden violence shattered his reality, making rational thought impossible: “Reality dissolves and is replaced by the incomprehensible. Fear, panic, paralysis take over… Our minds no longer know how to work.”
This freeze response, a primal survival mechanism alongside fight or flight, can leave us feeling dazed, confused, and incapable of decisive action. We might “putter about,” stick to ingrained habits on autopilot, or simply do nothing, overwhelmed by the cognitive load and the loss of control. In leadership and organizational life, this often manifests as “active inertia”—clinging to the status quo even when the environment demands bold change, as seen in companies that failed to adapt to disruptive innovations. While freezing is a normal human response, it keeps us from realizing our true potential and acting effectively when it matters most.
So, how do we counteract this deeply human tendency to freeze when faced with radical uncertainty and fear? How can we regain agency and act effectively when our minds feel overloaded? While we can’t always prevent the initial shock, especially in split-second crises, there’s a powerful strategy for navigating prolonged uncertainty or recovering from the initial freeze: sensemaking. It’s a critical muscle we can build. It also is the cornerstone to “Comprehension,” one of the 9 C’s of Courage in my playbook for cultivating boldness when navigating challenging times.
Conventional wisdom suggests thinking then acting. But the essence of sensemaking is to build your comprehension of an uncertain situation by thinking and acting at the same time. If we view action as a pathway to comprehension rather than just a means to achieve a goal, we can take small steps that will help us see things more clearly. This clarity will help us act more effectively, continuously moving forward rather than getting stuck.
Consider the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Most people know the tragic story of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered multiple meltdowns and released radiation, forcing mass evacuations. But less well-known is the story of another plant, Fukushima Daini, located just six miles away. Daini faced the same unprecedented catastrophe – a massive tsunami that flooded reactors and knocked out critical power, threatening an identical meltdown. Yet, the outcome was dramatically different. Facing the same overwhelming uncertainty and equipment failures, the team at Daini, led by site superintendent Naohiro Masuda, didn’t freeze. Understanding they were “flying blind,” Masuda motivated his team to act in order to learn. He balanced decisive leadership with creating space for collective input, using small, risky reconnaissance missions (like sending teams into flooded, potentially irradiated areas) specifically to build comprehension of the damage. This iterative process of acting-to-learn allowed them to formulate and adapt their rescue plan, ultimately restoring cooling systems just hours before a potential meltdown and averting a second disaster. Masuda treated action not just as a means to an end, but as a pathway to understanding.
This powerful approach, sensemaking, can be broken down into an iterative, three-step playbook:
- Stay Mindful and Alert for a Sensemaking Trigger: The first step is recognizing when your reality has been disrupted. Acknowledge the surprising event and become mindful of your emotional and physiological response (confusion, fear, racing heart). Instead of succumbing to paralysis, view this disorientation as a trigger to begin the sensemaking process. This awareness is key to regaining control.
- Notice and Interpret Cues: Once triggered, actively scour the unfamiliar environment for information, however small or fragmented. Like assembling a puzzle without the box lid, piece together these cues. Ask: What patterns emerge? How does this relate to past experiences? Form initial hypotheses about what’s happening, why, and what the consequences might be. The goal isn’t a perfect interpretation, but one plausible enough to guide the next small action.
- Take Action (to Learn): Based on your current, imperfect interpretation, take a concrete step forward. Crucially, this action is designed not just to solve the problem, but to learn more – to gather new information, test your hypothesis, and refine your understanding. This allows you to adapt and take further, more informed steps, continuously moving toward clarity. A balanced approach is vital: act decisively, but remain open to adapting as new information arises.
Sensemaking is more than just a strategy; it’s a fundamental approach to navigating a chaotic world with humility, openness, and curiosity. It calls for adopting a “beginner’s mind”—releasing the need for a perfect plan from the outset and instead, trusting that the path forward will emerge as you act, observe, and comprehend reality as it unfolds. As the Persian poet Rumi wisely put it, “As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
