[...]... is all there is’ (p 93 in Chapter 6) In the face of all of this shifting, dissolving, and discontinuity, people are not passive They enact as well as search for anchors They anchor by means of sensemaking, as we discuss in chapters on the properties of sensemaking (Chapter 8), doubt as a trigger for sensemaking (Chapter 15), information overload as both the occasion and the product of sensemaking (Chapter... basically thrown into the middle of ongoing intellectual traditions, styles, people, and problems It’s all pretty CH0 02. indd 12 7/3/09 12: 46:33 AM MUNDANE POETICS 13 chaotic The trick is to make sense of the chaos, and in my case to then make sense of the making sense of chaos There is certainly more to idea development than ideas and assumptions, but I have discussed these other autobiographical inputs... edn.) The term is variously used to refer to ‘literary criticism that deals with the nature, forms, and laws of poetry, a study of poetry or aesthetics, the practice of writing poetry’ (p 1397) 2 See Weick (1995: 11–13) for ways in which my discussion of sensemaking owes a debt to cognitive dissonance theory CH0 02. indd 23 7/3/09 12: 46:37 AM 24 KARL E WEICK References Azevedo, J 20 02 ‘Updating organizational... Chapters 2 and 3 preview the style of analysis used throughout the remainder of the book Chapter 2 describes crucial assumptions, styles of thinking, and predecessors whose influence pervades the chapters Chapter 3 provides a conceptual overview of key ideas and illustrates these ideas by applying them to the gradual discovery of the battered child syndrome Ch001.indd 8 7/3/09 12: 45 :28 AM 2 Mundane... danger implicit in the unexpected and to spot them earlier while it is still possible to do something about them Ch001.indd 7 7/3/09 12: 45 :27 AM 8 THE IMPERMANENT ORGANIZATION Effectiveness in uncertain times lies as much in the capability for sensemaking as it does in the capability for decision making Capabilities for making sense of the unexpected get activated, organized, strengthened, and institutionalized... trace the hidden transformations that others underwent in his mind; we mean to say that the dependence of what he does on what others have done is excessively complex and irregular There are works in the likeness of others, and works that are the reverse of others, but there are also works of which the relation with earlier productions is so intricate that we become confused and attribute them to the. .. framework retains less of Campbell’s stunning nuance than does the thinking of people like Azevedo (20 02) and McKelvey (20 02) An evolutionary epistemology highlights a distinctive set of themes in organized life The context of evolution draws attention to such things as the inherent tension between retention and variation, the wise but wasteful practice of blind variation, the enactment of selection environments,... those organizations often appear to be no more complex than mindless organizations What people miss, however, is the fact that mindful organizations have struggled through periods of confused complexity on the way to their profound simplicities (e.g they looked closely at their own failures and have examined them with candor) Mindless organizations, however, tend to settle for CH0 02. indd 20 7/3/09 12: 46:36... understanding of response repertoires and the conditions under which attention is controlled by the content of these repertoires, then a more substantial theory about organizations and behaviors can be built The theory would concentrate on attention rather than on action It would essentially ask the question, “How are the processes and contents of attention influenced by the conditions of task-based... Originally, the idea of response repertoires and noticing came from a gloss of George Herbert Mead’s assertion that ‘ act is an impulse that maintains the life process by selection of cerAn tain sorts of stimuli it needs Thus, the organism creates its environment The stimulus is the occasion for the expression of the impulse’ (Mead 1956: 120 ) If people notice stimuli that permit them to do what they want . 7/3/09 12: 59 :29 AM7/3/09 12: 59 :29 AM Making Sense of the Organization Volume 2 ffirs.indd iffirs.indd i 7/3/09 12: 59 :29 AM7/3/09 12: 59 :29 AM ffirs.indd iiffirs.indd ii 7/3/09 12: 59 :29 AM7/3/09 12: 59 :29 . iiffirs.indd ii 7/3/09 12: 59 :29 AM7/3/09 12: 59 :29 AM Making Sense of the Organization Volume 2 The Impermanent Organization K ARL E. WEICK University of Michigan A John Wiley and Sons, Ltd, Publication ffirs.indd. index. ISBN 978-0-470-7 422 0-4 (pbk.) 1. Organizational change. 2. Executives—Psychology. 3. Leadership. I. Title. HD58.8.W446 20 09 658.4'06—dc 22 20 09013 321 Set in 10/ 12 and HelveticaNeue