Sensemaking, Organizing, and Surpassing (Weick 2020) - Weekend Classics

English Podcast Start at 00:00:00Bengali Podcast Start at 00:38:46Hindi Podcast Start at 01:04:00Danish Podcast Start at 01:26:32ReferenceWeick, K.E. (2020), Sensemaking, Organizing, and Surpassing: A Handoff*. J. Manage. Stud., 57: 1420-1431. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12617Tribute by Dave Snowden (Another pioneer of SenseMaking and complexity science)https://thecynefin.co/karl-weick-1936-2026/Youtube Channel⁠https://www.youtube.com/@weekendresearcher⁠Podcast Websitehttps://mayukhmukhopadhyay.com/reviseandresubmit/🎙️📚 Welcome to Revise and Resubmit — this is Weekend Classics. 🌙Tonight’s episode begins with remembrance.We pay our deepest respect to Professor Karl E. Weick, who passed away on 21 May 2026 at the age of 89. 🌹 His work transformed how scholars understood organizations, uncertainty, and the fragile process through which human beings create meaning from chaos.In this episode, we revisit “Sensemaking, Organizing, and Surpassing: A Handoff,” published in the Journal of Management Studies in November 2020.Some papers explain theories.This one explains people.Karl Weick reminds us that life is rarely understood while it is being lived. People move through confusion first. Meaning comes later. Organizations, therefore, are not simply structures or systems. They are ongoing conversations where individuals attempt to explain uncertainty to themselves and to one another.The essay reflects on how human beings organize experience into stories that feel stable enough to survive another day. Weick explores how familiarity shapes judgment, how assumptions quietly become reality, and how unconscious fears influence collective behavior inside institutions.There is a quiet sadness beneath these ideas.Because the modern world moves faster than our ability to understand it. People react before they reflect. Teams improvise before they comprehend. And often, entire organizations continue functioning through narratives built after confusion has already passed.Yet Weick never writes with cynicism.Instead, he writes with compassion for imperfect people trying to create order in uncertain environments.Perhaps that is why his work still feels alive today.Not because it offers certainty, but because it acknowledges how deeply uncertain human life truly is.And maybe the lingering question from this essay is this:If organizations are built from stories we create after events unfold, then how much of our professional life is genuine understanding, and how much is simply our attempt to make peace with uncertainty? 🌌🙏 We sincerely thank Professor Karl E. Weick, the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies, and John Wiley & Sons for this remarkable contribution to scholarship.🎧 Subscribe to Revise and Resubmit on Spotify and follow the YouTube channel Weekend Researcher. Also available on Amazon Prime Music and Apple Podcast. 🚀