Being in the room isn't the same as being part of what's happening. True connection asks us to contribute something of ourselves, even when it feels vulnerable or uncertain.

When preference is the only decision criteria, stakeholders will choose what you don't want. Multiples work when you're genuinely testing, but fail when you're hoping to guide. If you already know the answer, build a stronger argument for it instead of hiding it among decoys.

Grounding practices can become productivity theater. We stack meditation, journaling, routines—but ignore when our energy shifts. True grounding isn't doing more things right. It's listening when your body needs rest, not another practice.

Waiting for the right moment means missing the real work of connection. Every conversation, every question asked, every time we choose presence over perfection—that's how belonging gets built.

Structure doesn't have to mean rigidity. Setting a timer for focused work, then deliberately leaving that space—even for something as simple as staring or stretching—creates room to reset. The break isn't about productivity. It's about remembering you exist beyond what you're doing.

Making an Impact Within Capitalism, The Question Clinic, Making Sense of Neurodiversity, Making Sense of Leadership, and Making Sense of Language all this week at The Sensemakers Club.

The most successful people didn't climb alone—they built networks before they needed them. Community isn't what you earn after success; it's the foundation that makes success possible.

Overheard in Making an Impact Within Capitalism.

Making an Impact Within Capitalism, The Question Clinic, Making Sense of Neurodiversity, Making Sense of Leadership, and Making Sense of Language all next week at The Sensemakers Club.

Your resume might get you noticed, but relationships get you in the room. Skills matter, yet the opportunities that change our trajectories often come through people who believe in us.

"Labels are hard. Sorting is easy.”

Inclusive language isn't about policing words—it's recognizing intent. Most people aren't being malicious when they slip up, they're just learning. The real work is choosing call-in over call-out and remembering everyone has a first day learning something new.

Time and energy spent building community can feel like too much—until you face a challenge alone. Isolation costs us opportunities, resilience, and perspective we didn't know we needed.

People figuring out how to lead from wherever they sit—whether that's managing teams, consulting, or stepping up when no one else will.

Financial buffers help, but human networks sustain us through what money can't solve. When uncertainty hits, the strength of our connections determines how well we navigate the unknown.

Leadership happens in the spaces between official roles. The best leaders we've worked with aren't always the ones with VP in their title—they're the ones who take initiative, share hard-won wisdom, and create space for others to shine.

We've weaponized the word "should" against ourselves. Every time we say it, we're adding guilt and obligation to something that might not even matter. Try replacing "should" with "choose" or "want"—suddenly you're either motivated or you realize it was never your task to begin with.

Solo achievements fade, but collective work endures. When we treat community as essential infrastructure rather than optional expense, we create foundations that support everyone's growth for years to come.

AI Playground, Making Sense of Change, Decision Making with Continuums, and Words Shape Belonging all this week at The Sensemakers Club.

We catastrophize, spiral, and convince ourselves tasks are impossible—until we finally do them and realize our brain was the biggest obstacle. Breaking things into smaller steps helps, but sometimes the real breakthrough is catching yourself mid-spiral and asking: what can I actually do right now?

We've all seen the perfect plan that crashed on contact with real humans. The gap between theory and practice isn't technical—it's about whose reality we centered.

From our first messy gathering in 2021 to today, Makesensemess has always been about belonging,  not perfection. If you’ve been part of our story, thank you. If you haven’t yet, this is your sign to join us. Grab your ticket→ vist.ly/4ass7

Overheard in Making Sense of Language

AI Playground, Making Sense of Change, Making Sense of Ethics, and Words Shape Belonging all next week at The Sensemakers Club.

We rush to decide, thinking speed shows strength. But the leaders people trust are the ones who slow down to ask: who pays the price for this? What burden am I about to shift onto someone?

"When you sped up your work, you ended up getting that time back for yourself. But when you speed up your work for an organization, you don't get that time back. The faster you work, the more work you get.”

Grab your ticket → vist.ly/4amya

Inclusive language can feel authentic or like corporate theater. The difference often lies not in the words themselves but in whether they come from genuine care or performative compliance.

Start with metrics and you get one path forward. Start with how this affects people's actual lives and suddenly priorities shift, timelines change, and what seemed obvious becomes questionable.

You might meet leaders navigating the gap between what their organizations say they value and what they actually reward. The challenge isn't choosing sides—it's staying whole in the space between.

Every year, Makesensemess reminds us why we do this work — to feel seen, supported, and inspired by one another.We’ve been making space for sensemakers to belong since 2021, and we can’t wait to welcome you back on November 7. Grab your ticket→ vist.ly/4ahd2

True clarity comes from multiple perspectives. What seems obvious from where we stand might look completely different from someone else's vantage point.

Your company wants you visible on social media, sharing insights, amplifying their posts. But the moment you treat your expertise like a product to promote, something fundamental shifts and feels wrong.

We're incredibly good at spotting patterns—connecting dots, predicting outcomes, seeing what others miss. The challenge? That same gift makes us experts at imagining disasters that haven't happened.

Grab your ticket → vist.ly/4adae

Notice how some decisions bring teams closer while others create distance? It's rarely the big moments, it's the small calls we make about who gets heard, included, or considered.

Beginner’s Meeting, Our Bodies are Wild, Making Sense of Ethics, Making Sense of Relationship Building, and Making Sense of Complexity & Chaos all this week at The Sensemakers Club.

We tell ourselves pushing through is strength. But recognizing when a task is sending you into anxiety spirals and choosing to step back? That's actually the harder, braver move that changes everything.

Noticing what's hidden in plain sight isn't about superior perception—it's about having a better question toolkit. The person who spots the critical detail has usually trained themselves to interrogate situations from multiple angles. Their edge comes from curious discipline, not enhanced vision.

Beginner’s Meeting, Our Bodies are Wild, Making Sense of Ethics, Making Sense of Relationship Building, and Making Sense of Complexity & Chaos all next week at The Sensemakers Club.

Overheard in Making Sense of Complexity & Chaos

"Having a knack for it" vs. "has practiced this repeatedly" - a reminder that expertise isn't magic, it's built through deliberate practice.

Complexity doesn't announce itself—it reveals by multiplying questions and competing mental models. The group explored tools like reading the room, trusting your gut, and recognizing that chaos is subjective. Sometimes the hardest part is pausing to understand what problem you're actually facing.

"Your job as the facilitator isn't to have an answer for them. It's to help them get to the answer.”

When someone spots connections others miss, we assume they have a special gift. But breakthroughs emerge from learnable techniques applied consistently. The frameworks exist. The steps are knowable. What separates clarity from confusion is practice, not providence.

You might meet… Facilitators who know the best explanations require a client to get in the head of their customer. What works, what doesn’t?

What looks like gut instinct is often just pattern-matching you've practiced so many times it became automatic. When you pause and examine how you arrived at an insight, you'll usually find specific steps you can teach, replicate, and improve. The "magic" dissolves into method.

Now reaching a human means navigating bot mazes only to hear "I'm the last person you can talk to" from someone who admits they're not actually empowered to help. Even longtime customers with legitimate issues hit walls designed to exhaust rather than resolve.

AI research analysis skips nuance, overlooks key themes, and won't tell you what it ignored. You'll spend more time verifying its work than doing the analysis yourself—then end up redoing it anyway because there's no substitute for actually understanding what you heard.

Some people seem to naturally untangle complexity while others struggle. But that gap isn't about genetics—it's about repetition. The ability to find clarity in chaos is built through consistent practice, not inherited at birth. Anyone willing to do the work can develop it.