Clarify
Frame the question, surface assumptions, and define what needs to be understood.
Collaboratory
A place to think together before rushing toward an answer.
The Sensemaking Collaboratory brings colleagues across roles into a structured process for understanding difficult institutional questions, listening across experience, and developing practical next steps.
The process
Clarify. Listen. Design. Try. Reflect.
The sequence matters. It keeps teams from mistaking the first explanation for the whole story or selecting a solution before understanding the conditions around the problem.
Listen
Gather experiences and evidence from those closest to the issue.
Design
Turn what was learned into a small number of grounded possibilities.
Try
Test a bounded idea without pretending the first version is the final answer.
Reflect
Study what happened, name what changed, and decide what should follow.
What this work pays attention to
Institutional challenges are rarely caused by one person, one policy, or one missing resource. They are held in relationships among roles, routines, histories, expectations, incentives, and unequal access to voice. A sociological approach helps a team see those relationships without losing the experiences within them.
Student thriving
How students experience belonging, access, time, support, and opportunity.
Relational trust
What enables honest dialogue, risk-taking, and work across roles.
Faculty and staff capacity
How workload, recognition, institutional knowledge, and silos shape what is possible.
Learning through action
How small tests and useful indicators help teams learn before scaling.
Explore the public resource hub
Sensemaking Collaboratory
The public Sensemaking Collaboratory brings together the process, frameworks, tools, and resources that inform this work. It is designed for educators and institutional teams who want to move from careful inquiry to small tests, shared learning, and more grounded decisions.
The model was collectively adapted and developed by Denise Bartell, Bryan Jones, Jessica A. Leveto, and Eric Taylor, building from Miami University’s Sensemaking for Student Success initiative.