Appreciative inquiry believes, “All the answers are in the room,” and I love appreciative inquiry. “Sense making” is a common, street-level idea, and it’s in the Dictionary on my computer! The Dictionary and Thesaurus entries on “sense” give an excellent overview of the various facets of this idea (fancy phrase: “lexical analysis”). I listed and sorted the keywords from these entries into four categories, which are worth challenging, dear reader:

1. Synonyms for “sense”

   

   The “aha! now I see it!”
   The transformation
   A compelling explanation
   Coherence
   A meaning
   Significance
2. Mind/Cognitive Definitions
   Understanding
   Intelligible,
   Comprehension
   Apprehension

   Reasoning
   Justifiable (the reason)
   Justification or warrant for a belief
   Practicable (the point/motive/value/advantage/benefit)
   Implication

3. Spirit/Emotions Definitions
   A keen intuition
   A sane and realistic attitude
4. Body/Physical Definitions
   Perceiving external stimuli
   Awareness of
   Recognition of

So these lead me to this hypothesis, that Sense making is the cohering of sense from the mind, spirit, and body. That is, it is not merely cognitive. What do you think? And if it does involve all three of these aspects, what does the “cohering” or “making” mean?