I know what you are.
You’re a sensegiver.
It sounds a little academic, I know—but stay with me. Because once you understand this, you’ll start to see your work (and yourself) differently.
Here’s the deal: if you want someone—or a group of someones—to do something different, they first have to think something different. And if you’ve got a clear picture of what that new way of thinking should be, your job is to help them understand it.
They need to make sense of it.
Thankfully, there’s a wonderfully accurate term from academia that captures this idea: sensemaking—the process by which people make sense of the world around them.
And when you’re the person helping someone make that sense, there’s a name for that too: sensegiving.
Sensegiving is the act of providing meaning, of helping others interpret something new or complex in a way that resonates with them. It’s not manipulation—it’s translation. You’re taking what’s in your head and helping someone else see it clearly in theirs.
When I first came across the term “sensegiving,” I felt such…relief. Finally, there was a name for the work so many of us do every single day!
If you’re a leader, teammate, colleague, parent, partner, coach, speaker, or author, (or, or, or!) you already are a sensegiver. Because in all those roles, at some point, you’re trying to help someone else make sense of something.
In my work, I focus on the professional sensegivers—the people whose jobs are literally to help others understand: strategists, communicators, consultants, teachers, coaches, thought leaders. And yes, even the sensegivers *to* sensegivers—those who help other people help their people make sense of things.
(You can see how loopy this gets.)
The challenge? There’s not a ton of research on sensegiving itself. Most of what we know, we’ve had to reverse-engineer from related ideas like meaning-making and sensemaking.
That’s why, at the Message Design Institute, we study this. Because when you understand how people make sense of things, you can get much better at helping them do it.
If sensegiving sounds like something you do, start by exploring those three terms—sensegiving, sensemaking, and meaning-making. Read the original research. Follow the breadcrumbs. Books like Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath are great practical examples of sensegiving in action.
Because the more you understand how people make sense, the more effectively you can give sense.
And that’s when things start to click—when your message finally lands, when your team finally sees what you see, when someone’s mental lightbulb flips on.
That’s the power of sensegiving.
It helps people not just hear your message—but make sense of it.
And that, well… just makes sense.