Multimodal Sensemaking: Honoring the Diversity of Human Perception

In a world rich with complexity and nuance, the way we make sense of things—experiences, information, emotions, relationships—is deeply personal. Some of us think in images. Some feel through sound. Others find clarity through movement, touch, words, or numbers. And for many, it’s a fluid dance between several modes at once.

This is the essence of multimodal sensemaking: the understanding that we each process the world through different sensory, cognitive, and emotional pathways. No single method of sensemaking—whether linguistic, analytical, visual, somatic, or auditory—can fully encompass the richness of human experience.

Yet so many systems, especially in education, work, and leadership, have defaulted to linear and rational-linguistic forms of meaning-making. We’re taught to explain things in words. To measure progress with numbers. To understand complexity through diagrams and data. And while these are powerful tools, they are not universal keys. When one path is treated as the only legitimate way, we not only exclude others—we limit ourselves.

For some, a spreadsheet brings insight. For others, a song, a movement ritual, or a color palette offers the doorway to understanding. One person may need silence to feel, another may need conversation. These are not distractions from the “real work” of making sense; they are the real work. They are how people metabolize life.

Multimodal sensemaking invites us to broaden the palette. It encourages environments where diverse ways of knowing are not only permitted but celebrated. This approach fosters deeper inclusion, richer insights, and a more compassionate understanding of each other.

It’s not about finding a single method that works for everyone—it’s about creating space for many methods, and trusting that when people are allowed to engage with the world through the modes that resonate with their nature, something more truthful and alive emerges.

The future of sensemaking isn’t uniform. It’s plural, sensory, intuitive, messy, embodied, and emergent.

And most importantly, it’s human.