This is especially interesting to me as Weick is a famous theorist in my somewhat obscure field of organisation studies (Ostrom, another Gitcoin influence, is much more famous).
His work is perhaps slightly different than most Web3 influences in that he is typically interested in looking at events - he is famous for his case/stories/narratives/events - and then attempting to reflect on how certain decisions were made. It is less how to do something, than understanding what we are doing.
In the Mann Gulch example, he does some detective work to uncover what influences caused the collapse of sensemaking during a fire disaster, finding causes like a lack of previous team building, growing individualism, etc. Sort of like how did these routines get locked in and then seeing how people compounded them over time, in this particular case with disastrous results. This article is canonical in org studies!
Or in later work, on jazz and improvisation Weick neatly unpacks how the best musicians, in terms of improvisation, are actually deeply knowledgeably about structure and resources. But crucially are not too wedded to them and are able to break from routine. In this case, it’s more the positive way that sensemaking can work, where people are able to stay without some structure, but adeptly depart as needed, then return (the ‘essence’ of jazz more or less).
I actually think GitcoinDAO is quite a sensemaking-aware organisation. There’s structure and routine, but contributors are given quite a bit of freedom and scope to improvise where needed, e.g. the BrightId case in the last round.
This has inspired me to pick up some Weick again. It’s been too long!