Sensemaking is about how people make sense of situations. When faced with problems, people construct meaning. This constructive process plays a key role in the ultimate understanding that is developed. The meaning of a situation is both created and interpreted through sensemaking. Weick lists seven distinguishing characteristics of sensemaking. The process is: 1) Grounded in the multiple identities which comprise any individual; 2) Retrospective— meaning can only be assigned to that which has already happened. Thus, for any given event, many meanings are possible, so sensemaking is heavily reliant on memory and selective perception; 3) Enactive—people are part of their environments. Each time they act, the environment changes as a result. People play an active role in the circumstances in which we find ourselves, which then have an impact on them; 4) Social, contingent upon the conduct of others; 5) Continuous—sensemaking is an ongoing activity, part of an interruption in the constant flow of activity going on around them; 6) Focused on and by extracted cues. Cues become a point of reference against which organization members can act, explain, and understand. Cues help people define themselves and their positions relative to assumptions; and 7) Driven by plausibility rather than accuracy. Sensemaking is relative rather than absolute; it is based on reasonableness and instrumentality rather than truth and accuracy. In sum, once people develop an interpretation or explanation, then subsequent contrary information tends to confirm, rather than disconfirm the original explanation. In addition to explaining sensemaking, Weick notes that in organizations, ambiguity and uncertainty are two occasions that give rise to sensemaking. In situations of ambiguity the sensemaker is faced with multiple options; whereas, in situations of uncertainty the sensemaker lacks bases of interpretation. Sensemaking refers to finding meaning in small cues, discovering coherence among meanings, and checking with others to confirm or disconfirm hunches. Sensemaking is driven by both beliefs and actions. People see what they believe, and those beliefs become the basis for action.