AT THE INTERSECTION OF BUSINESS AND SOCIETY
Sensemaking for decisions with societal consequence
What we do
Sustory works in situations where decisions cannot be reduced to technical optimisation or stakeholder alignment.
We engage where business decisions unfold in complex environments shaped by societal expectations, institutional pressures, and competing forms of legitimacy.
Our work focuses on sensemaking as a practical process: making visible how different actors interpret what is happening, what they consider legitimate, and what they believe is possible.
By working with these differences directly, we support the emergence of new sense that enables movement where deadlock or escalation would otherwise occur.
We do not aim to produce agreement or consensus.
Instead, we design and facilitate processes that allow integration — outcomes that could not have been designed or imposed by any single actor alone.
This work requires staying with uncertainty, recognising conflicting legitimations, and resisting premature closure.
Our role is not to represent interests or advocate solutions, but to create the conditions under which durable and legitimate decisions can take shape over time.
How we work
Sensemaking
We work with situations where existing interpretations no longer hold, and where different actors make sense of what is happening in fundamentally different ways.
Legitimation
Decisions in complex environments are not contested because of a lack of information, but because actors legitimate reality differently.
We work with these differences directly: how authority is claimed, how knowledge is justified, and whose perspectives are considered valid.
By recognising multiple legitimations, we reduce premature closure and escalation.
Integration
Integration is not compromise, consensus, or domination.
It is the emergence of outcomes that could not have been designed or imposed by any single actor alone.
We support integration by designing conditions where new configurations of understanding and action can take shape and hold over time.
Understanding Capacity Building
Capacity building as a practice
In our work, capacity building is not about training, skills acquisition, or competence development.
It is about building the collective capacity to stay with complexity without collapsing into positions, premature solutions, or simplified narratives.
Capacity is developed through practice: repeated engagement with real situations where uncertainty, tension, and competing legitimations are present.
Over time, this builds the ability to make decisions that remain legitimate, adaptive, and durable — even as conditions change.
Our Boundaries
What we do not do
We do not offer prescriptive solutions, generic frameworks, or one‑size‑fits‑all strategies.
We deliberately avoid approaches that prioritise speed or premature alignment over legitimacy, learning, and long‑term stability.
Alignment on purpose may be necessary; enforced alignment on interpretation or action is not. Our work resists premature closure, staying with complexity long enough for integration to emerge — even when that is uncomfortable, slower, or harder to communicate.
Contexts we work in
Our work typically takes place in situations where business decisions have consequences beyond the organisation itself.
These contexts are rarely resolved through optimisation or alignment alone. They require the capacity to work with difference, tension, and evolving sense over time.
These contexts include, for example:
Strategic or technological transitions that disrupt existing ways of working
Contested land use, infrastructure, or resource decisions
Public–private interfaces under regulatory or societal pressure
Situations involving legitimacy risk, loss of trust, or long‑term uncertainty
Get in touch
If you are navigating a situation where existing approaches no longer work, and where decisions carry consequences beyond the organisation itself, you are welcome to reach out.
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