If We Could Turn Back Time: From Retrospective Sensemaking to Prospective Coordination for Organizational Preparedness

Submission accepted to the International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference 2026 (ICRCC).

Authors: Mahedi Hasan, Texas Tech University; Oluwabusayo Okunloye, Texas Tech University; Kerk F. Kee, Texas Tech University; Ewa Deelman, University of Southern California

Abstract:

This study examines how organizations transform hindsight into preparedness following crisis. Drawing on Karl
Weick’s concept of retrospective sensemaking, we analyze how professionals in U.S. National Science Foundation–funded
research infrastructures reflected on actions they wished had been in place before the COVID-19 pandemic. Using 56
qualitative interviews conducted across three phases from 2020 to 2023, we identify a hierarchy of preparedness priorities.
The findings show that post-crisis reflection produces differentiated logics of preparedness. Participants consistently
distinguished between foundational capacities that support organizational functioning across contexts, contingent strategies
that depend on foresight and resource availability, and the rejection of inaction as a viable option. These judgments were
not uniform but shaped by prior organizational conditions, present feasibility constraints, and uncertainty about future
crises, highlighting hindsight as a situated evaluative process. By linking differentiated preparedness logics with situated
evaluation, this study extends retrospective sensemaking into the domain of prospective coordination. Hindsight does not
merely generate interpretations of past events; it produces shared expectations about what should be prioritized moving
forward. Sensemaking functions as a bridge between past experience and future-oriented crisis preparedness.

Suggested citation: 

Hasan, M., Okunloye, O., Kee, K. F., & Deelman, E. (2026). If We Could Turn Back Time: From Retrospective Sensemaking to Prospective Coordination for Organizational Preparedness. International Crisis and Risk Communication Association Reports, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.69931/001c.164598