“The purpose of this article is to introduce a new simplicity into acts of decision making and intervention design in organisations.

Ontology is derived from the Greek word for being and it is the branch of metaphysics which concerns itself with the nature of things. In this article it is used to identity different types of system, each of which requires a different approach to both diagnosis and intervention.

The basic principles that underlie this paper are very easy to understand and are illustrated by an example of a children’s party. Multi-ontology sense making is about understanding when to use the outlined methods of management; the structured and ordered approach for planned outcomes and the un-ordered, emergent approach focused on starting conditions expressed as barriers, attractors and identities.

cc licenced”