Data-Frame Theory of Sensemaking as a Best Model for Intelligence

In this paper we build upon earlier work introducing a “data-frame” model of expert reasoning, originally proposed by Gary Klein and his colleagues.1 We apply this model as a transformational approach to intelligence creation. We contrast the data-frame theory to earlier, notable models for intelligence activity as proposed by Willmoore Kendall and Sherman Kent. We next discuss intelligence sensemaking in terms of the data-frame model and how that model is manifested in an intelligence context. We apply the model in a case study—that of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis—showing how the data-frame structure adds efficiency and clarity to intelligence creation processes.