Enabling workplace learning in complex projects: how leaders foreground inherent tensions to trigger collective sensemaking

Purpose This study aims to explore how project managers enact leadership practices that enable workplace learning in complex public sector projects. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a qualitative case study conducted within the Swedish Transport Administration. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with ten project managers, nine field observations, and the researcher’s reflective notes. The material was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis to identify recurring themes of leadership practices enabling learning. Findings The findings point to five inherent tensions that leaders foreground as sensemaking triggers when enabling workplace learning in everyday project work. These include balancing planning and adaptability, individual experience and collective understanding, structure and autonomy, reflection and delivery pressure, and internal coordination and external collaboration. Rather than resolving these tensions, managers foreground and navigate these tensions in ways that learning emerges. Managers enable learning by creating opportunities for teams to collectively interpret project complexity through dialogue and reflection. Practical implications The findings suggest that project managers can enable workplace learning by structuring everyday project work in ways that actively foreground inherent tensions, thereby supporting collective sensemaking under conditions of complexity. Originality/value The study contributes to research on workplace learning by providing a practice-based account of how learning-oriented leadership is enacted in complex public-sector project environments. It highlights how workplace learning emerges when leaders organize collective sensemaking around inherent tensions in complex project environments.