Why We Exist

We live in a time of rapid change, complexity, and uncertainty. The challenges we face at work, in our communities, and as a global society require more than technical skills or quick fixes. They demand a new kind of leadership: one that is deeply human, grounded in self-awareness, and powered by creativity, compassion, and connection.

​

The Human Imperative is a call to reimagine what it means to lead, to work, and to live. It’s about moving beyond self-help to self-activation, and from individual achievement to collective progress. We believe that by cultivating our uniquely human capabilities, including: curiosity, emotional intelligence, resilience, and imagination, we can unlock new possibilities for ourselves and those around us. It has its roots in a simple management and leadership training technique used to improve quality of service and team performance. Over the last decade, through practice, research, education, and refinement, it became a philosophy and a movement, anchored in the belief that a more connected, creative, and collaborative world is possible when people are free to think in terms of possibility, live with intention and joy, and pursue better for humanity. Our work is powered by a deep belief in and care for humans and a vision for a world where everyone can thrive. 

​

This new world requires us to process information in new ways and determine what's real while living with change and the proliferation of knowledge and information in entirely new ways. Once, we could process change as an event. We could prepare. Some of us learned to manage it and made a concerted effort to teach others to do the same. And while large project-based changes will still include this type of change management, what we experience in our daily lives will be more like a current. What worked before won't serve us. Change competencies will become barriers to entry, capabilities we must embody to be successful at work and in our lives. 

​

Taken together with the seismic change, dissonance, and disruption in technology, social structures, environmental risks and extremes, globalized economies and governments, and power dynamics clinging desperately for survival, humanity is at a crossroads. We can continue down this road for a while, but not forever. The smart play is to start preparing for a different future now. That future is already here and we weren't ready. It's time to stop finger pointing at different generations and operating out of fear - we must reclaim our agency and begin the internal work.

It is up to us to rebalance our relationships with technology, one another, discord, and our own emotional responses, things we have lost sight of largely since the Industrial Revolution began to deprioritize the capabilities and skills that were the core of what made us human. Our myopic focus on "hard skills," mechanization, automation, and technological advancement pulled us further and further away from one another when it is literally our capability to lean into connection and community that has enabled our species to survive for hundreds of thousands of years. 

​

Advancements are both opportunities and threats, depending on how much energy we choose to being thoughtful about how we integrate these tools into our lives and how much control over our lives we choose to give away. Now, living in a world where the information you receive can be curated to reinforce only what you already believe, we are losing our ability to reason while simultaneously losing our connection to one another. It is imperative that we return to our humanity, to what connects us, to being responsible for one another and the now global community we share. If we hope to survive into the future, let alone thrive, we must capture the lessons and try another way. Everything depends on this choice, maybe not now, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. We could throw our hands up in defeat, but we believe there's too much good left to surrender now.

​

Operating alone, each of us can never surmount the tsunami that is already here, but we can become more grounded and navigate with greater presence of mind. Working together, on the other hand, we can create monumental change. Instead of preparing for the wave, we can learn to ride it. And perhaps, in so doing, we can achieve the "impossible." Just because it is the way things are, does not mean that it is the way they have to be.

​

We believe this type of change is possible because we believe people can choose differently. We believe in possible. We believe we can return to wonder, imagination, and connection that allows us to solve wicked problems and create something brighter in the wake of disruption.

Do you?