Our separation from the wild world has perpetuated an extractive mindset in which nature is a resource rather than an inextricable link in the relational web of life. We have broken the world into parts for our consumption without the awareness, knowledge, or understanding that by doing so we are alienating ourselves from the very thing that gives us life.

The human prosperity of the second half of the 20th century has come with tragic and detrimental impacts to animal and plant life around the world, ultimately leading to ecocide, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and carbon-induced global warming. 

In November 2019 a group of 13,000+ scientists from 153 countries declared “clearly and unequivocally that the Earth is facing a climate emergency” and that without deep and lasting changes, the world’s people face “untold human suffering.” Publicly we have experienced the climate crisis as a politically weaponized topic of debate throughout the 21st century, but internally the weight of existing on a dying planet eats away at us - consciously or not.

In the face of calamity, the dissonance of our world can be overwhelming. Feelings of hopelessness abound, while individuality and separation continue to dominate the ideologies that shape our systems and thus our lives. So what do we do?

This is our invitation – to overcome the challenge of continued, increasing existential stress, we must clearly understand the predicament and work together to co-create the conditions to actualize human potential in service of a more harmonious world.

Polarization and social fragmentation, exacerbated by the loss of community-based collective sensemaking, has ushered in unprecedented challenges to civics and democracy. The systems designed in the post-World War II era are proving insufficient for a world whose population has quadrupled over the last 100 years – growing from 1.9 billion people in 1924 to over eight billion people in 2024. 

This exponential growth in human civilization, compounded by advancements in information technology, have led to unprecedented complexity, making it near impossible to metabolize the quantity and diversity of information available to us at any given moment. 

In an era where information is disseminated through algorithms favoring 30 second videos and 140 character posts that maximize for “engagement” through click-bait headlines, sensationalized statements, and performative posturing, it’s easy to understand how the collective is losing its ability to recognize what is real, true, and deserves our attention versus what is intentionally exaggerated to generate more fear, othering, and rage. What is real, and therefore what binds us as a society, is more hotly contested than ever before.

The Holon Institute exists to create educational experiences, content, and collaborations that develop the art of sensemaking, shared cultural norms, and dialectic skills capable of stewarding discourse in the 21st century.

Work is no longer working - as evidenced by the unprecedented phenomena of the great resignation, quiet quitting, and skyrocketing rates of chronic stress and burnout. As Aaron Dignan articulates in Brave New Work, “The scale and bureaucracy that once made our organizations strong are liabilities in this era of constant change. We are beset on all sides by pressure - to grow, to deliver, to execute at all costs, and to do so with our arms tied behind our backs. We are being asked to invent the future, but to do so inside a culture of work that is deeply broken.”

The brokenness of work is breaking us and our planet. Endless growth is incompatible on a finite planet with finite resources and finite humans. Dignan goes on to point out “Unchecked growth has created the conditions for a climate crisis that is unfolding in real time. This singular focus has led to rampant inequality and a level of worker engagement that is pathetic at best.” Work must be in service to something other than growth-at-all-costs if we are to create a future that works for all of life. 

The Holon Institute believes work should be a vehicle for creativity, expression, connection and human flourishing. These are not luxuries but necessities for the survival of our species and a habitable planet.