Media
By Dima Bulatov

Why Philanthropy Is the Most Powerful Lever for Systemic Change

What if the future of civilization rests in the hands of those who know how — and where — to give?

In this visionary episode of IAM Insider, Josh Leonard joins Robb Smith to unveil his new developmental map of philanthropy, created using the Context AI platform. Together they explore how philanthropic institutions — uniquely positioned between government, business, and civil society — have the potential to become the most powerful levers for long-term systems transformation.

Perspective Shift:

  1. The meta-crisis requires meta-philanthropy. Fragmented problems (climate, polarization, inequality) are actually interlocked failures of perception and system design. They can’t be solved with isolated grants. Philanthropy must evolve into a meta-strategy that integrates culture, consciousness, systems, and feedback.
  2. Philanthropy isn’t peripheral — it’s central to civilization’s future. Most people see philanthropy as auxiliary — a compassionate extra to patch systemic failures. In reality, philanthropy is a primary steering mechanism for society, especially in an era when both governments and markets are structurally incapable of long-term vision.
  3. The biggest leverage point for systems change isn’t nonprofits — it’s funders. Philanthropic foundations are often seen as passive supporters of nonprofit work. But the real transformational fulcrum lies upstream — in how funders shape strategies, demand outcomes, and bridge knowledge with action. Philanthropy isn’t just writing checks — it’s writing the future.
  4. Empowerment philanthropy corrected for strategic blind spots — but now it has its own. Strategic philanthropy brought rigor but lacked cultural sensitivity. Empowerment philanthropy brought equity but often lacks coherence and inclusivity of ideas. Integrative philanthropy arises not by rejecting either, but by transcending and including both.
  5. Legacy is no longer about buildings — it’s about steering civilization. In an age of collapse and breakthrough, the most meaningful legacy isn’t a wing named after you — it’s knowing your capital helped move the arc of history toward wholeness. Today’s visionary funders are tomorrow’s Medicis.

Josh introduces the concept of integrative philanthropy, the emerging next stage in the evolution of giving, which transcends both the technocratic rigor of strategic philanthropy and the equity-driven activism of empowerment philanthropy. He walks us through a multilayered quadrant map that reveals how each aspect of the philanthropic ecosystem — from leadership vision to funding models to cultural values — is evolving across developmental stages, and where the pain points are that signal readiness for transformation.

As global systems teeter under the weight of the metacrisis, Robb and Josh argue that philanthropy is perhaps the only institution in society with the freedom, foresight, and capital to steward truly long-range change. But it requires a new level of strategic intelligence, developmental awareness, and epistemic humility — all of which are built into the integrative approach.

Whether you’re a funder, nonprofit leader, systems thinker, or cultural futurist, this episode offers an urgent call to action — and a profoundly hopeful map for how we might evolve the way we support what matters most.

Uncategorized
By Dima Bulatov

IAM Announces The Evolution of Philanthropy

Dear Colleagues,

At the Institute of Applied Metatheory (IAM), we think deeply about the metacrisis and how to build the new structures and institutions we need to address it and lay the groundwork for the Transformation Age that is already underway. But while we do the work to create these institutions of the future, we must also do the work of helping existing institutions evolve to meet the tremendous challenges and opportunities we face now, in the present.

To that end, IAM is pleased to announce a new effort I’m leading called the “Evolution of Philanthropy“ as part of the Integrative Social Sector initiative. The Evolution of Philanthropy is a project that maps out the recent developmental history and trajectory of society’s oldest institution for investing in social change and generating public goods: Philanthropy. Precisely because it enjoys a degree of freedom from shifting market evaluation and political values, philanthropy stands as one of the most critical levers of social transformation currently available to society.

Philanthropic foundations also occupy a unique position at the intersection of theory and practice that should interest us as applied metatheory practitioners. These organizations have the potential to serve as vital bridges between academia and nonprofits, creating new knowledge economies that can translate research into action and practice into theory. This distinctive role enables philanthropy to catalyze the evolution of the entire social sector through the integration of diverse knowledge systems and the cultivation of innovative approaches to complex challenges.

Over the last 35 years, the philanthropic field has gone through two major paradigm shifts, which essentially correlate to the modern and postmodern worldviews. The first shift, which began in the early 90s, is the advent of Strategic Philanthropy, which brought professional rigor, evidence-based methodologies, and outcome-focused approaches to the sector. This modernist turn emphasized measurable results and strategic planning, applying business principles to social change work.

The second shift emerged in the 2010s with the rise of Empowerment Philanthropy, which centered community wisdom and recognized the importance of addressing systemic power imbalances. This postmodern approach fundamentally challenged traditional philanthropic power dynamics, emphasizing equity, inclusion, and power redistribution.

Now, we believe we are witnessing the emergence of a third paradigm: Integrative Philanthropy. This approach transcends and includes the strengths of both previous paradigms while adding the sophisticated understanding of how complex systems actually evolve and transform that integrative metatheory provides. Rather than imposing predetermined solutions or assuming local wisdom alone can address systemic challenges, Integrative Philanthropy works with natural developmental processes while integrating multiple forms of knowledge and action.

This developmental systems map illuminates this evolution across multiple dimensions, including:

  • Vision and Viewpoint: How philanthropic leaders understand their role and make sense of complexity
  • Programs and Practices: The methodologies and tools used in grantmaking and evaluation
  • Strategy and Systems: Approaches to structuring systems change at multiple levels of scale
  • Culture and Collaboration: How organizations work together and build shared meaning

We believe this framework offers philanthropic leaders and organizations practical guidance for developing more sophisticated capabilities for catalyzing systems change while avoiding the reductionism of previous paradigms.

I invite you to explore the full developmental systems map here:

Explore the “Evolution of Philanthropy” Map

I welcome your feedback and look forward to engaging in deeper conversations with you about this vision for how philanthropy can evolve to better address the unprecedented challenges of our time. If you would be interested in learning more about this project or getting involved, please submit your interest here. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuaaleonard/

Thank you for being a part of this integrative movement.

In gratitude,

Josh Leonard
Institute of Applied Metatheory

 

About Josh Leonard
Josh Leonard is a seasoned social impact organizational leader with more than two decades of real-world experience developing strategy, culture, programs, and leaders through an integral lens. He brings 10+ years of executive leadership with the YMCA and the Institute for Cultural Evolution to bear on the emerging challenges organizations face today in grappling with the complexity of the 21st century. He has designed, led, and evaluated programs; nurtured thriving offline and online communities; led large, diverse staff teams; managed complex eight-figure budgets; created powerful leadership development programs; led strategic planning initiatives; and developed high-performing boards. Josh is a developmental leader who is adept at facilitating growth in individuals, teams, and organizations to achieve their goals for impact.

Uncategorized
By Dima Bulatov

IAM Announces The Unified Worldview Initiative

The Institute of Applied Metatheory is proud to introduce the Unified Worldview Initiative (UWI) — a bold and timely effort to help close one of the most critical rifts in modern civilization: the Enlightenment Gap.

For centuries, humanity has struggled to unite our understanding of mind and consciousness with that of matter and mechanism, leaving our worldviews fractured and our collective sense-making incomplete. The UWI is a response to this fragmentation—a transdisciplinary effort to build a more coherent, complete, and Integrative worldview for the 21st century.

Led by Dr. Gregg Henriques (originator of the Unified Theory of Knowledge), and supported by an esteemed team of integrative metatheorists, the UWI aims to synthesize three of the most powerful frameworks for understanding human nature and reality:

  • Integral Theory
  • Critical Realism
  • The Unified Theory of Knowledge (UTOK)

This ambitious integration will unfold in three key phases:

  1. Metatheoretical Mapping & Synthesis
    A rigorous comparative analysis of ontologies, epistemologies, and developmental logics, culminating in a comprehensive white paper.
  2. Dialogical Deepening through Symposia
    A series of high-level conversations with leading thinkers to explore, refine, and challenge the emerging integration.
  3. Worldview Activation & Dissemination
    A book-length treatment, public dialogues, and accessible media to bring this new synthesis into wider awareness and action.

Why it matters:

We are living through a planetary inflection point—what some call the metacrisis — marked by runaway complexity, existential uncertainty, and the breakdown of shared meaning. At the heart of this turbulence lies an incomplete picture of who we are and how we fit into the cosmos. The UWI seeks to provide a more unified ontological and epistemological frame that can support better science, deeper meaning, and more humane systems.

This is not just theoretical work. It’s the groundwork for a civilization capable of meeting complexity with clarity, fragmentation with integration, and despair with purpose.

Get Involved

If you are committed to worldview integration, transdisciplinary synthesis, or re-enchanting the sciences:

  • Join our upcoming symposia series
  • Collaborate with us as a scholar, institution, or thought leader
  • Support the effort through partnership, critique, or amplification

Together, we can help build the scaffolding for the next stage of human understanding.

 

About Dr. Gregg Henriques
Dr. Gregg Henriques, Professor of Graduate Psychology at James Madison University, is a clinical and theoretical psychologist. He is the founder of UTOK, the Unified Theory of Knowledge, which is a new system of understanding that bridges the sciences and humanities into a coherent whole. Dr. Henriques is author of three books, UTOK: The Unified Theory of Knowledge (2024), A New Synthesis for Solving the Problem of Psychology: Addressing the Enlightenment Gap (2022), and A New Unified Theory of Psychology (2011), and he has published many professional papers in the field’s top journals. He also has a popular blog on Psychology Today, called Theory of Knowledge, which has over 500 essays and received over 10 million views. Dr. Henriques is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the 2022 President of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration, and is a licensed clinical psychologist in Virginia. He teaches classes in psychotherapy, personality, personality assessment, cognitive psychology, and social psychology. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Vermont and did his postdoctoral training under Aaron T. Beck at the University of Pennsylvania.

Media
By Dima Bulatov

Polarization and the Algorithmic Undertow

Read Bruce’s white paper here:
Polarization and the Algorithmic Undertow: Integral and Critical Realist Perspectives

In this foundational episode, Bruce Alderman joins Josh Leonard to explore one of the most insidious forces driving today’s cultural fragmentation: the algorithmic undertow. Drawing from his recent white paper, Bruce introduces this powerful metaphor to describe the slow, invisible pull of digital systems—algorithms, platforms, attention economies—that subtly yet profoundly shape our beliefs, behaviors, and social worlds.

Using the lenses of Integral Metatheory and Critical Realism, Bruce and Josh unpack how algorithmically mediated environments are not only polarizing society, but also distorting our cognitive tools, creating isolated demirealities that feel whole but are structurally incomplete. Together they explore how these forces are eroding shared meaning, weakening democratic discourse, and transforming the very nature of human sense-making.

But this is not just a diagnosis—it’s also a call to action. Bruce lays out a four-quadrant framework for reclaiming depth in the digital age, offering concrete steps we can take as individuals, communities, and systems to restore wisdom, presence, and shared reality.

If you’ve ever felt like reality itself is fracturing—and you’re looking for tools to reweave it—this conversation is essential.

IAM Whitepaper
By Dima Bulatov

A Sociology of Big Pictures: Network Strategy for a 21st Century Worldview

The Institute of Applied Metatheory (IAM) presents “A Sociology of Big Pictures: Network Strategy for a 21st Century Worldview” by Robb Smith, an in-depth exploration of how major idea frameworks emerge, compete, and evolve within the historic attentional landscape. As we enter the Transformation Age—marked by rapid geopolitical, technological, ecological, and epistemic shifts—Smith argues that the need for a coherent, Integrative Worldview has never been greater. Drawing from the sociology of philosophy, he examines how intellectual movements throughout history have successfully propagated their ideas, emphasizing the role of networked collaboration, strategic signal amplification, and cultural capital in shaping worldviews capable of addressing the metacrisis.

This white paper outlines a bold “grand strategy” for fostering an “Integrative Worldview Network” that can effectively compete for attention against the Traditional, Modern and Postmodern worldviews in a fragmented media environment. Smith proposes a collaborative protocol among integral, metamodern, and other meta-theoretical movements to amplify their collective impact and establish a resilient knowledge economy suited for 21st-century challenges. Through deep historical analysis and practical insights, “A Sociology of Big Pictures” serves as both a roadmap and a call to action for those seeking to advance a worldview capable of meaningfully engaging with the complexity of our times.

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Media
By Dima Bulatov

IAM Spotlight: The Cultural Complexity Index

How do we measure the depth of human meaning-making across history, traditions, and intellectual paradigms? In this fascinating presentation, Brendan Graham Dempsey introduces the Cultural Complexity Index (CCI) initiative, a pioneering research project launched by the Institute of Applied Metatheory and Sky Meadow Institute that empirically maps how humans structure knowledge, solve problems, and make sense of their world.

Utilizing the Lectical Scale, a highly refined framework for measuring hierarchical complexity, the project analyzes sacred and significant texts from different historical periods. Its early findings suggest fascinating correlations between social complexity and the evolution of meaning-making, while also challenging some common assumptions about cognitive development in different historical eras.

What do we mean by “culture”? While integral theory typically enacts “culture” as representing our collective interiors (LL), the CCI investigates a broader dimension — the complexity of symbolic information processing as a whole. CCI’s use of the term aligns closely with Gregg Henriques’ description of “culture” as representing the human noosphere in general, the sphere of knowledge, symbolic representation, and individual sense-making, rather than the Lower-Left (LL) quadrant of Integral Theory, which focuses on relational, intersubjective, and cultural meaning-making. While the two are connected and often isomorphic with each other, they require distinct methodologies to be properly analyzed.

This is important because, as Brendan points out, he is not making claims about a given culture’s overall developmental center of gravity, but rather on the cognitive performance of certain individuals within a culture, as measured by the Lectical Scale.

Brendan’s presentation covers the theoretical foundations, core methodology, and preliminary results of the study — particularly its examination of texts from forager and archaic societies. In the ensuing discussion, participants explore crucial questions, such as:

  • The origins of the CCI framework and how it measures individual cognitive complexity,
  • How cognitive complexity relates to cultural evolution—but why they are not the same thing,
  • The shift from mythic narratives to rational-scientific models—and how each stage builds upon the last,
  • The hidden structures of symbolic meaning-making and how they shape everything from politics to personal identity,
  • How the CCI helps dispel myths about cultural development, such as challenging the notion that early societies were incapable of producing later-stage artifacts or ideas, and clarifying the sequential-but-nonlinear nature of human evolution

For integral thinkers, the CCI aspires to provide both empirical validation and refinement of existing developmental models. While supporting key developmental insights, it also suggests nuanced updates to conventional correlations between social and cognitive complexity. Most importantly, the findings point toward practical applications — helping to frame new “stories of wholeness” that are adequate to the challenges of our time.

This research represents a significant step in bringing empirical rigor to cultural evolution theories while refining and deepening our understanding. By applying careful measurement and analysis, it enhances our understanding of both our developmental past and the challenges of constructing more complex and integrative meaning systems for the future.

IAM Whitepaper
By Dima Bulatov

Polarization and the Algorithmic Undertow: Integral and Critical Realist Perspectives

The Institute of Applied Metatheory (IAM) presents a groundbreaking analysis of digital polarization and its profound impact on our increasingly fragmented social landscape. In “Polarization and the Algorithmic Undertow: Integral and Critical Realist Perspectives,” Bruce Alderman explores how our rapid transition into a globally networked information environment has created unprecedented challenges for human cognition, social cohesion, and collective meaning-making and sensemaking.

Drawing on the complementary big-picture frameworks of Integral Theory and Critical Realism, this white paper introduces the novel concept of “algorithmic undertow”—a subtle but powerful force that shapes our attention, beliefs, and behaviors in digital spaces. Through careful analysis of how these dynamics operate across personal, cultural, and systemic levels, Alderman reveals why traditional approaches to addressing polarization often fall short and offers a more comprehensive pathway forward.

This paper is particularly timely as we grapple with deepening polarization and the emergence of isolated digital “demi-realities.” By combining sophisticated theoretical analysis with practical insights for intervention, it provides valuable guidance for individuals, organizations, and policymakers working to foster healthier digital ecosystems and more integrated forms of collective sense-making.

As part of IAM’s ongoing commitment to applying integrative metatheories to pressing global challenges, this work offers both a deeper understanding of our current predicament and actionable strategies for transformation. Whether you’re a researcher, practitioner, or concerned citizen, this paper provides essential insights for navigating and healing our increasingly polarized digital landscape. 

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Media
By Dima Bulatov

What We’ve Learned: 2024 Reflections and Looking Ahead to 2025

The Institute of Applied Metatheory (IAM) is redefining how we address today’s most complex global challenges by leveraging integrative metatheories—comprehensive frameworks that unify knowledge across disciplines. In this insightful conversation, Robb Smith and Josh Leonard reflect on IAM’s groundbreaking work in 2024, from initiatives like the Metacrisis Mapping Project and the Cultural Complexity Index to innovative tools like Context AI, which revolutionize sense-making and meaning-making at the forefront of epistemology. Discover how leadership, collaboration, and storytelling play pivotal roles in driving transformational change, while exploring the ethical responsibilities that guide this impactful work.

Looking ahead to 2025, Robb and Josh outline an inspiring vision for IAM’s continued evolution. With a renewed focus on building a robust metatheory of change, fostering intergenerational collaboration, and advancing the integration of sense-making and meaning-making, IAM is crafting a new story of wholeness to address the crises of our time. Through this discussion, you’ll gain deeper insights into the transformative potential of integrative metatheories and practical ways to contribute to a more cohesive, resilient, and ethically grounded future.

Media
By Dima Bulatov

SALT for Climate: Redefining Urgency and Transformation in Climate Leadership

The Sensemaking, Action, and Leadership Training (SALT) for Climate initiative tackles a crucial blindspot in today’s climate response: the lack of conscious, integrative sensemaking as a foundation for meaningful action. SALT for Climate brings together cutting-edge psychosocial research, skilled facilitation in human dynamics, and transformative Big Picture metatheories to help climate leaders address the psychological and systemic gaps in existing political, economic, and scientific paradigms.


Through specialized training and coaching, SALT enhances the emotional, social, and consciousness capacities of those leading climate efforts, bridging the divide between climate policies and public understanding—a gap that often stalls progress and drives polarization. This scalable approach complements the scientific and technical aspects of climate action, fostering greater public engagement and supporting more impactful, integrative climate leadership.

In this episode of IAM Insider, host Josh Leonard sits down with Gail Hochachka and Lisa Gibson, leaders of the SALT for Climate initiative, to explore their pioneering approach to climate action. They discuss the often-overlooked psychological and social dimensions of climate work, share insights from their work on collective sensemaking and leadership training, and explain why a focus on human dynamics may be the missing piece in our response to the climate crisis. Listen in to discover how SALT for Climate is helping us rethink what effective climate action looks like.

Uncategorized
By Dima Bulatov

IAM Announces The Strategic Metacrisis Mapping Initiative

Dear friends,

I’m thrilled to introduce you to The Strategic Metacrisis Mapping Initiative, the Institute of Applied Metatheory’s newest Applied Metatheory Initiative, led by Nick Hedlund, Ph.D., aiming to “build a big picture of the world’s biggest problem.”

There is an emerging consensus of a profound, global “metacrisis” characterized by entangled, interpenetrating, and co-arising 1. ecosocial (ecological, political-economic, technological), 2. spiritual (meaning-making), 3. ethical, and 4. epistemic (sensemaking) crises, and their interconnected root causes. The Strategic Metacrisis Mapping Initiative will convene novel intellectual and social resources necessary to map and more fully understand the reality of the global metacrisis and its implications for meaning-making. Leveraging a metatheoretically-integrative Visionary Realism—a comprehensive, Complex Integral Realist Big Picture philosophy—the project will use a retroductive method to generate a map of the ecology of causal mechanisms, reality distortions, and symptoms of the global metacrisis’s four primary domains assessed across five major worldviews (i.e., stages of human sensemaking and meaning-making). The project will develop a web-based interactive topology (i.e., big picture) of the metacrisis, convene an innovation lab-style symposia for expert coordination and validation, and one or more papers.

In our view, the metacrisis is best understood not as a coincidental collection of single crises but as a totality that calls out to be seen, evaluated and understood as an emergent holism and one challenging us to improve humanity’s capacity for understanding and meeting higher-order complexity on its own terms. Therefore, this project aims to use a sophisticated, integrative, and comprehensive philosophy to show what is possible when we leverage Big Pictures to support new forms of sensemaking and meta-strategizing about complex, wicked problems.

We aim to show that Big Pictures are emancipatory precisely because they non-reductively ground complex phenomena in the sense that they are tractable and to some degree rationally accessible. If ever there was a critically decisive, numinous, and opportune moment in human history—a kairos, as the ancient Greeks would have it—this is it. The stakes for our future on this planet could not be higher. The process of building a “big picture of the world’s biggest problem” is not only the foundation of a 21st-century orienting praxis for scholars, policymakers, philanthropists, social impact leaders, and others; it is also a living engagement into an emerging, fuller integrative worldview that is capable of re-enchanting questions of ultimate concern with a profound, post-rational sense of faith.

We hope you join us in our excitement to support and foster this critical initiative.

Warmly,
Robb

 

About Nick Hedlund
Nick Hedlund, Ph.D., is leader of the Strategic Metacrisis Mapping Initiative at the Institute of Applied Metatheory, and founding director of the Eudaimonia Institute. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy & Social Science from University College London and was an exchange scholar at Yale University. Nick’s work explores the intersection of metatheory and the cultural and psychological dimensions of global transformation. As a Ph.D. researcher, Nick studied under Arthur Petersen and Roy Bhaskar to develop a new metatheoretical framework for emancipatory social research known as visionary realism, applying it to address the metacrisis. He served as executive director of the Integral Research Center at the MetaIntegral Foundation and has served as adjunct professor at John F. Kennedy University, associate director of the Integral Ecology Center, associate organizer of the biennial Integral Theory Conference, and organizer of four International Critical Realism & Integral Theory Symposia. His articles have appeared in journals such as the Environment and Public Policy and the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. He edited a book with Roy Bhaskar, Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, and Mervyn Hartwig entitled Metatheory for the 21st-Century: Critical Realism and Integral Theory in Dialogue (Routledge, 2016). Its companion volumes, Big-Picture Perspectives on Planetary Flourishing: Metatheory for the Anthropocene, Volume I was published in 2022, and Integrative Responses to the Global Metacrisis: Metatheory for the Anthropocene, Volume II (Routledge) is due out in 2025. Nick holds a Bachelor’s degree (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in Culture, Ecology, and Consciousness from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a Master’s in Integral Psychology from John F. Kennedy University, and a (second) Master’s in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Through the course of his studies, he has received several academic awards and honors including the Jacob Van Ek Scholar Award, the Honors Graduating Senior Scholarship Award for his undergraduate thesis, and the Yale UCL Collaborative Bursary. Currently, he teaches integral philosophy and consciousness studies in the Integral Noetic Sciences Program at the California Institute for Human Science.