On January 1, 2025, I woke up to some disturbing and tragic national news. At that time, ten people had been killed by a terrorist in New Orleans, Louisiana, a few hours after midnight. Three officers were hospitalized and the terrorist, who used a truck and a gun to kill and injure these innocent human beings, was now dead.

The world has never been devoid of wicked patterns but lately it feels like the patterns are becoming more widespread and pervasive than ever.

Less than one month ago, an Insurance Executive was shot and killed in New York as he headed into a hotel.

These heinous and hateful crimes are sadly part of a pattern that I began referring to as an unraveling in early 2024. These deadly actions seem to signal an unraveling of some sort in some human beings everywhere.

I have many questions that may never be answered, yet I’m still curious how human beings arrive at such dark states of mind to take someone’s life? When does the unraveling begin and are they aware that it is happening? Is it a slow progression or does it happen suddenly? What patterns are they seeing, hearing or feeling that the rest of us aren’t seeing, hearing or feeling?

The world is in a state of crisis and something must be done to stop the pattern of devalued human life.

If you and I are catalysts for change, how can we personally use Human Systems Dynamics to help influence others to recognize what’s happening within them long before their edges become unraveled?