Because Better Systems Won’t Build Themselves
The Humane Universe is a ten-volume project applying Root Cause Analysis, Soft Systems Methodology, and behavioral economics to the institutions that shape how we work, learn, heal, and govern ourselves. The goal is not reform. It is redesign — building institutions that develop human capability rather than consuming it, and that make extractive behavior too expensive, too transparent, and too politically costly to sustain.
We build by the light of a cathedral metaphor. The medieval builders knew they were working for the future — that they would not live to see the project complete. Yet they committed to laying a strong foundation, exercising all their skill and craftsmanship, trusting that future generations would find what they left and build higher. That is the spirit of this work.
HumaneSystems.co is the hub. It connects the books, the consulting practice, the SOLON Institute, the Journal of Institutional Design, The Humane Universe Foundation and the growing community of practitioners who believe that better systems are possible — and that they won't build themselves.
You Found the Hub:
This page is your guide to all things “Humane:: the books, the framework, the practice, the institutions being built, and the person behind the work.
THE BOOKS
Humane Hiring: Fixing the Broken Hiring System for Job Seekers, Hiring Managers, and Recruiters — Why hiring fails everyone and how to redesign it from first principles. Published July 2025. Available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle.
Humane Hiring Workbook — Practical tools for implementing capability-centered hiring. Companion to the main text.
Tragedy & Work: A Rugged Alternative to Despair — How meaning survives institutional failure. What to do when the system breaks and you're still standing in it. Published April 2026. Tragedy & Work is also available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle.
Humane Economics: Restoring the Foundations of Capitalism — Root cause analysis of extraction economics and the case for capability-centered design. Spring 2027.
The Humane Universe is a ten-volume inquiry. Seven more books follow—on education, governance, health systems, and the infrastructure of civilization. Each asks the same question: can we build institutions that develop human capability rather than consume it?
THE INTELLECTUAL FRAMEWORK
The Cathedral Builders’ Manifesto — The foundational document. Seven hundred words on what this work is for and why it requires thinking in generations, not quarters. Download it free on the Contact page.
Four Diagnostic Thinkers — Carroll Quigley on civilizational cycles. Russell Ackoff on systems thinking. Thomas Kuhn on paradigm failure. John Glubb on institutional aging. The framework draws from all four.
Coined Terms Worth Knowing — Capability Economy. Power-Aware Design. Extraction-to-Learning Ratio. Quigley Cycle. Schrödinger Problem. The work requires new language because the old categories don’t cut cleanly enough.
THE PRACTICE
Humane Systems LLC — Consulting for organizations serious about institutional redesign. Not reform—redesign. Root cause analysis. Capability-centered hiring. Governance restructuring. Work focused on making extractive incentives too expensive, too transparent, and too politically costly to sustain.
The SOLON Institute — Research on institutional evolution and the application of Quigley’s framework to contemporary governance failures. Named for the Athenian lawgiver who understood that good systems require both craft and humility. SolonInstitute.org
Teaching and Speaking — fromer RPI MBA teaching, program. Board of Education service. Library Commission leadership. The work happens in classrooms, boardrooms, and the elected seats where policy gets made.
THE PUBLISHING INFRASTRUCTURE
Longview Press — The imprint publishing the Humane Universe series and related works on institutional design. Built for projects that take years, not seasons.
The Alternate Future, LLC — The parent organization for the consulting practice, the publishing work, and the broader Humane Universe project.
THE COMMUNITY BEING BUILT
Journal of Institutional Design — Peer-reviewed scholarship on how institutions are built, how they fail, and how they can be redesigned to serve human flourishing rather than extract from it. Forthcoming. JournalofInstitutionalDesign.com
The Humane Universe Foundation — Supporting research, funding practitioners, and building the intellectual infrastructure needed for long-term systemic redesign. Under development.
The Mailing List — Cathedral builders need to know where the other cathedral builders are. Sign up on the Contact page to stay connected.
READY TO GO DEEPER?
Download the Cathedral Builders’ Manifesto and the Humane Hiring Bill of Rights & Responsibilities on the Contact page. Both free. No obligation. Just a name and an email.
THE PERSON
Gregory Sparzo has spent nearly forty years consulting to organizations on hiring, governance, and institutional effectiveness. He serves on the Board of Education in Suffield, Connecticut, where he chairs the Curriculum & Instruction Committee. He also chairs the town’s Library Commission.
The work is institutional redesign—not reform, but root-and-branch rebuilding of systems designed to outlast the people who build them. He writes books, teaches practitioners, builds frameworks, and works in the gaps where theory meets implementation. He finds that description accurate.
