Project: The Institute for Moral Imagination
Bold Hub Founding Member: Deb Bubb
Deb is a trailblazer in the human resources realm, celebrated for infusing genuine humanity back into the corporate world. Respected for her deep experience in leadership development and talent management within the tech industry, she's held influential positions at UnitedHealth Group, Optum, IBM, and Intel—steering the course of leadership, diversity, talent management, and organizational vitality.
Deb's approach is unique. Throughout her career, she's turned to the fascinating insights of neuroscience and evolutionary biology to deepen our understanding of what it truly means to be human – and how that humanity plays a critical role in our professional performance. She's dedicated to the premise that art and creative self-expression are fundamental to our human experience, shaping our understanding of the world and ourselves.
This insight led her to a profound question: How might we leverage our innate creativity to envision and build the future we aspire to?
So, Deb founded The Institute for Moral Imagination. Centered on the idea that every life is a creative act, the Institute is dedicated to nurturing the artist within us and deepening our moral clarity, imagination, and courage to create a world where we can all flourish. The Institute is a generative resource to build a world where our workplaces, communities, and day-to-day lives are a canvas for creative and moral thought—a future shaped by a collective humanity.
“We’re being saturated today with messages and experiences that come out of an echo chamber and keep us in a narrower and narrower slice of our brain. Art and creativity invite us to experience and use all of our brains, many different ways that our brains are designed, to sense and experience the world.”
CEO of the kyu collective, Michael Birkin, co-founder of SYPartners, Keith Yamashita, and Deb are undertaking a powerful initiative cut from the same cloth.
The movement is called “20 Summers” and asks: If you had 20 good summers left, how would you live your life? The effort has two major offerings:
1) A group-based, in-person set of experiences where we work with people in “cohorts” to plan for and flourish throughout their next twenty years and
2) An online and digital platform designed to serve millions with tools, experiences, and learning solutions to facilitate their growth and development into elderhood
Through 20 Summers, the team hopes to:
- Help people explore, reckon, and contend with the life they have built so far—taking the best elements of their life and building a new collage
- Forge new mindsets and beliefs that will sustain people through their elderhood—this often means reshaping one’s identity, self-image, self- esteem, and relationships within groups
- Help people define their purpose, direction, and approach
- Unleash people to experiment, practice, and build new rituals to create this preferred future and life
Deb is embracing a new chapter, moving beyond the corporate sphere to wholeheartedly devote herself to The Institute for Moral Imagination and 20 Summers. Her journey and this significant transition were the focal points of her bold Roundtable session, which marked the first time she spoke openly about her shift in focus.
The exchange she had with other members wasn’t just informative—it was a galvanizing experience that reinforced her conviction in the Institute’s mission. This kind of exchange is precisely what TIGNUM’s Bold Hub aims to foster: an environment where dialogue ignites innovation and emboldens the kind of thinking that leads to breakthroughs.
“We can only answer questions we have the courage to ask.”
ABOUT TIGNUM’S Bold Hub
Ever wondered how top performers reach success? It’s not luck; it’s their boldness and constant readiness to face challenges in a complex, uncertain, and volatile world.
We get it—nowadays it’s tough to stay on top of things without the right energy or tools. That’s why our TIGNUM experts have created the Bold Hub. Packed with constant inspiration, ongoing conversations, and expert-designed human performance tools and strategies, we aim to significantly impact your work and life, no matter the challenges.
ABOUT TIGNUM
TIGNUM is the major performance building block for business professionals, designed around a skill- and data-based approach that respects the individuality, focuses on the brain, evolves constantly, and creates lasting impact.
Its international team comes from a wide range of fields, including human behavior, elite athletics, special forces, performance medicine, executive coaching, change consultants, and more.