The Digital Polycrisis
This is the thinking that connects the different parts of CKC Cares. This page explains why they belong together, and how an idea about the environment people work in developed into practical support for people and organisations.
How it fits together
Each step follows from the one before, and each links to the section that explains it.
- The Digital Polycrisis The wider environment The original intellectual foundation: technological, social, economic and governance pressures that interact, and reach the people inside them.
- Human experience What technological change can mean for people For identity, judgement, capability, agency and work.
- Human Scaffolding The human-centred connective layer What people and human systems may need to move through change and keep hold of their capabilities.
-
Three responses
Leadership, Teams & Decision Clarity Leading, judging and deciding through disruption.AI Ethics, Human Risk & Safeguarding Examining and governing human risk in AI-enabled systems.Human & Digital Transformation Moving from disruption to adaptation and responsible action.
- Practical responses From thinking to practice Advisory, assessment, testing, training, education, courses, interactive learning and practical resources, in combinations that suit the situation.
- Start where you are The finder asks two short questions and suggests a first step. Find My Starting Point Explore Services Learn Experience
The environment
The Digital Polycrisis describes an environment where technological, social, economic and governance pressures interact with each other.
In organisations that can look like information overload, competing priorities, rapid technological change, uncertainty, digital fatigue, pressure to adopt new tools, and shifting expectations about what people should know and be able to do.
When change moves this quickly, the effects reach the people working inside it.
The Digital Polycrisis is the framing Cha'Von Clarke-Joell developed through her work and set out in her book of the same name. It is the starting point for the wider CKC Cares work.
What it can mean for people
Digital change affects more than systems. It can change how people understand their work, their value, their judgement and their relationships, and sometimes how they see themselves.
It bears on capability, agency, confidence and cognitive load as well. Asking people to adapt is rarely enough on its own.
The Zone of Disrupted Identity
CKC Cares uses the Zone of Disrupted Identity, or ZDI, as a lens for one form of this pressure. It describes the space where human worth, role, voice and excellence can come under pressure when digital transformation moves faster than the people inside it.
This pressure might show up as self-silencing, withdrawal from AI conversations, performance anxiety, leaders questioning their relevance, or teams quietly disengaging. These are examples of experiences the lens can help people notice and talk about. Many are ordinary responses to change, and ZDI is not a clinical or diagnostic term.
The Digital Twin Self
A version of each of us now exists across platforms, systems and AI interactions. The Digital Twin Self is the CKC Cares framework for thinking about the gap between who a person is and who their digital presence says they are.
When the two do not match, people spend energy managing the difference.
Try the ZDI Experience, a free reflection tool that runs in your browser.
Human Scaffolding
What do people and human systems need in order to move through technological change without losing the human capabilities their organisation depends on?
Human Scaffolding is the CKC Cares framework for thinking about the support people and human systems may need as technology changes how they work, decide and relate to one another. It is the human-centred layer that connects the rest of the work, and it is not a separate service.
Ethical Resilience
Staying principled and grounded as digital pressures mount.
Identity Integrity
Keeping a person's authentic self reflected across their digital touchpoints.
Cognitive Support
Help with the mental load of navigating transformation.
Emotional Security
Maintaining confidence and voice in a rapidly changing environment.
The Human-Centred Transformation Ladder is a practical pathway within Human Scaffolding. It moves from understanding disruption to recognising what it is doing to people, then to identifying what is getting in the way, and on to deciding what needs to happen next.
Three areas of response
Each area starts from a different question. They sit side by side, and an organisation may need only one of them.
Leadership, Teams & Decision Clarity
How do we lead, judge and decide through disruption?
Support for leaders and teams making decisions under pressure, including one-to-one advice through The Clarity Line.
AI Ethics, Human Risk & Safeguarding
Where can human risk emerge in AI-enabled systems, and how can organisations examine and govern it?
The Testing hub, for organisations deploying AI in people-facing and high-stakes settings. It has three specialist services.
- Human Systems Adversarial Assessment (H.S.A.A.) examines human-system risk under pressure in advanced or high-stakes deployments.
- Human-System Risk Mapping™ (H.S.R.M.) maps where a system may miss human context and how it responds and escalates, and builds an evidence base that can support governance review.
- Human Systems Talent Governance (H.S.T.G.) governs the impact of AI on people, roles, capability, judgement and accountability. Adaptive Talent Management (ATM) sits within it.
Human & Digital Transformation
How do people and organisations move from disruption to adaptation, capability and responsible action?
Practical support for people and teams through AI and digital change, including AI First Aid, E-AMP (Ethical Leadership in Action) and the Digital Polycrisis Experience, alongside training and facilitation.
From thinking to practice
CKC Cares can support people and organisations in different ways, and the right combination depends on the situation.
For organisations
Advisory work, assessment, testing, risk mapping, workforce and talent governance, leadership support, and training and facilitation.
For learning
Education, courses, interactive learning, and practical tools and resources.
Not every pathway suits every organisation. Find My Starting Point helps narrow it down, and you can also start with a conversation.
Where this came from
Cha'Von Clarke-Joell wrote The Digital Polycrisis in 2023, and it was published in 2024. She was previously Assistant Commissioner (Innovation) at the Bermuda Privacy Commissioner, and was named in the annual 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics list.
The book describes the environment. The rest of the CKC Cares work starts there, before it looks at the individual, and asks what that environment can mean for people and what they may need in response.
The book was also an experiment in human-AI collaboration. The thinking, frameworks, lived experience, cultural material and creative connections are the author's own. AI assisted with some technical and regulatory material, which the author reviewed and approved.
Books and resources
-
The Digital Polycrisis
The book, written in 2023 and published in 2024.
-
The Digital Polycrisis e-book
The free e-book, and the starting point for this work.
-
The Digital Polycrisis Workbook
A self-paced way in, with case studies and quizzes, and a complimentary copy of the companion book.
-
The ZDI Experience
A free reflection tool on digital identity that runs in your browser.
Start where you are
Answer two short questions and we'll suggest a course, an interactive experience, a service or a conversation.
More ways in
-
Explore Services
Advisory, consulting, governance, testing, training and coaching for organisations.
-
Explore Interactive Learning
Scenarios, reflection tools and games where you make a choice and see what follows.
-
Courses
Self-paced courses on AI governance, risk and human-centred practice.
-
Education
CKC Cares for Education. Programmes for learners, educators, families and leaders, from school to professional development.
-
Shop
Take the thinking with you.
Books, practical tools and original thinking to help you make sense of AI, digital change and what they mean for people.
-
Contact
Tell us what's going on and we'll help you find a starting point.
About CKC Cares Group
CKC Cares Group is the umbrella for our work. It sits above two registered organisations.
CKC Cares Ventures Limited
Commercial consultancy, advisory, organisational services, learning, training and related commercial activity.
CKC Cares CIC
Community-interest, education, access, digital resilience and public-benefit activity.
About the GroupAbout CKC Cares Ventures LimitedVisit the main CKC Cares websiteVisit CKC Cares CICVisit CKC Cares for Education