As Tom Irons predicted in the documentary Rewilding Kernwood, I was aghast. For over 90 minutes, I watched as he and his partner Jean Aspen dismantled, nail by nail and log by log, the stunning homestead they had taken years to build together by hand in the remote Alaska wilderness. When they were done, and the last of the logs from their cabin had been released into the river, their tenure of 28 years had vanished without a trace.

It was difficult to watch this dismantling because "place" is so central to our humanity and our organizations. Place gives us an anchor for our identity — both individually and collectively. Without these observable manifestations, who we are can only be implied abstractly through language. Place gives us a touch point, a place to gather, and a place to remind ourselves of who we are and how we show up and operate in the world.

Place came to the center of our organizational consciousness, perhaps never as much as when COVID-19 shuttered businesses and forever........

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