This week I attended the SHINE Summit at Harvard University.
It was organized by the Harvard Human Flourishing Program and SHINE – two incredible organizations. The focus of the conference was, broadly speaking, the intersection of wellbeing and work with a focus on purpose, productivity, and the role of organizations in promoting wellbeing. In their words…
The SHINE Summit is the leading forum for visionary thinking, innovative research and practical solutions that advance corporate sustainability and public health. Join us on campus in Cambridge for the most important interdisciplinary conversations on the role of business in advancing human well-being, featuring renowned scientists and pioneering leaders of industry.
Here are my takeaways from the researchers and industry leaders (such as Juliet Schor, Ranjay Gulati, Hubert Joly, and Erica Karp)…
The Harvard Human Flourishing program uses the term “flourish” as their term for what I’d call thriving, Happiness, or an optimal life.
They break it down into five central domains: happiness and life satisfaction, physical and mental health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships. Each of these is nearly universally desired, and each constitutes an end in and of itself. These operate through four pathways: family, work, education, and religious community. The domains are sort of factors or dimensions whereas the pathways are vehicles that influence the domain. For example, how does working life support physical and mental health? How does education affect sense of purpose?
If you want to understand the wellbeing of individuals or of the collective, this provides a useful structure to direct your thinking, research, or interventions.
You can read all about this research in their outstanding 2017 paper here.
There were two models for flourishing at work that caught my attention.
The Harvard Human Flourishing program explains that people are supported to flourish at work when they are…
Satisfaction and purpose come from a sense that the work has an impact on serving something greater than oneself. Health refers to basic safety, absence of abuse, financial security, and work demands that do not undermine physical or mental health. Engagement is a measure popularized by Gallup: they explain it as the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace.
A more in-depth model came from a panel with Piotr Białowolski, Nidhi Ghildayal, Heloisa Jardim, and Dorota Węziak-Białowolska. I have consolidated their categories to arrive at the below model.
The following factors determine happiness in working life: