How we got here
The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science was started in 2015 and aims to study and promote human flourishing, and to develop systematic approaches to the synthesis of knowledge across disciplines. Leadership for Flourishing is a part of the Human Flourishing Program’s Flourishing Network.
The “Leadership for Flourishing” community of practice is led by Senior Fellows of the Human Flourishing Program Network and Associate Fellows of the Oxford Character Project (Katy and Emmie) along with experts from a variety of fields who are passionate about inspiring and equipping leaders to enable others to flourish. Katy and Emmie also work at Wellington College.
During lockdown we produced a freely available online course: “Leading and Flourishing in Difficult Times,” with Professor Matthew Lee who was, at the time, Director of Empirical Research at the Human Flourishing Program and Dr Edward Brooks, Executive Director of the Oxford Character Project, . It combines research on leadership, character and flourishing in a 5-module program that is intended to help people across settings to exercise leadership where they are, furthering the good of their teams, communities and organisations.
We have since built upon this programme to create another online programme ‘Leading with Character’ with a global team, many of whom are part of our leadership for flourishing team, and the generosity of Legatum. This has been piloted and will be launched by early 2025.
With the explosion of research on flourishing over the last decade, as well as the research on leadership, we wanted to bring these areas together and create a team who meet regularly online, and in-person, annually and a website where:
Resources on leadership and flourishing are easily accessible;
People can access practical tools to improve their own and others flourishing;
People can find practical leadership tips that will promote flourishing;
People can read stories and join a movement of leaders, from all parts of society, dedicated to reimagining leadership for the greater good.