Why focus on "wellbeing"?

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

Robert Green Ingersoll

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Important Public Notice

Dear Colleagues and Caring Citizens.

As of December 30th, 2011 the Leading for Wellness Foundation (also known as LeadWell Foundation/LeadWell Initiative) has ceased active operations after five successful years. We are turning our efforts back to the business, government, and social sector communities who we've sought to serve in terms of developing greater societal leadership capacity.

It has been a distinct honour to work with each of you to help support your related activities, and we thank you for your support and encouragement for our own efforts.

Our team has had the opportunity to work with an exceptional group of highly committed and effective organizations and individuals like you who care about the future of our collective society. Tens of thousands have visited our website and used the Foundation's resources to influence and change the nature of the dialogue around leadership and wellbeing in important ways.

To build on that work, we encourage you to pick up the torch and help promote and advance any and all opportunities to build a new level of consciousness around societal leadership. If we have better leaders today, we will enjoy better futures tomorrow.

Our online resources will remain available for up to one year and can be accessed at http://societalleadership.com

Any inquiries regarding the online information or its use may be directed to seddy@societalleadership.com .

Thank you for believing in our work, and in our shared desire for better futures for all humanity.

Sincerely,

The Leading for Wellness Foundation Team

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An occasional blog on societal leadership and other issues of interest to the LeadWell Foundation / LeadWell Initiative team

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Why focus on "wellbeing"?

Canadian Index of Wellbeing (http://www.ciw.ca)

Since we started as a Foundation in 2006, we've faced the question of "Why focus on wellbeing? What can anyone do about it?" Even some of our closest friends and families sometimes don't see the connections.

That skepticism — and sometimes outright cynicism — is what we're constantly trying to address through our ongoing work. The reality is that, unless we start talking more regularly and comprehensively about our societal wellbeing and the leadership we need to change our current approaches, we will continue on a negative trajectory in many parts of our society.

Like others who may have studied it but never entirely mastered it, the arcane world of economics never grabbed me as being particularly realistic in trying to explain the complex web of interactions that help make up the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country. Yet, it has come to dominate so much of our local, national, and international discussions when we come to talk about our general societal health and wellbeing. There are strong countries, regions, and cities, and there are those that are assessed as weak. The zero-sum game brought on by discussions focused around economics is that there will always be a pyramid dominated by the "haves", with a growing disproportionate number of "have nots".

The very concept of wellbeing, however, immediately takes the discussion to a different level. Can you really be part of the "have" crowd when the rest of society is crumbling around you? For me, wellbeing by its very nature is a concept of shared circumstances. Like the best approaches found in team problem-solving and decision-making, wellbeing (or lack thereof) is not a problem that just YOU may have: it's a problem or an opportunity that WE share.

So what can we do to increase wellbeing?

Part of the skepticism that arises around wellbeing is that the scope of the challenge is immense. In many areas of the world — even here in Canada amid our seemingly endless natural wealth and relatively priviledged international position — there are just so many dimensions to the question that it can be overwhelming.

As a Foundation, our daily work sees us examining the negative effects of deteriorating environmental conditions, fundamental policy discussions that are shallow or partisan, and a society that often seems tuned out, more interested in the results of the latest "Idol" series than in questions of how we better allocate our intellectual and physical resources to build a better future for ourselves and the generations to come.

The first action is to talk about it.

Everywhere we go, we try to introduce the basic question of "What are we doing right as a society, and how do we do even better?" This is something we talk about over coffee, meals, or even casual conversations. It's sometimes surprising to see how quickly and eagerly people delve into the question and provide their thoughts. Everyone has a perspective to share, and each of these viewpoints is equally valid and valuable.

Some viewpoints are highly informed and heavily engaged, evidence of considerable passion and profound thought. Others are offering a personal story of their life experience, venturing into new territory but glad to be asked for their perspectives. In each case, we're hoping that they will continue the conversation with others, stimulated to spread the basic idea.

The second action is to think deeper about it.

As a society, we have many different perspectives about what will improve our societal wellbeing. What we currently lack is a better way to sift through the ideas and make specific decisions about what we're going to do.

Part of the challenge is that, until fairly recently, we've lacked alternative tools beyond economics to help frame the discussion. That has changed, and we now have a valuable set of wellbeing domains that have been developed as part of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. This is a world-leading research initiative started by the Atkinson Charitable Foundation in Ontario, and now housed at the University of Waterloo.

As a Foundation, we've adopted the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) framework as one of our tools for advancing discussions. The eight domains of wellbeing outlined in the CIW (see at right) help to guide broader public discussions about wellbeing, and serve to capture a range of more nuanced considerations beyond the economic. None of this is to diminish the relative importance of economic wellbeing as part of the larger picture. Instead, adding in the range of other domains (and their various sub-domains) helps to put economic considerations in better focus and within a more logical context for assessing various decision trade-offs.

Ideally from our perspective, the domains of the CIW would become a deliberate part of the societal decision-making process across business, government, and society at large. Each would adopt a framework of this sort when looking at the impact of a particular set of actions, even if the eventual outcome is weighted in favour of one factor over another. At the very least, this would serve to enhance the overall quality and transparency of the decision by making sure that all of the factors had been considered.

Transparency of the decision framework would, in our view, help to provide valuable public feedback from all viewpoints. Right now, the consuming public has little on which to base its own decisions around which services, programs, and products to support, nor how these individual decisions fit with the larger picture.

For our own thinking, the CIW provides a valuable tool to assess options and debate the merits of different approaches. If one looks at the basic CIW domains as the gauges on a "societal dashboard", any decision we take would look at how that particular policy, program, service, or product would move (or not) the needle positively. Picture the tool being used at all levels of government, or in the boardroom of big (and small!) business.

Obviously, not all issues will fit into each domain, but there's usually enough linkage across two or more domains to see how the impacts build up into a larger measure of societal wellbeing. We consider the CIW to be a valuable tool for current and aspiring societal leaders to consider as part of their toolkit. And, we encourage them to use it often!

A current sample

We encourage you to visit the Canadian Index of Wellbeing website to download and read more about the initiative, including their growing number of issue reports. For a sample, see the latest report based on the Environment domain, along with its companion piece around Ideas for Positive Change.