Humans flourishing at work

In my last edition of ‘Hi’ I promised you a piece on ‘flourishing’.

My interest in 'human flourishing’ is broader than organisations and workplaces, for now though, as you’ll read below, I’m locating this month’s piece in-organisation and at-work.

Flourishing - is a positive psychological well-being construct.

‘Flourishing, however conceived, at the very least, requires doing or being well in the following five broad domains of human life:

(i) happiness and life satisfaction;

(ii) health, both mental and physical;

(iii) meaning and purpose;

(iv) character and virtue;

(v) close social relationships” (VanderWeele, 2017).

In writing this month’s ‘Hi’ I imagined myself working on a strategy and planning piece right now, where I’ve paused to think about ‘flourishing’ in the context of my role as the lead Human Resource specialist in my current organisation - the custodian of and carer for all things ‘people’ related.

There’s some big questions without answers at present - but as we ‘people people’ all need to be, I am comfortable with the ambiguity and uncertainty.

‘Flourishing’ as a rolled-up term is a touch nebulous. I’m not convinced just yet that my draft strategy and plan document will ‘fly’ with a section labelled ‘Flourishing’, but I do like a challenge, and at ISPT, it's in our DNA to be bold and brave.

Labels and positioning aside, the conversation about humans flourishing at work is an important one to have. And for me the time is right to ‘bring it on’.

Whether it’s ultimately set out in Culture as a standalone, or woven into Health and Wellbeing and/or Employee Experience, 'flourishing’ rolled up, or chunked down to more tangible components of, for example: job satisfaction, mental and physical wellbeing, purpose and meaning, will be a feature of my next strategy and plan.

It’s a work-in-progress, and the poets call this form ‘acrostic’, but here’s the current 'thought starter' for my thinking about Flourishing in the organisational, work, and human resources planning context. This won't be where it lands - but I thought it might be helpful to show the basics of how and idea might start. The process isn't important, but starting is!

Frictionless people and customer experiences

Loving what you do

Originating talent - not just hiring it, growing it.

Unwaveringly courageous & supportive leaders

Recognising and rewarding performance and grit

Innovation nurtured and fostered

Safety and health imbued in all

Hybrid work, empowering outcomes

Insight and inspiration driving business performance

Numbers and data that matter - no pointless metrics

Generating and cultivating potential

Personally - I am finding that just exploring and thinking about flourishing at work - is helping me to do just that, even on the toughest of days, it's a great anchor to come back to.

I'm curious- what's one thing that at helps you to flourish at work and in life?

H