The Promise of Flourishing

Our hope horizon, wellbeing, and shared success in the long term are amplified by those who create flourishing cultures.

This stands true in any environment. We can experience flourishing in our relationships at home, at school or at work, even within ourselves. Flourishing is akin to the cultivation of a growth mindset, which can be applied to every aspect of our lives.

The absence of flourishing can become painfully clear in times of crisis, change or loss, when the solid ground that is certainty and reliability is shaken out of place.

Our culture is a communal space, and a flourishing approach to culture will promote learning and innovation.

During difficult times, this becomes key to our resilience.

Flourishing can heal.

According to neuroscience, integration, which is understood as linking differentiated aspects of a system - both positive and negative, has been proven to act as the bridge between our well-being and the feeling of fulfilment in life.

Integration and resilience are rewards in the promise of flourishing. Flourishing as a focus yields trust-based relationships, community cohesion and alignment, a growth mindset, psychologically safe environments, and so much more.

We can further support the idea of flourishing by looking at the third metric of thriving*, as defined by Arianna Huffington, and the fourth "p" of preparedness**, added to the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit by Erika James and Lynn Perry Wooten. These concepts go hand in hand with flourishing and its promise.

As a learning and Talent professional, I am renewing my own commitment to exploring the scope and promise of flourishing, what it means, and what it takes for me to build flourishing cultures.

Over the years, I have had the good fortune to co-create flourishing cultures and enriched environments in collaboration with some remarkable culture architects.

One such remarkable thought leader who stands out as an architect of flourishing cultures is Jennifer Paylor. I had the great pleasure of working with her while she served as Head of Learning & Development, Talent and Culture at Capgemini. She is a role model for intellectual humility and truly a force for good.

When it comes to flourishing, Jennifer remains a constant source of strength and inspiration*** to myself and everyone in the teams she engaged with, as she modelled the integration of career success and personal wellbeing.

My wish for us all in the years to come is that we to continue to build and sustain flourishing cultures and enriched environments, and apply this focus to every area of our lives.

I am grateful to my family for all the gifts and all the grace.

Thankful for you and thankful for the journey ahead.

Happy, Flourishing New Year!

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References

*Arianna Huffington's 2014 guide on how to Thrive started a global movement that branched out to include the Meditative Story podcast and a science-based guide to behavior change called Your Time to Thrive (2021).

Here is an extract from an interview in which she shares her motivation for writing Thrive and her definition of thriving as a third metric:

"When I looked around at colleagues, friends and the world at large, [I realized] that we had shrunk the definition of success down to two metrics: money and power. We had left out what I now call the third metric, which includes our well-being, our wisdom, our capacity to wonder and bring joy into our lives, and our capacity to give. Without these four pillars, life is really reduced to our to-do list."

**The life lessons of the pandemic have brought to the forefront the topic of thriving and flourishing, along with another one addressed by two experts in crisis leadership: Erika James, PhD, dean of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Lynn Perry Wooten, PhD, president of Simmons University.

In their book The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before (2022), they add a fourth "p" to the triple bottom line framework (people, planet, and profit) for measuring performance - which is: preparedness. They argue that the time to prepare is always. This also applies to flourishing.

***Articles like the ones below are inspired by my cooperation with Jennifer Paylor and like-minded leaders.

Where Leadership Starts (2022)

A Blueprint for Talent Integration (2022)

Skill Kaleidoscopes (2023)

Lessons from Talent Magnets (2023)