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The Flourishing Network

  • Writer: Human Flourishing Program Team
    Human Flourishing Program Team
  • 2 days ago
  • 10 min read

To join the Network, please email Jonathan Beale at jon@drjonbeale.com



The Flourishing Network convenes regular online discussions of best practices and different approaches to assessing and promoting flourishing in a wide variety of settings, connecting people from around the world interested in research and practice. The network provides opportunities to engage with the flourishing framework and research of the Human Flourishing Program and to develop collaborations.


Conversations have covered the measurement of flourishing among different groups, the development of interventions to enhance specific domains of well-being and overall flourishing, and the revision of K-12, university, and medical school curricula to emphasize the centrality of flourishing and its pathways for leading a good life and building a better society.


The Flourishing Network hosts a number of specific Interest Groups, listed below. Some of these groups function as Communities of Practice—people united by a shared concern or passion who improve how they work through ongoing interaction.



Interest Groups


Click the title to see a description and contact information.


AI for Human Flourishing

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, AI has emerged as a transformative force. We believe with the right guidance and implementation, AI can become a powerful catalyst for enhancing human flourishing.


We are a working group and think tank whose first project is to design, test, and deploy a live framework grounded in the principles of flourishing. This framework can significantly empower decision-making processes around AI products for medium and large companies and AI technology product design. This framework serves as a vital 'anchor' for the cultural component of the decision matrix, facilitating effective communication between all stakeholders, including director-level executives, employees, and even external customers and clients. We deploy through organizations to impact more individuals.


We invite you to join our conversation and contribute to a cause that aligns with your commitment to enhancing human life. For more information or to get involved, please email the Interest Group Chair, Tamara Lechner, at tamara@posminds.com with the subject: AI4HumanFlourishing. Our group meets on the 3rd Thursday of each month from noon to 1pm PST.

Economics of Well-being and Global Human Flourishing

This Interest Group is a space where we collectively reimagine an economics of well-being centered around sustainable human flourishing. We aim to examine and redefine value in society and economic metrics we employ to measure impact. The group explores means by which we can create regenerative ecosystems that incentivize contributions to the greater good with a lens on human sustainability. Our inaugural symposium was held on July 26, 2022 and our second symposium on the economics of well-being and global flourishing; voices from policy and practice was held on February 28, 2023.


Themes and frameworks include: stakeholder centered capitalism, conscious capitalism, generative love in the workplace, well-being metrics measuring flourishing beyond GDP, measurement of gross national happiness, WELLBYS (well-being index), redefining economic metrics for flourishing research, policy, and practice.


Some global partners include Institute for Global Flourishing, What Works Well-being, STATEC, Gallup, Global Shapers Community NYC-Manhattan Hub. For more information or to get involved, email the Interest Group Chair, Dr. Noémie Le Pertel, nl2463@caa.columbia.edu subject: Economics of Well-being.

Education for Flourishing

The purpose of this interest group is to (i) Integrate the domains of human flourishing as articulated by VanderWeele (2017) in PK-12, university, and non-traditional educational settings. (ii) To promote overall well-being and improve outcomes for individuals, communities, and the broader global community by implementing the Process for Flourishing. (iii) To translate the theory and philosophy of human flourishing into everyday practice and disseminate research.

This group is part of the Education for Flourishing initiative of the Consortium for Human Flourishing at Saint Louis University. For information, please contact working group chair Amrita Chaturvedi (amrita.chaturvedi@slu.edu).

Education, Spirituality, and Flourishing

The purpose of the Education, Spirituality, and Flourishing Interest Group is to identify, test, and implement core pillars of Spirituality in traditional and non-traditional educational settings in order to help children and youth flourish. This group serves as a platform to bring educational researchers and practitioners together to help the younger generation find a greater sense of meaning and pursue flourishing within their communities.


For information, please contact Interest Group Co-Chairs Amrita Chaturvedi (amrita.chaturvedi@slu.edu) and Lynn Swaner (lswaner@cardus.ca).

Flourishing by Design

The newly formed Flourishing by Design Interest Group aims to make flourishing research actionable by design. Bringing together a collective of passionate multidisciplinary research professionals and industry practitioners, this group will not only discuss and disseminate well-being science scholarship but also translate theory into practice, examining spatial, organizational, and digital applications by which flourishing health and well-being might be realized for individuals, communities, and the planet.


We will consider design praxis (i.e., the design process) and practice (i.e., the design outcome), ensuring that intentionality, integrity, respect, and purpose are in-built as essential in design engagements and therefore results. We look forward to welcoming you into this community as we collectively explore what designing for flourishing or Flourishing by Design means today and how it might precipitate flourishing futures.   

The Flourishing by Design Chair is Dr. Jenna Mikus, Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Well-being Science, Fellow of Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Decent Work & Industry, and Managing Partner of Eudae Group—an advisory consultancy that explores how organizational and spatial design can be curated to prompt flourishing health and well-being in the context of Aristotle’s concept of eudaemonia (i.e., realizing people best selves).


For inquiries or to become a member, please connect with Jenna Mikus via LinkedIn and request to join the FxD LinkedIn group.    


We invite you to join us on this exciting journey as we embark on a quest to create a better, more flourishing world, where innovation meets purpose and where design is recognized for its power to transform lives.

Flourishing Measures

The Measures CoP, a subgroup of the Harvard Flourishing Network, is a multidisciplinary and multinational group of researchers and practitioners who are combining science and real-world practice to define and measure human flourishing across settings and over the course of a lifetime. We are committed to moving the field forward and understanding and supporting the flourishing of all. While there are many definitions of "Flourishing" and some established measures, we are interested in pursuing/developing measures that are multi-disciplinary and multi-national in perspective.


For more information, please contact the Chair, Beth Tek (beth.tek@flourishingassociates.com).

Flourishing at Work

Focusing on the WORK pathway of flourishing and acknowledging that flourishing is a critical business imperative, let’s connect over our shared interest in supporting organizations who strive to help their people and social ecosystems. Please consider joining our newly formed interest group under this Flourishing Network umbrella to better understand the value of how bringing peer-reviewed science, research and interventions will benefit the world of work. As business leaders, solution providers, researchers, and invested leaders, please lend your voice to this new community - Flourishing at Work – a business imperative.

 

The Flourishing at Work Interest Group is Co-Chaired by Dr. Karen Doll (drkarendoll@gmail.com) and Marie Gill (marie@florenscollective.com), COO of FLERISH and Co-Founder of FLORENS, a flourishing collective of businesses who share the passion and focus of bringing the flourishing framework and interventions to help all people flourish.

Flow & Flourish

Chair: Dr. Marianne Cottin


Flow & Flourish is an Interest Group within the Flourishing Network hosted by Human Flourishing Program at Harvard dedicated to exploring the phenomenon of flow across diverse disciplines. Led by Dr. Marianne Cottin, our mission is to bring together academics, coaches, and individuals who regularly experience flow to foster a collaborative environment that enhances human flourishing. This group provides a unique platform where different perspectives on flow—whether from scientific, artistic, athletic, work or everyday contexts—can intersect and inspire new insights and practical applications.


Our activities include interdisciplinary workshops, joint research projects, and community-building events designed to nurture a network of flow enthusiasts. By integrating diverse experiences and expertise, Flow & Flourish aims to develop innovative strategies that promote well-being and peak performance across personal and professional realms.


Join Us:


To become a part of this vibrant community, engage in transformative discussions, and contribute to the collective pursuit of a flourishing society, please contact marianne@mariannecottin.com We encourage anyone passionate about exploring the depths and potentials of flow to join us.

Futures of Education

The Futures of Education Interest Group’s purpose is to engage and inspire the world to think purposefully and creatively about educational futures and to imagine and co-create opportunities that could exist for educational transformation in every context. As part of our work, we are setting up a podcast and events series to drive inter-generational collaboration globally. Please join us as we explore the latest futures thinking, and co-produce visions of the future that can empower us to change the present, enabling a flourishing youth, for a thriving planet.


For information, please contact the Chair, Alex Battison (dephead@lordwandsworth.org).

Interventions Development Group

The purpose of this interest group is to close the gap between research and practice, whereby interventions for flourishing developed through research are translated into daily life to benefit the people who need them most. To make this possible, the group has developed an intervention library template where interventions may be catalogued. The library has a two-fold purpose: interventions can be viewed, and interventions can be shared by interested persons. These interventions can be utilized to improve flourishing in a variety of settings. The group plans to develop a guideline for applying various human flourishing interventions for people and groups interested in improving their flourishing survey scores. Furthermore, our interest group members carry out individual and group research related to interventions for flourishing. They also organize seminars, courses, programs, and outreaches that enhance flourishing using evidence-based interventions, thereby positively impacting the population around them and creating a vibrant space of trust.


For more information and for those who would like to share their interventions on the library, please reach out to the chair, Eziamaka Ezenkwele (pezenkwele@gmail.com).

Justice for Flourishing

Exploring the intersection of justice and flourishing is crucial in our pursuit of transforming ourselves, society, and the world. As such, the 'Justice for Flourishing’ Interest Group is committed to promoting justice and enhancing flourishing worldwide through critical dialogue and action. To this end, we provide a platform for interdisciplinary and international collaboration to further research, practice, and action in this area.


For more information about the Justice for Flourishing group, please contact the Chair, Kristine E. Larson, at klarson@loyola.edu.

Leadership for Flourishing

We exist to reimagine leadership as empowering ecosystem-wide flourishing. We build on extensive academic research regarding the power of leadership to impact individuals, organizations, and societies and scientific work on the nature and drivers of human flourishing.


For more information, visit this Group’s external website or contact co-chairs Katy Granville-Chapman (katy.granville-chapman@education.ox.ac.uk) or Emmie Bidston (ejb@cantab.net).

Love and Flourishing

The Love and Flourishing Interest Group convenes regular online discussions on the relationship between love and flourishing in a variety of social settings and explore how to promote love in practice. We explore the possibility that the promotion of love within and across societies has tremendous underutilized potential to enhance flourishing. For an introduction to this topic, see this article. We engage with a variety of modes of scholarly inquiry in order to explore definitional, theoretical, and empirical work on love and flourishing, and advance the practical promotion of love. This group is co-chaired by Matthew Lee and Jelena Nikolic. For more information, please contact Jelena (jelena.nikolic@purdueglobal.edu).

Spirituality & Flourishing Interest Group

The Spirituality & Flourishing Interest Group (SFIG) is a global, multifaith, inter-spiritual, and cross-disciplinary gathering of professionals committed to making substantive contributions to fuller human flourishing by incorporating practice wisdom from spiritual traditions and approaches into our work. Together we ask how we might foster flourishing through various spiritual and/or religious practices, communities, traditions, observances, teachings, disciplines, and approaches. We explore the sorts of interventions and involvements allow us to tap, individually and collectively, the spiritual and/or religious resources available at present, and so develop greater capacities for connectedness. SFIG was originally convened as a working group in the Harvard communities of practice in 2022 by Dr. Kelly Murphy Mason; in 2024, it launched its pilot program providing outreach to faith communities in the U.S. and U.K. and offered its first free webinar to the general public. This group meets one Tuesday each month during the regular academic year and has a cap set on membership; enrollment usually opens in September and February.

For more information about SFIG, please contact either one of the two co-chairs of this group: Dr. Mason at kelly.m.mason@post.harvard.edu or Dr. Sharyn Lenhart at salenhart@aol.com. People can also stay connected to the work of SFIG through its website, www.spiritualflourishing.com, and its LinkedIn group, www.linkedin.com/groups/9810707..

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Sustainability and Organizational Human Flourishing

This Interest Group is a space where we collectively examine and expand the role of organizations in promoting sustainable human flourishing. We translate research on organizational well-being from the lens of systems that have the potential to drive human sustainability. Simultaneously, we leverage shared insights from practice, such as CSR initiatives and organizational change work, in order to effect healthier organizations for society and the people who work for them. A shift from shareholder value to stakeholder impact centers organizational responsibility to embrace community flourishing. We recognize the power of organizations to impact social change and work as a critical driver of human and community flourishing to society. Our group seeks to inform measurement and strategy to share collective insights for societal good. Some global partners include Institute for Global Flourishing, Gallup, Global Shapers Community NYC-Manhattan Hub.


For more information, please contact Interest Group Chair Dr. Noémie Le Pertel (nl2463@caa.columbia.edu).


Our Network co-sponsors Flourish FM, "a podcast for the good life," hosted by long-standing Network members Jonathan Beale and Nick Holton.  Find resources created by members of the Network. 


At present, we meet via Zoom on the final Tuesday of each month at 3:00 pm Eastern Time (United States). The founding director of the Network is Matthew Lee and he has been co-leading it since the summer of 2022 with Christina Hinton and Jonathan Beale. To learn more about the Network, please email Jonathan Beale at this email address (jon@drjonbeale.com).



Upcoming Events

Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified of upcoming events.

Past Events

In addition to monthly meetings for members and their guests, the Flourishing Network also hosts free, online public events.  On May 25, 2021, we hosted our first public webinar, "Education as Regenerative Space," followed by a symposium on the "Economics of Wellbeing & Global Human Flourishing" on July 26, 2022, and a symposium on "Promoting Flourishing in Schools" on August 31, 2022.


The Network hosted our first in-person event titled, "Entrepreneurship and Flourishing Workshop" in April, 2023 and co-hosted a second in-person event titled, "Promoting Flourishing in Schools" with Research Schools International and Sevenoaks School in October 2023.


 
 
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