Roundtable #16: Human Flourishing
In July, the Business Collaborative for Brain Health gathered to explore how human flourishing contributes to whole-person health and its impact on longevity and our collective brain capital. Featured speaker for this roundtable:
Dr. Byron Johnson, Director, Institute for Studies of Religion, Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University
Byron Johnson, Ph.D. is the Project Director for the Global Flourishing Study, a longitudinal data collection and research collaboration between scholars at Harvard University and Baylor University, in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science and with the support of a consortium of funders.
Key Takeaways
The Global Flourishing Study Sets a New Standard for Transparency and Scale
The Global Flourishing Study is the largest panel study of its kind, tracking over 200,000 people across 22 countries in more than 40 languages. Participating countries represent 64% of the world’s population.
Data is shared in real-time through the Center for Open Science to ensure ongoing transparency and eliminate the lag between data collection and public access.
The study found that GDP is not a reliable predictor of human flourishing. Middle-income countries often outperform wealthier nations in key flourishing domains like social relationships, purpose and social behavior.
Flourishing Metrics Must Be Embedded Into Business, Policy, and Community Frameworks
One of the most concerning universal findings is the decline in flourishing among young people globally indicating a need for targeted interventions that prioritize purpose, relationships and mental health across all age groups.
Businesses, schools and city planners are showing interest in practical dashboards to measure and enhance human well-being.
Moving the Needle Forward
A simplified 14-question workplace flourishing survey, developed by SHAPE Global Ltd, is being finalized to help organizations quantify flourishing and connect it to performance outcomes.
The Center for Houston’s Future is applying its cutting-edge energy transition model to brain health by convening industry, academia, and civic leaders to create measurable impact.
A formal initiative focused on brain capital and the brain economy will be announced at the United Nations in September 2025, with a roadmap to scale the model to other regions in the U.S. and globally.
Cross-sector working teams will be established to address brain health across the lifespan, alongside specialized groups focused on translating scientific discoveries into scalable, commercial solutions.
Global Flourishing Study: A Data-Driven Path Forward
Dr. Byron Johnson, director of the Global Flourishing Study (GFS), discussed his innovative work on the largest global panel study of its kind. With over 200,000 participants across 22 countries, the five-year study tracks well-being across domains such as relationships, purpose, mental and physical health and character strengths.
The GFS was developed in partnership with Harvard, Gallup and the Center for Open Science,as an open-source, transparent research study being pursued at an unprecedented scale. “We’re not sitting on the data. Everyone gets it at the same time—it’s about global insight, not ownership,” said Johnson.
The findings are already challenging common assumptions. One of the most surprising being that GDP is not a reliable predictor of human flourishing after data showed some middle-income countries, such as Indonesia, ranked highest in overall well-being, while countries like the U.S. and Japan fell to the middle or bottom of the list. Johnson emphasized that flourishing is complex and cultural and these results indicate we can learn a lot from countries we don’t typically look to for well-being models.
Additionally, he also shared that younger people globally are struggling, a shift from earlier data trends that showed youth and older adults typically scored higher in well-being than middle-aged adults.
The study’s first wave resulted in over 36 papers published simultaneously in Nature journals and has already received coverage from more than 1,500 media outlets around the world. Johnson noted that “flourishing is becoming something businesses, cities, and institutions are starting to ask about. We’ve had to start building a team just to answer calls from leaders who want to know how they can measure or improve it.”
Updates from the Collaborative: Building Brain Health on a Global Scale
David Gow with the Center for Houston’s Future kicked off the conversation by explaining how Houston is applying its successful energy transition model to brain health: “We’re following that blueprint, convening key parties and unleashing a large-scale effort across the region.” Five cross-sector working groups will lead this initiative and share a formal announcement during the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Harris Eyre emphasized the need for global coordination and noted the explosion of interest around brain capital across G7, G20 and World Economic Forum audiences. He previewed a draft of a global coordination strategy which is led by McKinsey Health Institute, Milken Institute and High Lantern Group. The strategy will be unveiled September 24 in New York during the UN General Assembly. A follow-up G7 event in France in 2026 will further solidify brain health into global economic planning.
“It’s exciting—but without alignment, we risk losing momentum.” - Dr. Harris Eyre
From Research to Practice: New Tools and Partnerships
The roundtable also spotlighted emerging tools and partnerships designed to translate flourishing data into actionable frameworks. A workplace version of the GFS questionnaire is in development, led by Shape and other partners, to help companies assess and support flourishing among their employees.
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