The Metrics of Meaning: what SHAPE Global teaches us about organisational needs
Flourishing is not a trend or a vibe. It’s a measurable, evidence-based state of thriving—and we can track it.
Work should be more than just a place where people clock in, do the doing, and drag themselves through the week.
That’s where flourishing comes in.
Creating systems, cultures and environments where people can flourish at work is about helping them thrive, not just survive the daily grind.
We recognise that flourishing organisations are built and powered by flourishing people. Flourishing employees feel empowered, connected, and motivated, leading to less absence and more productivity. Flourishing means reaching your full potential at work and in life.
But how do we know when people – and therefore organisations – are flourishing?
As a World Flourishing Organization partner, SHAPE Global is uniquely qualified to verify any organisation's Flourishing Score.
At SHAPE Global, researchers and practitioners have developed a tool that helps measure the presence (or absence) of flourishing across organisations. Its indicators go far beyond engagement scores or performance metrics. We’re talking about:
Psychological safety
Purpose and meaning
Relational trust
Moral and ethical alignment
Adaptive capacity over time
SHAPE draws on extensive research from institutions like the Global Flourishing Study, backed by Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program and others. After years of rigorous research in clinical, behavioural, and statistical sciences, SHAPE Global has pinpointed key drivers of human performance and flourishing.
So what?
For internal practitioners, these drivers and indicators offer more than just insight—they provide a compass.
Used well, they can help diagnose not just what’s wrong, but what’s missing. For external consultants, SHAPE is a way to frame interventions around whole-system organisational health.
Here’s how you might use the SHAPE framework in practice:
As a diagnostic during strategic planning
As a reflective prompt in leadership coaching or in team conversations
As a pre/post measurement in change and transformation programs
Final thought
The value of measurement is not in control, but in clarity. In a world of moving parts, the SHAPE framework invites us to orient around what truly matters. Human flourishing.
Because when we can see the shape of flourishing, we can nurture and grow it.
Learn more about SHAPE here.
Katy Cooper is an experienced Futurist, trained through The Institute for the Future, POLI-Design at Milan POLI.technic and Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. She has also studied Disruptive Innovation with INSEAD. She holds a Graduate Diploma of Management (GradDipMgt) from Australian Institute of Business. Katy is an exceptional Experience Designer and Facilitator. She helps organisations and communities build strategic plans and leadership capability for a future they can’t see yet through her foresight-driven, whole systems design practice.