To John F. Helliwell
Dear John,
What gets measured gets done. I’m sure you of all people are familiar with Peter Drucker’s famous axiom. If only it were entirely true! My long experience – in higher education especially – shows me that many things we do aren’t a consequence of our measuring them, and many things we measure with the intention of doing them don’t get done. Put another way, not everything that is counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. That said, I believe Drucker’s phrase often applies when it comes to building the smart and caring Canada we all desire. Smart and caring is the highest characterization to which any country can aspire. In my installation address entitled “A Smart and Caring Country: A Call to Service,” I described a smart and caring country as one that supports families and children, reinforces learning and innovation, and encourages philanthropy and volunteerism – laudable goals.
Yet how do we communicate the value of these goals and chart our progress toward them? Just how smart and caring are we? We must measure. Despite my qualifications of Drucker’s phrase, it’s the only practical way to keep us focused and engaged in the quest. Keenness of mind and kindness of heart are not abstract, ephemeral qualities floating about in the morning mist. They are national traits to which we can assign value and can track over time. I know you agree. Your work to measure individual and mass happiness has been groundbreaking, especially your effort to produce the World Happiness Report. It has informed and inspired my thinking about how to make our country smarter and more caring.
Three main points you make through the report stand out to me. The first is how much our happiness is tied to our trust in public institutions. We are happier when we believe these institutions behave honestly, honourably, and in our interests and not in the interests of the people who happen to occupy positions of authority. People in many countries throughout the world lack this trust in their public institutions – for good reason. All these people want – all any of us wants – is a fair shot at achieving meaningful, fulfilling lives. We want our public institutions, in which we invest so many resources and even more faith, to serve us as we strive to enjoy those lives.
The second insight I gained from your work is just how vital it is to invest in the early development of children. When we raise happy kids, we not only give them a great and deserving gift, but we also equip them to grow up and become adults who can contribute mightily to the overall social and economic well-being of our country. In doing so, we create a virtuous cycle of happiness that perpetuates itself and grows stronger over time.
A finding that stood out to me is how much more happiness we derive from the wealth of our social connections than from the wealth of our bank accounts. Money gives us a baseline of security and freedom, but it is the number and quality of our human relationships – and the generosity of thought and action that flows from these relationships – that bring true richness to our lives. One of the most important factors in making these connections is empathy. The older I get and the more I experience, the more I consider empathy to be the most important quality we can exhibit as adults and teach our young people. Now I don’t mean the strict definition of empathy as feeling someone else’s pain. That sentiment alone can be unhelpful and even destructive. Empathy is taking the time to fully understand the circumstances and motivations of people and not rushing to judgement based on biases or stereotypes. Which skill could be more influential to the success of our entire country than that our citizens have the ability to understand the feelings and condition of their fellows?
Gaining that understanding and then acting on it in a targeted way is why we measure happiness, isn’t it? When I refer to happiness, I don’t mean anything abstract. The United States Declaration of Independence refers to the inalienable right of all people to pursue happiness. The pursuit of happiness in that context is the freedom to achieve personal fulfillment however each person defines it. Happiness today is gauged differently and more literally – not only personal freedom, but also income level, healthy years of life expectancy, availability of social support, personal and collective generosity, and freedom from corruption in government and business. In using these measures, you and your colleagues who produced the World Happiness Report have broadened the scope by which government can assess the state of their citizens’ well-being. Your work is also important in prompting statistical agencies within individual countries to start collecting the kind of data they require to measure happiness and apply some of the lessons learned from the happiest countries.
I see your pioneering work in measuring individual and collective happiness reflected in the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. The brainchild of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation and now housed at the University of Waterloo Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, the index delves into eight key measures that I believe are fundamental to understanding and producing a smarter, more caring country, especially in the Canadian context: the vitality of our communities and of our leisure and cultural activities; the quality of our education, our environment, and our living standards; the health of our different populations; our engagement in our democratic way of life; and the ways we choose to put our time to use.
These indicators measure what truly matters to Canadians: Do we care about the physical and mental health of our neighbours and fellow citizens? Do all men and women have opportunities to prosper? Are we engaged in the public lives of our communities and country? Do we have sufficient time outside of our work lives to cultivate relationships and undertake pursuits that nourish our spirits and give real meaning to our lives? Each indicator has six or eight subsets or criteria that reflect our health in each category and are used to calculate a total score. Taken together, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing indicators provide Canadians with a powerful tool we can use to design public spaces and deliver public services that nourish our individual and collective happiness. We can define exactly what it takes to make ours truly the smart and caring nation we dream of, and then measure our progress.
Statistically, happily yours,
David
John F. Helliwell is an officer of the Order of Canada, professor emeritus of economics at the University of British Columbia, and Arthur J.E. Child Foundation Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He has used his academic career to study well-being in its social context and incorporate well-being into economic models. A prolific researcher and writer, he has served as a research consultant to several royal commissions and federal departments, and as editor of the World Happiness Report, a landmark survey of the state of global happiness.