Big Ideas, Big Dreams - Amartya Sen
Economic Spotlight Series
In 1979 Amartya Sen, an Indian economist, philosopher and Nobel laureate, developed the capability approach to wellbeing. Sen is considered the father of wellbeing (or welfare) economics, a discipline that evaluates economic policy based on its ability to develop the wellbeing of its population.
Sen deeply understands what it takes to create human wellbeing within an economy and society through the depth of his work in international development, poverty alleviation and famine.
The big idea and big dream - a wellbeing economy
Sen’s big idea and big dream is that we have an economy founded on the premise that everyone has the capability and freedom to live a life that they value and have reason to value.
Central to Sen’s big idea about the capability approach to wellbeing is people’s freedom to choose. For example, if you have the capability of literacy, then you have the freedom to choose to read and write, if that is something you wish to do, something that you value and have reason to value. Equally, if you have the ability to access healthcare, you have the freedom to be well.
Access to choice is therefore critical if we want to create higher levels of wellbeing in our population, whether that’s our world, our country or our organsation.
How might this big idea influence your work?
Choices matter most
If we want a workforce that enjoys high levels of wellbeing, we must let people make choices. The flip side of that is to let go of high control or paternalism, because these are the very things that will undermine people’s access to choice and therefore their wellbeing. Telling people what they must do and exactly how they must do it, or second guessing what is best for them, cuts off any access to choice and therefore access to wellbeing.
This is where it gets challenging, because so much of our leadership and management is essentially about control. Taking it to the extreme, with no control at all, we could have people turning up to work, who are paid to do a job, with total carte blanche over what to do that day that could bear little resemblance to what you actually need from them, as the employer.
That’s not what this idea is about, giving everyone complete free choice and seeing what happens. Wellbeing isn’t developed through chaos!
The big idea when we put it into the organisational context is finding ways to increase people’s access to choice in significant ways. It’s reasonable as an employer to put some boundaries and controls in place, so that the right work gets done, yet the way in which it’s achieved is open enough for people to exercise some meaningful choices. Enabling this gives people the ability to be at their best and bring their full value into their work. Not only will they value their work more than ever before, but it creates a virtuous cycle, creating better performance for the organisation through improved innovation, higher retention, strong motivation and an enviable culture.
Cool off burnout risks
With so many employers right now feeling challenged about how to support the wellbeing of their workforce and avoid the critical risks of burnout, poor mental health and overwork, many of the answers lie in Amartya Sen’s valuable insights.
Nick Petrie has been researching burnout over the last three years. Some of his valuable insights show that giving people access to choose the life they value and have reason to value is how to avoid burnout. Petrie’s research highlights the key practices of those high-performers who avoid burnout:
- They make peace with not getting everything done each day
- They have rituals for switching from work to personal mode
- They create clear boundaries between work and home
- They develop many different roles & identities outside of work
- They decide on a 'phone strategy' to reduce phone use at home
- They keep their work in perspective - it's not their whole life
Looking at these practices highlights the importance of people making their own choices, yet they are peak performers who don’t burnout.
I was talking to a senior head of HR last week who acknowledged the challenge of managing wellbeing, as it’s largely invisible, unlike other critical risks they manage. Managing the invisible means we need reliable practice, based on research by giants like Sen and Petrie.
Wellbeing isn’t fruit bowls
There are many well-intended wellbeing initiatives in our workplaces. Giving people fruit bowls or paying for a gym membership are nice perks, but they’re misplaced if they’re considered important wellbeing initiatives. This is back to paternalism, giving people narrow access to what we think is good for them, when in reality it’s highly likely what they value most is personal and something entirely different.
Questions to explore
Here are some challenging questions to help you think about freeing up more access to choice. By taking action on these questions you’ll create the conditions for greater wellbeing and stop wasting your time and energy on wellbeing gimmicks that will never hit the mark.
How can you design wellbeing into your team and organisation by taking away arbitrary controls, only maintaining the few that truly add value?
How can you provide distinct and clear access to choice for everyone in your team or organisation?
What are we doing under the ‘wellbeing banner’ that is misplaced?
If we keep answering these questions we’ll be able to positively transform the lived experience of working life, while unlocking productive potential in our organisations.
How Sen has impacted me and my work
Sen’s big idea about a wellbeing economy has inspired so much of the work I do and has connected to other economic thinkers I’ve studied and written about, such as Kate Raworth and Katherine Trebeck.
Understanding the way we can redesign our economy and organisations to put wellbeing at the centre is a compelling vision. That vision shapes my idea about what it will take to create a better future of work.
You can probably see now why I’ve become a flexible work specialist. Because of Sen’s big idea I’ve spent my time and energy redesigning how we give more people more choices about where, when and how they work. If we can make the future of work one where more people have more choices, then we can open up healthier business practice that make space for everyone to live a life they value and have reason to value. If I was leading an organisation full of people with that quality of lived experience I know we’d inevitably do the best work of our lives. Amartya Sen’s capability approach to wellbeing gives us vital insight if that’s the kind of organisation you want to lead too.