Why I’ve started designing for a well-being economy.

In 1968, Senator Bobby Kennedy gave a remarkably far-sighted speech about the way we measure progress as a society. He said:

Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage…It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl…Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play…

In short, it measures everything except that which make life worthwhile.

It’s impossible to ignore the remarkable eloquence and far-sightedness of his words. In 1968 Senator Kennedy was able to predict and articulate the incredible iceberg that we were colliding with — if we continue to measure progress on financial growth alone we continue to ignore the categories of progress that matter to us as human beings.

Bobby went on to explain the worthwhile things we should be measuring and whilst he never called it a “well-being economy”, that is precisely what he describes.

The well-being economy takes a holistic approach to measuring progress by taking a convergence of factors — education, equality, mental health, sanitation — and measures those so that we can sustainably improve well-being.

Senator Kennedy’s speech and more recently the UN Sustainable Development Goals have really inspired me and the entire Mentally Friendly team.

We’ve been asking ourselves — how do the products and services that we design progress the well-being economy?

As designers, whether we intend to or not, we are impacting people’s well-being. Interactions with banks, the education system, your energy provider, your superannuation — all of these services are being designed by us — sometimes with positive human outcomes and other times not.

Mentally Friendly’s vision is “to transition to an economy that delivers well-being for people and communities as well as sustainable financial growth.” I’ll be sharing the principles that we follow in order to deliver on this vision on the 6th February at Pause Fest. Come have a listen and say hi. If you can’t make it, hit me up on LinkedIn and let’s chat.