The Happiness Index

CHAPTER 14Freedom to Be Human

It is said that if aliens landed on Earth and we tried to speak to them, it would be like an ant trying to speak to a human being. Our best guess is that if we met any form of advanced alien life, data and mathematics would be the most likely shared language.

For too long, employees and leaders have been like ants trying to speak to human beings. The data in this book can put leaders and employees in partnership to create workplaces where we can all thrive.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, employee happiness and engagement is a two‐way street, but data can help us talk the same language.

Data Is the Plural of Anecdote

Recall that the content of this book has explored what we call the freedom to be human and considered 20 million data points from more than 2 million employees in more than 100 countries. We also used 223,561 employee happiness and engagement research studies, 24 in‐depth expert interviews, and a deep sample of 22,000 employees.

I have always loved the saying that “data is the plural of anecdote,” because it brings the storytellers and the data world together. It shows that we don't need to ignore the lived experience of individuals, while taking advantage of vast improvements in technology to help us crunch data to learn and improve the way we do things.

We Are at a Crossroads

In many ways, of course, the pandemic was a horrific time ...