Launching the Chief Well-Being Officer Program in China at the 3rd China Well-Being Summit in Shanghai

At the 3rd China Well-Being Summit in Shanghai, we launched the Chief Well-Being Officer (CWO) Program in China—an inflection point for a movement already embraced by 955+ professionals across 550+ cities. From Shanghai to São Paulo, from Miami to Jaipur, we’re stitching together a global fabric of leaders committed to a world of freedom, consciousness, and happiness for all.

ROUSER as the operating system for new leadership

The ROUSER model—Relations, Openness, Understanding, Self-Awareness, Empowerment, Reflection—is no longer “nice-to-have.” It’s the leadership OS for a regenerative century:

• Relations: Design cultures of belonging and mutual care.
• Openness: Radical transparency, multi-perspective thinking, learning fast from truth.
• Understanding: Trauma-informed empathy; decisions that account for human complexity.
• Self-Awareness: Inner clarity, values coherence, mature ego (service over status).
• Empowerment: Distributed leadership, agency, and capability-building at every level.
• Reflection: Deliberate pauses to integrate learning and recalibrate purpose.

The CWO leadership mindset (what it actually looks like)

• Inner-to-outer leadership: Personal practice (mindfulness, reflection, integrity) that shapes policy, incentives, and everyday behaviors.
• Safety first: Psychological safety as a performance system—clear norms, repair rituals, and caring accountability.
• Evidence + empathy: Pair human-centered design with clear KPIs (well-being, engagement, retention, learning velocity, ethical risk).
• Regenerative economics: Shift from extraction to value regeneration across people, communities, and nature.
• Ecosystem builder: Partner across sectors—schools, cities, enterprises—so well-being scales beyond any single org chart.
• Intercultural fluency: Honor local wisdom (from Shanghai’s traditions of balance to Jaipur’s creative craft culture) while aligning to global standards.
• Ethical tech: Use AI and data to enable dignity, growth, and inclusion—never surveillance or coercion.
• Learning loops: Pilot → measure → learn → scale. Celebrate micro-wins; institutionalize what works.

CWOs and the SDGs of Happytalism

Your Happytalism reframing makes the CWO role concrete and measurable. Four are core to the CWO mandate, supported by four planetary goals:

Human & institutional core (CWO’s daily arena)

• SDG 3 – Integral Health & Well-Being: Mental, emotional, physical, and social well-being embedded into strategy, leadership, and daily operations.
• SDG 4 – Education for Happiness & Consciousness: Lifelong learning cultures—coaching mindsets, socio-emotional mastery, ethical decision-making.
• SDG 8 – Decent Work & Flourishing Economies: Purposeful work, fair policies, humane performance systems, and innovation that lifts human dignity.
• SDG 17 – Global Unity & Collective Action: A worldwide CWO network aligning practices, sharing data, and co-creating standards.

Planetary scaffolding (context every CWO must honor)

• SDG 12 – Mindful Consumption & Regeneration
• SDG 13 – Planetary Well-Being & Climate Balance
• SDG 14 – Flourishing Oceans & Marine Unity
• SDG 15 – Interspecies Harmony & Biodiversity

Together, these goals turn Happytalism from aspiration into architecture—linking inner development, organizational design, and planetary stewardship.

What changes when CWOs lead

• Meetings open with a well-being check-in, close with a learning capture.
• Managers are coached to “rouse” (develop) people, not just rate them.
• Dashboards track people flourishing alongside revenue and risk.
• Procurement and product decisions factor regeneration and human impact.
• Partnerships extend to schools, cities, and communities—because thriving is relational.

Shanghai shows what’s possible when scale meets wisdom. Jaipur reminds us that craft, community, and meaning are engines of modern prosperity. The CWO movement connects these truths—east to west, heritage to innovation—through leaders prepared to serve the whole.

Call to action

If you are responsible for people and impact, you are responsible for well-being. Adopt ROUSER as your leadership practice; align your strategy with the Happytalism SDGs; and join the global CWO network building a world of freedom, consciousness, and happiness for all.

#ChiefWellBeingOfficer #CWO #ROUSERLeadership #Happytalism #IntegralHealthAndWellBeing #EducationForHappiness #DecentWorkAndFlourishingEconomies #GlobalUnityAndCollectiveAction #MindfulConsumption #PlanetaryWellBeing #FlourishingOceans #InterspeciesHarmony #WellBeingEconomy #RegenerativeLeadership #ConsciousLeadership #PsychologicalSafety #TraumaInformed #LearningCulture #PurposeAtWork #EthicalAI #StakeholderCapitalism #CitiesOfHappiness #SchoolsOfHappiness #EnterprisesOfHappiness #FreedomConsciousnessHappiness #FundamentalPeace #GlobalMovement #Shanghai #Jaipur #10BillionHappy

About new SDGs and Happytalism: https://worldhappiness.foundation/blog/consciousness/beyond-scarcity-embracing-happytalism-for-a-world-of-abundance/

About the CWO program: https://www.worldhappinessacademy.org/english-chief-well-being-officer