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From Gross Global Happiness to GWILC: A Seven-Year Evolution
For the past seven years, the Gross Global Happiness (GGH) program has been training heart-to-heart change-makers and creating a thriving community of over 1,000 global leaders. GGH was born from a partnership between the UPEACE Centre for Executive Education and the World Happiness Academy, and it quickly became an innovative executive education event in leadership development. Leaders from all over the world came to Costa Rica to learn and tackle big questions about happiness, well-being, and leadership.
The GGH experience revolutionized experiential education – participants would “learn, unlearn, and share experiences” on happiness, combining cutting-edge research with real-world practice. This hands-on, heart-centered approach positioned happiness and peace as strategic leadership assets, not just personal ideals. As Luis Miguel Gallardo, Founder of the World Happiness Foundation, famously noted, “Today, more than ever before, we need new leaders able to dream and work towards a world with fundamental peace, starting with inner peace.
And happiness is a key driver to achieve it.” GGH’s impact has been profound – connecting leaders “heart to heart” in pursuit of a world of freedom, consciousness, and happiness for all.
Participants of the Gross Global Happiness program at UPEACE engage in collaborative learning, reflecting the program’s heart-to-heart, experiential approach to leadership training.
Under the GGH program, over the course of seven years, more than a thousand change-makers from around the globe have been empowered with tools to drive positive change in their organizations and communities.
This vibrant alumni network spans business executives, government officials, social entrepreneurs, educators, and community leaders – all united by a common training in leading with well-being, empathy, and purpose. GGH’s legacy is a testament to the idea that happier people make better leaders.
It proved that concepts like mindfulness, compassion, and inner peace are not “soft” skills, but powerful, strategic assets for anyone tasked with leading teams or shaping policies. In fact, the GGH summit demonstrated how bringing happiness front and center in leadership discourse can transform perspectives: participants explored how to lead “happier, more meaningful lives” and build more peaceful organizations and societies.
This groundbreaking approach has redefined leadership training by showing that well-being is not a mere afterthought, but a cornerstone of effective leadership and global impact.Now, as we enter the next chapter, the lessons and successes of GGH are being taken to new heights.
The Global Well-Being and Impact Leadership Certification (GWILC) is the next step in this evolution – a program designed to carry forward the torch of GGH into a broader, more systemic arena. GWILC is not a replacement but an expansion; it embraces GGH’s heart-centered ethos and amplifies it for even greater impact.
Blending Well-Being with Impact: Leadership for the Next Seven Years
With GWILC, we are embarking on a new seven-year journey that aligns leadership excellence with the urgent needs of our time. This certification program is uniquely crafted for decision-makers and change-makers in business, government, foundations, and education who operate on a multinational stage. It recognizes that leaders at the highest levels face complex global challenges – from public health crises to sustainable development and social justice – and that well-being must be integrated into the very DNA of how we lead and make decisions.
What does this mean in practice? GWILC expands on the GGH philosophy by explicitly blending personal well-being with impact-driven leadership strategies.
Participants will delve into how to infuse well-being principles into governance, corporate strategy, public policy, and educational leadership. The program goes beyond personal development; it targets systemic change. Just as GGH brought together diverse experts in well-being science, GWILC will convene a multidisciplinary faculty to explore how happiness, resilience, and compassion can drive measurable impact in organizations and communities.
This approach is in sync with a growing global consensus that happiness and well-being are not ancillary, but central to progress. The United Nations itself has recognized that happiness is a fundamental human goal and a key component of an inclusive, balanced approach to growth. Around the world, there’s a movement to redefine success beyond GDP – to include wellness, sustainability, and equality in the metrics of prosperity.
GWILC positions its graduates to be at the forefront of this movement, equipping them to lead in a world where global well-being is paramount for public health, economic resilience, and peace.Crucially, GWILC is tailored for high-level professionals – the executives, public servants, and institutional leaders who can trigger ripple effects across nations and industries.
Whether you’re a corporate CEO, a government minister, a foundation director, or an education leader, GWILC is designed to help you embed well-being into your leadership playbook. This means learning to apply wellbeing concepts to strategic planning, policy design, and organizational culture. Imagine government policies designed with citizen happiness in mind, or a Fortune 500 company whose business strategy explicitly fosters employee well-being and community flourishing – these are the kinds of systemic shifts GWILC is aiming to cultivate, building on the foundation laid by GGH’s extraordinary community of practice.
More about the Program Highlights and Benefits of GWILC: https://www.worldhappinessacademy.org/GWILCertification
Paul Hamilton
World Happiness Foundation
+1 347-606-5317
email us here
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