Insights from the Vatican, UK Parliament & our Global Study
By Brian Grim
Over the past two weeks, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to witness the release of three very different reports in three very different places: Washington, D.C., the Vatican, and the UK Parliament. Yet despite their different audiences and perspectives, each arrived at a remarkably similar conclusion: people are more than economic units.
The first was our own report, Faith, Belief, and the Future of Corporate Culture, launched on May 20 in Washington, D.C. The research found that the world’s leading companies increasingly rely on deeply human qualities—trust, integrity, belonging, purpose, and ethical responsibility—that no technology, however advanced, can create on its own.
Just days later, in Rome, I participated in discussions surrounding Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnifica Humanitas. There, the message was equally clear: human dignity comes before productivity, and people must never be reduced to data points, outputs, or economic value.
Then, at the UK Parliament, where I joined a panel discussion marking the release of Work, Wealth & Wellbeing, participants challenged assumptions that human worth can be measured primarily by income, status, or productivity. Instead, they emphasized dignity, purpose, participation, and contribution to the common good.
Three reports. Three countries. Three very different conversations. Yet all pointed toward the same truth: flourishing societies and successful organizations are built when we recognize the full dignity, potential, and humanity of every person.
The questions raised by these reports are too important to leave on the page. How do we build economies that value people as much as profit? How do workplaces foster belonging and purpose? And how can societies strengthen both prosperity and human flourishing? These are precisely the conversations we will continue together at our next global gathering.
Save the Date: October 12–16, 2026, for Dare to Overcome: The Economics of Kindness, where business leaders, faith leaders, policymakers, academics, and changemakers from around the world will explore how economies, businesses, and societies can be built around human dignity, belonging, and the common good. I hope you’ll join us. Learn more at https://dto.world/.