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| Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay |
The 2025 World Happiness Report was released recently and people in Canada are less happy than they were last year. But more importantly, we are less happy than ever, since the survey began in 2005. Canada was 5th in 2015 and has now slipped to 18th. The United States also dropped to 24th and U.K. fell to 23rd. Finland once again is on top, named the happiest country in the world and has been for 8 years in a row.
Among other things, the report underscores the profound impact of social connections on individual well-being and societal happiness. And it reminds us that social connections are not about social media and building and nurturing relationships is not about the number of posts, number of followers or number of views. It is about caring, sharing meals, living with family, connecting with and supporting others, trusting others, and being kind and giving.
While Canada's ranking was disappointing; something gave me hope.
Last week, I heard Facilitating on Purpose Podcast where Beth Cougler Blom had a chat with Pete Bombaci on "Fostering Social Connection". Pete, the founder of the GenWell Project, underscored the critical role of social connections in enhancing individual well-being and community health.
Pete shared that Canada has come up with the world’s first Social Connection Guidelines developed by the Canadian Alliance for Social Connection and Health! I think it is a great first step forward and having these guidelines signals our understanding of what's important but more importantly, Canada's commitment to improving health and societal well-being.
The 2025 World Happiness Report, the "Facilitating on Purpose" podcast with Pete Bombaci, and Canada’s Social Connection Guidelines all emphasize the fundamental role of social connection in individual well-being and societal happiness.
All of this took me back to a blog post that I had written a decade ago titled, "From Dependence to Interdependence: The Changing Role of Learning Consultants".
10 years ago, I reflected on my role as a learning consultant and the move I wanted to make from creating learners who are highly dependent towards a role where my relationship with my learners is all about interdependence. I described this evolution as follows:
"I see my role as a facilitator of the process of learning and not necessarily the provider of information or knowledge. I see myself as the seed for learning conversations through which I can enable my learners to connect with other learners, their peers, and experts in their personal learning network. In that sense, I am a node in the learning path; and hopefully a critical one. I see myself as the one that connects learners and creates opportunities for interaction and engagement."
What I read and heard over the past week and what I wrote a decade ago are all deeply relevant to my work today, and to the work of facilitators, trainers, and instructional designers. We are not just learning designers or knowledge experts. We are catalysts of connection, and curators of learning environments where people feel seen, supported, and invited to grow. But not in isolation, rather within a community.
Social collaborative learning is not a new concept. But my vision for the next decade is that we lean more intentionally into our role as social architects, creating learning spaces rooted in interdependence, not just independence.
How would I imagine a social architect in the context of learning and development?
Well, they certainly aren't someone who builds walls, creates silos, or delivers knowledge (training) top-down. Instead, they are someone who designs an invisible infrastructure that makes human connection, belonging, and growth possible.
A social architect in L&D is a connector of learning, people and purpose.
I see social architects in L&D as the ones who nurture a community by weaving threads between people, ideas, experiences, and purpose where each thread represents a moment of learning and shared meaning.
Just like architects design spaces not buildings, L&D social architects design human connection and shared meaning through learning. Because the real impact of our work lies not only in what people learn but in how they behave and how they connect, with themselves, with each other and with the work they do.
