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Center for Purpose and Performance

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Our mission

Our mission is to unlock powerful insights that create a deeper understanding of human potential. We prompt bold conversations with scholars and practitioners, fund innovative, interdisciplinary research, and use science to enhance and promote the tools, practices, and interactions that improve the quality of life and work.
2023 Theme

Leading for purpose and performance

The Center will fuel the integration of research and the realities of modern work to explore pragmatic interventions. This year, the Center will focus on diving deep into the following topics:
1
Rethink purpose and performance
2
Reimagine cultures of inclusion and well-being
3
Revolutionize management's relationship to machines

Who we are

The Center brings together a diverse community — of thinkers, practitioners, organizational leaders, and researchers — to produce, promote, and implement groundbreaking research. This work will be supported by BetterUp Labs, social scientists with diverse expertise in foundational and applied research.
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Adam Grant

Chair of The Center for Purpose and Performance

Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist and bestselling author who explores the science of motivation, generosity, original thinking, and rethinking. He has been a member of BetterUp’s Science Board since 2018.

More about Adam

Meet the Center judges

James Clear
Bestselling author of Atomic Habits, speaker, and founder
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Tiffanie Boyd
Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer, McDonald’s USA
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Amy C. Edmondson
Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School
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What we do

Industry forums
Convene and connect a community of executives, senior leaders, academics, practitioners, coaches, and thought-leaders committed to bringing purpose and performance into the workplace and making it central in the new future of work.
Research
Discover and award practical research and implementation science that unlocks the interconnection of performance, well-being, and human flourishing for individuals and organizations.
Applied science
Apply the research findings to innovative coaching interventions and technology to enact transformative and lasting behavior change. 

The Center for Purpose and Performance Prize

The Prize will encourage novel approaches and transformative advancements in work by awarding outstanding contributions in organizational psychology and providing the opportunity to partner with BetterUp Labs to develop interventions and practices that rethink, reimagine, and revolutionize work. Prize recipients will be selected by Adam Grant and the Center judges.
“We know surprisingly little about bridging from the Ivory Tower to Main Street, and this prize could break new ground in making evidence practical.”
— Adam Grant

Enter the 2023 Center Prize:
Leading for purpose and performance

Accepting submissions until February 19, 2024
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Discover more perspectives on the
science behind human potential

Leading for purpose and performance: Insights from The Collaborative
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Shaping the future of work with purpose: Insights from Adam Grant and Alexi Robichaux
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The power and science behind meaningful work
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Adam Grant's push to change how we measure performance
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