IOWL sets out Calibre and Productive Performance proposition for productivity dialogue

BELFAST, 7 August 2026 The Institute of One World Leadership (IOWL) has prepared a new executive briefing for dialogue with the OECD Global Forum on Productivity, setting out a research proposition on the human determinants of productive performance.

Calibre and Productive Performance proposes that the quality of judgement, integrity, consequence-awareness and values-led agency may influence how effectively human capital, skills, technology, capital and innovation are converted into realised performance.

“Calibre is not a substitute for skills, technology, capital or management.”

IOWL executive briefing, 7 August 2026

The proposition

IOWL distinguishes Capability, what a person or organisation can potentially do, from Competency, the ability to apply that capability effectively, and Calibre, the quality of judgement and values governing how capability and competency are exercised.

The briefing expresses the working relationship as:

((Health + Education + Knowledge) x (Capability + Competency)) x Calibre = Performance

This is presented as a conceptual relationship for investigation, not as an established economic equation. IOWL's question is whether apparently comparable stocks of education, skill, technology and capital produce different levels of realised performance partly because the human quality of their application differs.

What IOWL is not claiming

The briefing explicitly rejects the proposition that Calibre is the same thing as multifactor productivity. MFP reflects many influences and is not a residual that can simply be relabelled as Calibre. IOWL instead proposes a narrower empirical question: whether measurable dimensions of Calibre explain some variation in productive performance not adequately represented by conventional human-capital and labour-quality measures.

The Institute also does not claim that the proposition has been independently validated. The purpose of the briefing is to open a research and policy conversation capable of testing, refining or rejecting parts of the model.

Questions for testing

The briefing identifies several routes for empirical examination. These include whether Calibre explains variation in individual or organisational performance after controlling for education, skills and capability; whether it can be measured reliably over time; and whether any observed relationship remains meaningful at the level of productivity policy rather than only at the level of individual behaviour.

IOWL is seeking exploratory dialogue on research design, appropriate indicators, independent testing, expert discussion and potential routes for future contribution.

Education, Integrity and Productivity

The briefing connects three areas of IOWL's external engagement. The OECD Future of Education and Skills work considers knowledge and skills alongside attitudes and values. The OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum connects integrity with governance, trust and performance. The OECD Global Forum on Productivity examines how labour, capital, ideas, skills and institutions are converted into sustained growth and performance.

IOWL's connective proposition across those domains is Calibre. The Institute is asking whether the quality of human agency is one of the factors influencing how productive capacity becomes productive performance.

The briefing is an IOWL research proposition for dialogue. It does not imply OECD endorsement, validation or adoption of the proposition.