The Affection Economy

Because affection isn’t soft.
It’s a strategy.

What if every decision you made led with care, connection, and courage?

The Affection Economy is a movement for people, leaders, organisations, and communities who believe that kindness, courage, and inclusion are not optional extras — they are essential to how we build a world that works.

The Affection Economy names the shift.
The Affection Advantage is how you put it into action.

Created by Jet Swain, the Affection Economy is more than a philosophy — it’s a movement and a practice. It’s for people, leaders, organisations, and communities who believe that kindness, courage, and inclusion are not optional extras — they’re essential to how we build the world.

When systems are built without care, they break trust. The Affection Economy helps you centre connection over metrics, belonging over output, and ensures growth is coupled with integrity.

What is the Affection Economy?

Affection Economy Manifesto

We believe affection is not soft — it’s a strategy.

It belongs in boardrooms, classrooms, lounge rooms, and lunch breaks.
In how we lead teams and how we raise children.
In how we build businesses and how we speak to strangers.

Every decision is a chance to lead with heart.

When we centre kindness, courage, equity, and connection, we shift the systems we live in.
And when we act in alignment with our values — even in small ways — we help shape a world where humanity thrives.

The Affection Economy is not an idea to admire.
It’s a framework to live by.

Through tools, experiences, and practices, we help people move from intention to impact — embedding values into everyday decisions, leadership behaviours, and organisational systems.

This is where affection stops being dismissed as “soft” and becomes a strategic lever for trust, belonging, resilience, and meaningful change.

From Philosophy to Practice

What if every decision became a chance to lead with care — and a system to make it stick?

The Affection Economy is the movement.
The Affection Advantage is how you bring it to life.

  • For organisations: embedding care and connection into how you lead, design, hire, and measure success — creating loyalty, sparking innovation, and building resilience.

  • For individuals: living in alignment with your values, using tools like the Values Compass to find clarity and courage in everyday choices.

  • For communities: leading with shared purpose, where affection strengthens trust and transforms systems.

Every action — a conversation, a decision, a policy — becomes more than a transaction. It becomes a chance to close blind spots, build trust, and co-create change.

Crowd of people raising their hands during a concert with bright red and purple stage lights, and the partially visible word 'COMMUNITY' on a screen in the background.

How to be part of the
Affection Economy.

Values are the heart of the movement

The Affection Economy is built on 36 core values.
Together, they guide how we live, lead, and design.

  • Two young girls walk arm in arm on a city street with their backs to the camera, one in a black dress with floral pattern and the other in a white dress with colorful pattern, during daytime.

    Kindness

    The quiet superpower. It softens rooms, strengthens relationships, and sparks real change.

  • Child in black hoodie and yellow headphones performing a backflip on wet pavement in a park with green grass and concrete steps, overcast sky.

    Courage

    Truth in motion. The choice to show up, speak out, and lead from the heart — especially when silence would harm.

  • Two elderly people looking out from a house window, speaking to a woman standing outside, with colorful green and orange window trims and a colorful exterior wall.

    Connection

    The root of belonging. Where trust grows, ideas land, and empathy turns into action.

  • Colourful decorated sign with the words "You belong" surrounded by green leaves and plants.

    Equity

    Justice with a pulse. Ensuring every voice is heard, every person has agency, and no one is left behind.

  • Person with blond hair wearing a black hoodie with the words 'irresistible empathy' on the back, standing on a city street with parked cars and residential buildings under a cloudy sky.

    Integrity

    Walking your values. When words, choices, and actions align — even when it costs.

Let’s rebuild business and belonging

Whether you’re a founder, a changemaker, a creative, or someone quietly rewriting the rules, there’s a place for you here.

The Affection Economy isn’t a theory.
It’s a practice.

Start by reconnecting with your values.
Lead with courage, clarity, and care.

Work with Jet