This powerful statement set the tone for our first Elephant Rider Speaker Series event of 2025. What a way to kick off the year—diving deep into emotions at work and The Emotional Culture Deck! We had the pleasure of being joined by Anna Clayton, a seasoned ECD Certified Consultant and learning and development specialist. Anna shared her journey of embedding emotional culture practices in male-dominated industries, drawing on her experiences working with organisations like Goodstart Early Learning and Inghams in Australia.

Five Key Lessons from Anna's Talk

1. Men are just as emotional as women
Anna's work in farming, manufacturing, and frontline leadership has revealed a simple but critical insight: men experience emotions just as deeply as women. However, societal norms often limit their permission to express them. Recognising and addressing this reality is key to fostering emotionally intelligent workplaces.

2. Bring curiosity and empathy. Always.
Anna stressed the importance of ...

Most workplaces focus on strategy, systems, and goals—but what about emotions? How people feel at work shapes everything—from how they show up, collaborate, and lead, to whether they stay or leave.

If you’ve ever wanted to create more emotionally aware, connected, and high-performing teams, this course will show you how.

We’re opening the doors to the next Emotional Culture Crafting Masterclass, and we’d love to have you join us.

What This Course is Really About 

This isn’t just another online course where you watch a few videos and move on. This is hands-on, interactive learning, designed to help you:

• Facilitate real conversations with The Emotional Culture Deck—helping teams map out the emotions that drive their culture.
• Turn emotions into action by designing team behaviours, rituals, and ways to track culture over time.
• Lead with confidence in emotional conversations—learning how to guide teams through both the good and the uncomfortable.
• Apply what you learn straight away...

Most leaders focus on what people think and do at work—but what about how they feel?

Emotional culture plays a powerful role in shaping performance, engagement, and team dynamics. Yet, it’s often overlooked in favour of strategy, process, and intellectual values. But research shows that when organisations consciously craft their emotional culture, they create workplaces where people thrive.

That’s why we’ve created our latest Insight Guide.

Emotional Culture Crafting: How Emotional Culture Shapes Performance and Engagement 

This guide explores:

• Why emotional culture matters for performance, engagement, and well-being
• The common reasons leaders overlook emotional culture (and how to overcome them)
• Practical steps to craft emotional culture with intention 

It’s a must-read for leaders, HR professionals, and consultants looking to create more emotionally intelligent, high-performing workplaces.

Download the guide now and start crafting your emotional culture with intention. 

Nine Months of Growth, Learning, and Courage – Welcome Our New Certified Consultants

After nine months of learning, experimenting, and pushing themselves in new ways, we’ve got 10 incredible new ECD Certified Consultants to celebrate!

A huge congratulations to: 

• Safura Atan, Malaysia
• Daniël Corsen, Curacao
• Marie-Claire Mclachlan, South Africa
• Rita Prates, Portugal
• Silvina Layani, Switzerland
• Sarah Dena, United Kingdom
• Claire McKie, Australia
• Amie Myrick, United States 
• Nike Lawal, United Kingdom
• Sonali Kumarakulasinghe, United Kingdom

This wasn’t just about learning a tool—it was about stepping up as leaders, embracing the messy, human side of work, and challenging the way organisations think about emotions. Along the way, they’ve had breakthroughs, doubts, lightbulb moments, and plenty of real-world experience bringing emotional culture to life in workplaces, teams, and leadership.

Now, they’re taking everything they’ve learned and putting it into action—helping lead...

As organisations continue to recognise the power of emotions in leadership, culture, and change, more leaders are turning to The Emotional Culture Deck to shape the way they work. This year, ECD Certified Consultants are delivering specialist courses around the world, helping individuals and teams bring emotion-led leadership into their workplaces.

These in-person courses offer hands-on experiences, guiding participants through proven frameworks and interactive activities and tools that deepen emotional awareness, improve team connection, and drive meaningful change. Whether you are looking to explore Emotional Leadership, Emotional Change Strategy, or Stakeholder Engagement, these courses provide a practical way to build emotional intelligence in leadership.

 → Click here to see all our upcoming In-person ECD Specialist Courses delivered by ECD Certified Consultants

Each course is led by an officially endorsed ECD Certified Consultant, bringing deep expertise in emotional culture a...

Leadership is evolving. In a world of constant change, uncertainty, and complexity, the most effective leaders are not just those who strategise and execute well—but those who understand and manage emotions, both in themselves and in their teams. Our latest report, Emotional Leadership: The Future of Leadership – Why Emotions Matter More Than Ever, explores why emotions are the missing link in leadership development and how leaders can harness them to build stronger, more connected, and higher-performing teams.

Our research, in collaboration with the Wharton School of Business and Professor Michael Parke, reinforces what we’ve long believed: emotional leadership isn’t a ‘soft skill’—it’s a critical capability that drives engagement, trust, and performance. Findings from the study show that leaders who intentionally foster emotional support increase team resilience, collaboration, and overall job satisfaction. The data is clear—when leaders prioritise emotional culture, they create env...

by Claire McKie, Facilitator | Communication skills expert | Coach | Clinician - Originally posted on LinkedIN here

Over the past three months, I’ve had the privilege of being on sabbatical. My key focus has been undertaking the Emotional Culture Deck (ECD) Certified Consultant Course. 

As part of this, I facilitated workshops with teams across the healthcare space, exploring how we talk about feelings and craft emotional cultures in the workplace.

I have been surprised and inspired by how much teams and their leaders have embraced this and have made changes. How a single workshop unites a team with a shared goal and simple changes that everyone can make. And seeing how this has led to tangible changes in team culture and how people show up to work. 

The feedback has been universally, that staff want more, they want to continue this work, and they want every team to have this opportunity.

And I’ve been surprised (and not surprised) by the patterns that emerged: 

I asked every tea...

Leadership is About Emotions, Not Just Strategy 

At riders&elephants, we believe leadership isn’t just about strategy, decision-making, or outcomes—it’s about relationships. And relationships are shaped by emotions. Every interaction, every decision, and every behaviour as a leader creates an emotional ripple effect that impacts your team’s morale, motivation, and performance.

But here’s the truth: most leadership development programs don’t focus on emotions. They might teach technical skills, frameworks, or behavioural strategies, but they rarely address the most human aspect of leadership—the emotional experience of being led.

That’s why we’re so excited to launch our brand-new Emotional Leadership Development Course, a 5-week journey designed to equip leaders, coaches, and managers with the tools to lead with intention, humanity, and emotional intelligence.

What Makes This Course Different? 

This isn’t your typical leadership course. We’ve designed it to challenge traditional...

We’re thrilled to share that our founder and Master Gamemaker, Jeremy Dean, was recently featured on the Lead With Less podcast with host Tash Pieterse. It was an incredible conversation about the profound impact of emotional leadership and how we can transform workplaces by embracing emotions as a source of connection, performance, and growth.

In the episode, Jeremy shared the story of riders&elephants and how we reimagine how people and organisations connect and grow through emotion-driven tools. As a gamemaker, Jeremy has spent years crafting simple yet powerful tools, like The Emotional Culture Deck, to unlock emotion-led conversations in workplaces worldwide. These tools have now been embraced by over 500,000 people in 60+ countries, including organisations like Netflix, IBM, and Airbnb.

 
What We Explored in the Episode

Here are some key takeaways from the conversation:

• Emotional Contagion: The science behind how our emotions impact those around us—and how leaders can harne
...

We often get asked if The ECD can be used solo, especially by people who want to explore emotions for personal growth before facilitating with others. The short answer? Absolutely! Using The ECD for personal reflection is a powerful way to develop self-awareness, gain clarity, and navigate life’s emotional challenges.

Recently, we received a thoughtful question from Steph, an ECD enthusiast, asking if the cards are applicable for individual use. Since many others may be wondering the same thing, we decided to share some insights on how you can use the deck for your own self-discovery journey.

Yes, You Can Use The ECD Solo!

While The ECD is often used in teams or groups, it’s equally valuable for individuals who want to better understand their emotional landscape. Many people find that working with the deck on their own helps them identify emotional patterns, reflect on their experiences, and gain deeper insights into how emotions influence their decisions and behaviours. 

Learn fro...