– This article was originally written and posted by Lotty Roberts here

Earlier today I had a fantastic conversation with Steve Hargreaves. Steve is a fellow 'Emotional Culture Deck' Specialist, founder of 'The Compassionate Leadership Company' and an all-around good bloke who has become a good friend.

Steve and I love to geek out over all things Emotional Culture Deck related, usually joined by Mr ECD and founder of 'The Emotional Culture Deck' himself, Jeremy Dean.

Today it was just Steve and me - our reason for catching up was to discuss our insights and tips for how to get started facilitating Emotional Culture Deck workshops.

The conversation was part of a Podcast series we are recording for the newly formed 'Emotional Culture Club' that launched today. Although it's not available wider at the moment we decided to share the love, by crafting the top tips we discussed here, in this article.

So if you've recently done the ECD Masterclass, or are thinking about signing...

[Watch the highlights from our November Elephant Rider Gathering in Auckland, NZ]

Wow, we're humbled to introduce our incredible Panelists for our upcoming Elephant Rider Gatherings in Auckland and Wellington in April!

Our Elephant Rider Gatherings are 'meetup style' events for anyone who's interested in The Emotional Culture Deck and our community.

If you're also on a mission to humanise the workplace. Or want to be inspired by and learn from leaders who are on this mission already – then you're welcome to join us at one of our upcoming Gatherings in New Zealand.

You don't need any experience or knowledge of The ECD to come along and be part of our Gatherings. At our Gatherings you'll mingle with Elephant Rider ECD Practitioners, ECD Certified Facilitators aka Pro Elephant Riders, others who are using the #emotionalculturedeck and people who are new to our universe of -F-word games.

To join us just sign up below:

> Wellington Elephant Rider Gathering –...

Enrolments are now open for our Wellington & Auckland Emotional Culture Deck Masterclasses – March 16 & 18.

Click here to learn more and enrol today!

I've poured my heart and soul over the past five years into The Emotional Culture Deck. After running over 15 of these live In-Person Masterclasses around the world, I know the difference this course can make in your work and life.

That's why I created this course - so people could get real training that helps them develop as a leader and a human being.

The most humbling thing is that we now have 396 people worldwide in over 21 countries who have completed our ECD Masterclass course and become an official #elephantrider. When you complete the course, we invite you to join this global community of human and empathetic leaders!

I feel incredibly fortunate that we're in a position to run in-person events like this. So can't wait to get back in the room with those who want to come on the journey.

Hope to see you on the...

Congratulations to Mat Kearney who has officially reached Specialist Elephant Rider Status.

Mat just joined a tiny and elite bunch of people in the world at our second most experienced Emotional Culture Deck Facilitator level alongside @lottyroberts and @stevehargreaves.

I'm incredibly proud and humbled by this achievement because Mat attended the very first every Emotional Culture Deck Masterclasses back in 2018. Since then he's gone on to use The ECD to have a real impact on numerous leaders, community groups he's part of and organisations around New Zealand.

On his journey to becoming our latest Specialist Elephant Rider, he's run over 25 Emotional Culture Deck workshops and numerous 1:2:1 ECD sessions and various Meetups. He's also been on a mission to help fellow leaders learn how to use The Emotional Culture to create more human and empathetic workplace cultures.

We asked Mat what it means to him to become a Specialist Elephant Rider:

We're thrilled to announce Steve Hargreaves just become our second Emotional Culture Deck Specialist Elephant Rider (this is our second highest ECD Certified Facilitator level – only Master Elephant Rider to go Steve!)

Last July in London Steven Hargreaves completed our Emotional Culture Deck Masterclass Course.

Now just over 18 months later, Steve has become one of the most experienced #emotionalculturedeck facilitators in the world.

Since that London Masterclass 18 months ago, he's gone onto facilitate over 40 workshops and dozens of 1:2:1 ECD conversations.

The impact Steve has had on the people he's worked with using The ECD blows me away.

It's been an honour working with Steve over the past 18 months. We've learned so much from him and his approach to compassionate leadership. Congrats Steve! You are truly a world-class facilitator and coach. 

It's exciting to see Steve put himself out further into the world with the start...

Imagine facilitating 25 Emotional Culture Deck client workshops in just over 12 months, helping teams of all sizes in a variety of industries create more healthy and high performing cultures. 

Then imagine also facilitating 10 one on one conversations using The ECD helping leaders recognise and explore the impact emotion has on their leadership and individual performance. 

Then imagine presenting at 3 meetup events in that same year with over 300 people – helping people across the globe understand and explore the role emotion has on change within organisations! 

It's hard to believe one person has achieved all this in just over a year especially while we've navigated a global pandemic.

But Lotty Roberts has delivered all this work in just over 12 months and some powerful results along the way.

Last week she became our first-ever Specialist Elephant Rider! 

It's hard to put into words the impact Lotty's had not only on the organisations she's working with...

If you're a family who loves to play games together, here's a 'hack' for The Emotional Culture Deck that we think you'll really enjoy!

We didn’t originally design The ECD to be used with kids and families. But over the past 12 months, we’ve been blown away by how many families have been using the cards.

The stories people have shared of them using The Emotional Culture Deck with their families has helped us to feel very proud and grateful. 

Click here to download the PDF of The ECD Families Activities.

The ECD Family Activities PDF includes a PDF copy of The Emotional Culture Deck so you can print the cards at home and cut them up to use together (if you don't already have physical cards or don't want to invest yet).

At the moment, families around the world are using the deck with their young children and teenagers to discuss how they’re feeling and coping with Covid-19 and the challenges we all face. 

We're excited to share a complete guide and plan for running Emotional Culture Deck Remote Team Workshops without people needing physical cards!

Click here to download the ECD Remote Team Workshop Plan.

Over the past five months, Emotional Culture Deck adopters around the world have been running remote Emotional Culture Deck workshops with their dispersed teams. 

You can use this PDF and screen share your way through these ECD workshops with remote teams.

Here are the biggest lessons we've learned to date running ECD remote workshops:

#1 Simplify everything 100 per cent more than you think it needs to be. You might notice we’ve removed the card sorting aspect - and just get people to pick their top 5 from the entire stack.

#2 When running these ECD workshops remotely, break them into smaller 60 min (or 90 mins max) sessions. Try to avoid sessions that require more than 90 minutes of continuous screen time.

#3 As the...