Originally posted on LinkedIn here >>

Over the last six months I've been on a journey to become a Pro-Elephant Rider using the Emotional Culture Deck from riders&elephants. Working with Jeremy Dean with a select group of 11 others has been amazing. We've done a deep dive into using the Emotional Culture Deck cards in so many situations.

For those that don't know about the Emotional Culture Deck (the ECD), they are a set of cards, black and white, with 47 positive feeling cards, and 38 negative or more uncomfortable feeling cards on them. They can be used in so many ways - with individuals and teams - helping people to discover the incredible power of knowing and using emotions in workplaces. The ECD has a range of tools - handbooks and canvases developed to use with it, and this journey has introduced me to them all.

It's been a great journey as amazing workplace cultures are so important to me. It's something I've valued for a long time and it's become my...

Start your journey to Mastery.

You can download The Emotional Culture Deck for free, and that will give you a taste of the potential of the #1 game in the world for better workplace culture. You can buy your own Deck and work with our sanely simple card game to explore, understand and map your emotions and those of your team or organisation. But to really make the most of The Emotional Culture Deck, enrol in our Online Masterclass Course and put yourself enroute to mastery.

You can reserve your place right now here »

See results immediately, feel ripples indefinitely

If you're looking to unlock your full emotional potential and/or create a more emotionally connected workplace, The ECD Online Masterclass Course strikes the perfect balance between lessons and actions to ensure an enjoyable and enriching learning experience:

• Bite-sized videos explain The ECD in a structured and easy-to-follow way

• Practical tools and tips aid facilitation, training, and organisational...

Leadership doesn't happen overnight. It is nurtured, honed, and continuously developed. This is the ethos behind the Whanake o te Kōpara Programme—a comprehensive leadership development programme delivered by Women in Sport Aotearoa and Shift. Designed for young women aged 19-25, the programme is more than just a series of workshops and discussions. It's an investment in the leaders of tomorrow, specifically for a group that has often been overlooked: young women, particularly those involved in sport, active recreation, and wellbeing sectors in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Why It Matters

In a world increasingly cognisant of the need for strong, well-rounded leaders, the Whanake o te Kōpara Programme plays an instrumental role. It doesn't just aim to fill a professional skills gap; it strives to fill an emotional and mental one, too. Young women emerge from the programme with newfound skills, certainly, but also with an emotional intelligence that enriches not only their...

Congratulations to our eight newest ECD Certified Consultants! Celine Sugay-Costales, Andrea Hancox, Roz Duffy, Danny Kwan, Danielle Swain, Vanessa Murphy, Jenni Sandford-Nedoszytko and Mattison Grey.

Each of you has demonstrated tremendous dedication, resilience, and passion over these past nine months, finally achieving the coveted Pro Elephant Rider Badge. We couldn't be more thrilled to welcome you to this elite group of professionals.

Our ECD Certified Course is an intense, immersive, and transformative journey. It demands commitment and calls upon the courage to venture into new areas of knowledge and personal growth. These eight individuals have now equipped themselves with valuable skills and a profound understanding of The ECD, ready to help create more emotionally aware cultures, teams and leaders.

Reflecting on their journey, these are some inspiring words shared by our newest Pro Elephant Riders:

• "Nine months of hard work. There were ups and...

The Emotional Culture Deck can be a very useful tool when forming new partnerships, whether those are between individuals, teams, departments, or different organisations.

Here are a few ways The ECD can be beneficial in these contexts:

1. Building Empathy and Understanding: The ECD helps partners understand each other's emotional needs and expectations from the outset. By making space for emotions and feelings in conversations, it encourages empathy, which is essential for building strong, productive partnerships.

2. Facilitating Open Communication: The ECD provides a structured way to communicate about topics that are often overlooked or uncomfortable, such as emotions and how they impact work. This can help to establish open lines of communication between partners, making it easier to address potential challenges or misunderstandings before they become issues.

3. Exploring Shared Values and Expectations: By identifying the emotions that each partner wants to feel and avoid, The...

Introducing the first ever ECD Qualified Leaders in the world  

We're proud to share a bright spot with you all. Last week, we delivered the first-ever ECD Foundations Workshop to a group of in-house leaders of a local Government Agency in New Zealand.

This culminated over 18 months of design, prototyping and testing with the fantastic assistance of Elephant Riders, Lotty Roberts, Steven Hargreaves and Lorissa Garcia. 

There have been so many twists, turns, surprises, setbacks, uncomfortable moments, highs, aha moments and a giant pivot along this journey.

From September, our global community of ECD Certified Consultants will deliver these ECD workshops in over 20 countries.

What exactly are these new ECD Qualified Leaders Workshops?

These highly interactive and hands-on workshops qualify your leaders to apply The ECD to create more emotionally aware leaders and teams.

Tailored for training in-house organisations and business leaders, an ECD Certified Consultant...

Huge cheers and congratulations are in order for Kayleigh Woodings, who has just achieved the crowning glory in our Elephant Rider Community, becoming a Master Elephant Rider

By achieving this prestigious accomplishment, Kayleigh joins Lotty Roberts as one of only two Master Elephant Riders in the world.

Reaching this status epitomises understanding and mastery in crafting emotional cultures – an art Kayleigh has truly made her own.

Over the past 24 months, her journey has been nothing short of spectacular.

She's facilitated a stunning total of 65 ECD workshops, lent her expertise to dozens of leaders through 1:1s and stirred up inspiration at five (but potentially more) ECD Meetups.

Kayleigh began her Elephant Rider journey at the beginning of 2020 and went on to become an ECD Certified Consultant later in 2022. Kayleigh has been a beacon of dedication to The ECD and helping rehumanise workplaces.

Her reach has been as diverse as it is impressive. Whether it was financial...

Attention, passionate team builders!

Are you tired of witnessing teams struggle to cultivate a cohesive and inspiring culture? Do you find yourself navigating through a maze of disjointed efforts, unsure of how to truly connect and engage team members? As a coach or consultant, you understand the critical role that team culture plays in driving success and fulfilment. But finding the right tools and approaches to create a meaningful impact can be a daunting task. That's why we're excited to introduce you to a transformative solution that will revolutionise your approach to team building: The ECD Online Masterclass.

Introducing the ECD Online Masterclass Course, your guiding light in building a thriving emotional culture within your team. It's time to unlock the potential of your team and foster an environment where everyone can thrive.

In this immersive online course, you'll delve into The Emotional Culture Deck (ECD) and its associated tools, equipping yourself with practical...

Sanely simple. Incredibly powerful.

Emotions drive life’s experiences. They can inspire and embolden people to push their limits or crush confidence and motivation, leading them to languish. Resolved, they are a marvellous force for good. Unresolved, they damage and vandalise human potential.

From workplaces to private lives, from where people earn to how they earn, mastering the “F-word" is truly a life skill.

Emotions can change the relationships humans have (with ourselves and others), the cultures we work in and the vocations we pursue. Understanding and tapping into everything that emotions can mean and do motivated riders&elephants, makers of the world’s leading prompted conversation starters, to develop The Emotional Culture Deck.

It remains our most popular offering. Today, over 400,000 people in 60+ countries around the world look to our simple and powerful card deck to change the world around them.

Emotional journeys.

As a company, we champion...

Today, our community officially reached 1,000 Elephant Riders. That means 1000 people have completed The Emotional Culture Deck Masterclass. 

We now have ECD Practitioners & ECD Certified Consultants in 36 countries around the globe . 

It's humbling to say you'll find Elephant Riders in: New Zealand, Australia, England, Canada, United States, Singapore, Switzerland, Columbia, Oman, UAE, Germany, Romania, Ireland, Netherlands, Croatia, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, India, South Africa, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius, Hungary, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Spain, Italy, Jordan, South Korea, France, Ghana, Hong Kong, and Philippines.

The ECD is so much more than a deck of cards. 

We've unexpectedly built a global community of the most human and empathetic leaders on the planet.

Thank you to every single one of our Elephant Riders for joining us on our mission to humanise the workplace.

All of you leapt into the unknown, faced your...