When Sanitarium opened its new state-of-the-art national distribution centre they faced more than just an operational shift. Two distinct teams were coming together for the first time with different habits, relationships, and expectations.

They saw a unique opportunity: not just to manage the transition, but to reset how the team connects, communicates, and leads.

So they launched Reset & Elevate. A bold, human-centred culture programme designed by Chelsea Lang and Dani Garrett, Elephant Riders inside Sanitarium. Their goal: bring people together, rebuild trust, and lay the foundation for a team culture where everyone feels respected, supported, and proud to belong.

The results were extraordinary.

The Emotional & Cultural Shifts

Chelsea and Danii embedded The Emotional Culture Deck into the programme helping leaders and team members have more honest conversations, build emotional literacy, and set a clear tone for how the team wants to work together.

Over the course of the prog...

What Happens When Leaders Listen Without Fixing 

Last month, Professor Michael Parke (The Wharton School) and R&E teamed up with Chelsea Lang  and Danii Garrett at Sanitarium to deliver a brand new 60-minute Unspoken Conversation Workshop with one of their production teams on the factory floor in Australia (read to the bottom if you’re interested in taking part in an upcoming opportunity with this workshop).

The workshop’s simple in design, but powerful in effect:

→ Employees choose a concern they haven’t felt able to raise

→ They name how it makes them feel

→ Then they sit down with their leader and share

→ The leader listens without fixing, reacting, or jumping in

It’s one conversation. But the shift can be real. And at the same time, we see what changes are possible; when we create structured conversations about emotions at work.

So what changed?

Here’s what leaders and employees told us in the Check-Out Surveys after the session.

LEADERS SAID:

🟠 100% said it helped the...

How one team used The ECD to lead people through change, and what it means for every leader.

When organisations face big change, the default response is usually strategic.

Plans. Timelines. Communications frameworks.

But one bold team in a major New Zealand government agency tried something different.

They made emotion the centre of their change strategy. Not a side note.

In partnership with riders&elephants and Professor Michael Parke from Wharton Business School, this team used The Emotional Culture Deck Change Programme to support a team within a 4,000-person organisation through a high-stakes consultation.

The results speak for themselves:

•  +7.3% increase in engagement
• +10.3% stronger emotional support from leaders
• +20.7% improvement in emotional awareness
• 94% of employees felt their leader promoted wellbeing
• 0 reports of burnout

They didn’t follow a traditional change playbook. They flipped it.

This white paper tells the story, and why emotional culture is now ess...