riders&elephants × The Wharton School · Research Programme

We move & measure
the emotions that drive performance.

Others measure engagement. Some run workshops. We're the only ones who do both — moving emotional culture and measuring what changes. Here's what the data shows.

250+
participants measured across studies
5
research studies with Wharton
6+
sectors across multiple continents
3
research designs: pre/post, RCT & field survey
We Move
Headline shifts measured across our research programme
+85%
reported improved psychological safety
CULTURE RESET
+62%
increase in positive drive
TEAM FORMATION
+20.7%
increase in naming positive emotions
CHANGE READINESS
100%
of leaders want to do it again
UNSPOKEN CONVERSATIONS
96%
of employees felt truly heard
UNSPOKEN CONVERSATIONS
+20%
increase in psychological safety
TEAM FORMATION
+10.3%
increase in leader emotional support
CHANGE READINESS
76%
satisfied with ECD work across 3 sectors
ECD EFFECTIVENESS
-6.3%
reduction in perceived job demands
CHANGE READINESS
Before & after ECD intervention · Across two pre/post field experiments
Psychological Safety
58%
78%
+20 POINTS
Team Formation
Employee Voice
62%
74%
+12 POINTS
Team Formation
Naming Positive Emotions
+20.7%
AFFECT LABELLING
Change Readiness
Leader Emotional Support
+10.3%
MANAGER BEHAVIOUR
Change Readiness
We Measure
Not anecdotes. Not assumptions. Rigorous research design in partnership with The Wharton School.
Randomised Controlled Trial
Unspoken Conversations
Treatment vs control group. 75 participants across 4 organisations. The gold standard of research design.
Pre / Post Field Experiments
Team Formation & Change Readiness
Measured before and after ECD intervention. Weekly emotion tracking over 42 days. Validated academic scales.
Cross-Sector Field Surveys
Voice & Wellbeing & ECD Effectiveness
130 participants. 20+ facilitators worldwide. Multiple sectors and continents. The broadest picture of ECD impact.
It Drives Performance
Emotion isn't soft. It's the operating system beneath engagement, voice, safety, and leadership.
+7.3%
increase in overall engagement
71%
actively engaged at work across studies
-30%
drop in feeling paralysed
90%
of engagement variance explained by voice, safety & leader support
11%
burnout rate (vs ~40% national averages)
"Most people try to move culture without measuring it, or measure it without knowing how to move it. We do both — and the data proves it works."
riders&elephants × The Wharton School · 2024–2026
R&E × Wharton · Cross-Organisation Field Data

Does Emotional Culture
actually work?

Combined results from three ECD facilitators across three organisations and two continents. 31 participants rated their experience of emotional culture at work after ECD sessions.

31
participants across 3 organisations
75%
satisfied with ECD work
71%
want to do more ECD work
71%
actively engaged at work
Facilitators
3 ECD facilitators
Sectors
Insurance · Food & Beverage · Consumer Goods
Regions
Asia · Oceania
Responses
31
Key insight

Emotional Culture work lands — and people want more. Across three very different organisations, 76% of participants are satisfied with their ECD work and 75% want to continue. The data shows that trust and care are building, but the harder skills — sharing difficult emotions and speaking up about wellbeing — still need more time and safety to grow.

ECD Work — How It Landed
% who rated highly (score 4–5)
Manager & Leadership
% who agreed or strongly agreed (score 4–5)
Team & Emotional Culture
% who reported improvement
(Self-reported improvement since beginning ECD work — scores 3–5)
Wellbeing Snapshot
Key Findings
ECD work is valued across very different contexts. From insurance to food manufacturing to consumer goods — across two continents, the pattern holds. 76% are satisfied and 70% found the work effective.
Care and trust are building. 95% say their team treats each other with care and respect, and 90% report trust — signs that the emotional culture is shifting.
Manager support matters. 71% say their manager seeks their input on task-related knowledge, but only 49% feel their manager checks in on how they're feeling — a clear gap between operational and emotional leadership.
Talking about emotions with others remains the growth edge. At 85%, confident talking about emotions with others and close relationships are the areas with the most room to develop — consistent with what we see across the broader study.
R&E × Wharton · Culture Reset Programme

What does Emotional Culture
actually change?

Participants self-reported how key aspects of their work and team experience changed. Food & Beverage · 35 employees.

85%
reported improved psychological safety
70%
feel more care from their manager
70%
reported stronger employee voice
65%
better understand others' emotions
Key insight

Psychological safety moved most. When teams build emotional literacy and leaders create permission to express feelings, connection and trust follow. The ECD work produced measurable shifts across every dimension measured.

% of participants who reported improvement
Self-reported improvement scale: 1 = No improvement · 3 = Improved some · 5 = Improved very much.
What else improved
R&E × Wharton · 6-Week Team Formation Programme · EX & CX

Building emotional culture
across continents — in 42 days.

A brand-new multi-region team across three continents. One ECD workshop to map desired emotional culture and stakeholder experience, then six weekly retros with behaviour experiments.

+20%
increase in psychological safety
+12%
increase in employee voice
+62%
increase in positive drive
42 days
to measurable culture change
Key insight

When teams map both how they want to feel internally and how they want stakeholders to feel, culture change accelerates. Tracking emotions weekly made the culture visible, adjustable, and owned by the team.

Employee Experience (EX)
&
Customer / Stakeholder Experience (CX)
Employee Experience
How the team felt working together
Stakeholder Experience
How they showed up for the people they served
Pre vs Post · Survey results (% agree)
Before (T1)
After (T2)
Weekly emotion tracker · Change Week 1 → Week 7
+62%
Rebellious (positive drive)
+27%
Connected
+22%
Valued & Seen
-30%
Paralysed
-25%
Overwhelmed
-29%
Incapable
R&E × Wharton · Change Readiness Programme

What does emotional readiness
look like before — and after?

A field experiment examining how ECD workshops impact employee engagement and collaboration. Pre and post measurements across 16 participants.

+7.3%
increase in overall engagement
+10.3%
increase in leader emotional support
+20.7%
increase in positive affect labelling
+16.4%
increase in negative affect labelling
Sector
Central Government
Team Size
20 employees
Design
Pre / Post Workshop
Overview
We measured how an ECD Change Programme impacts employee engagement. Pre and post measurements across 16 participants throughout a major change transformation inside their organisation.
% Change · Pre vs Post Workshop (Time 1 → Time 2)
Measurements on a 1–7 scale. Bars show the percentage change between pre and post workshop. Ordered by magnitude of improvement.
Baseline snapshot · % of team (top two boxes)
Key Findings
Naming emotions is a learnable skill. Both positive and negative affect labelling improved significantly — the biggest shifts in the entire dataset.
Leader emotional support increased by 10.3%. When leaders model affect labelling, their teams feel more supported emotionally — strengthening the leader-employee relationship.
Engagement rose 7.3% — driven by three factors. Voice solicitation, psychological safety, and leader support together account for 90% of engagement variance in this team.
Job demands dropped 6.3%. As emotional clarity improved, perceived workload pressure reduced — suggesting that emotional order creates cognitive space.
Key insight

Naming emotions — positive and negative — is a learnable skill. After the programme, participants labelled both positive and negative emotions significantly more. Voice, engagement, and leader emotional support all increased, while job demands fell. The biggest shift was in emotional expression itself.

R&E × Wharton · Voice & Wellbeing Field Study

What helps people speak up
about wellbeing at work?

A cross-sector field study exploring the conditions that enable employees to voice concerns about their wellbeing — and the role of Emotional Culture work in creating those conditions.

99
participants across organisations worldwide
75%
satisfied with their ECD work
71%
want to do more ECD work
71%
actively engaged at work
Organisations
Multiple sectors
Facilitators
20+ globally
Scale
1–5 (agree / disagree)
Overview
Participants completed the survey after an ECD session. The study measures psychological safety, manager support, engagement, burnout, and voice about wellbeing — alongside attitudes toward ECD work.
Key insight

The desire to speak up is there — but the conditions aren't always. While 71% of participants are actively engaged and 75% value their ECD work, only 43% regularly voice concerns about wellbeing. Psychological safety and manager emotional support are the critical unlocks — and they're the areas with the most room to grow.

ECD Work — How It Landed
% who rated highly (score 4–5)
Team & Emotional Culture
% who reported improvement
(Self-reported improvement since beginning ECD work — scores 3–5)
Voice About Wellbeing
Likelihood of speaking up over the next month (% likely)
Manager & Leadership
% who agreed or strongly agreed (score 4–5)
Wellbeing Snapshot · Broader picture
Key Findings
ECD work is valued and wanted. 75% of participants are satisfied with ECD work and 71% want to do more — a strong signal of demand and readiness across 20+ facilitators worldwide.
Speaking up about wellbeing remains rare. Despite high engagement, only 43% regularly voice concerns. The intention is there — the psychological conditions aren't always.
Emotional sharing is the hardest skill. Only 73% feel confident talking about emotions with others — the lowest score across all measures and the clearest development opportunity.
Manager support is the key enabler. Only 46–68% feel their manager actively seeks their input or offers emotional support — yet these are the factors most linked to voice and psychological safety.
Connection is the strongest asset. 92% report improved understanding of their own emotions at work — the highest-scoring measure and the foundation for everything else.
R&E × Wharton · 4 Organisations · 75 Participants

What happens when you give people
permission to name how they feel?

The Unspoken Conversations Workshop tested whether naming and sharing an emotion before raising a concern with a leader changed the quality of the conversation — and the relationship itself.

100%
of leaders want to do it again
96%
of employees felt truly heard
94%
felt psychologically safe
4
sectors: not-for-profit, government, consulting & commercial
The Experiment
Treatment Group

Named their emotion on an ECD card and shared it aloud with their leader before raising a concern.

Control Group

Named their emotion on an ECD card but kept it private — did not share it with their leader.

When emotion was shared · Treatment outperformed control on all measures
Check-Out Survey Results · % Agree or Strongly Agree
Leaders (n=17)
What leaders experienced after the workshop
Employees (n=58)
What employees experienced after the workshop
"Naming how you feel isn't just emotional honesty. It's a cognitive tool. It changes everything that follows."
riders&elephants × The Wharton School · Unspoken Conversations Research · 2026