Most teams have never had a conversation about how they want to feel at work. Not about what they need to do. How they want to feel. It sounds simple. It's the conversation that changes everything. This course teaches you how to start it.
Enrol Now →You've done the team day. The values exercise. The offsite with sticky notes and butcher's paper. Everyone left energised. Two weeks later, nothing had changed.
The workshop addressed what the team wanted to achieve. But never asked how they wanted to feel while doing it. That's the gap.
The reason most culture initiatives fail isn't the content. It's the method. You can't tell people what to feel. You have to ask them. Then build from what they say. People support what they create. That's why it sticks where posters don't.
There's a tension in the team that everyone can feel but nobody names. It sits underneath every meeting, every email, every awkward silence.
The feelings are already there. In every collaboration. Every tension. The Emotional Culture Deck doesn't create emotions. It gives people permission to name them.
Cards with emotions on them. Black cards for what you want to feel. White cards for what you don't want to feel but might from time to time. That's it. And somehow it opens conversations that years of team meetings never could.
Watch: What is the Emotional Culture Crafting Course?
Most leaders focus on cognitive culture: the values, norms, and assumptions that shape how people think and behave. But alongside every cognitive culture sits an emotional culture that shapes how people feel at work, and those feelings drive everything from engagement to burnout to performance.
Research from Wharton professors Sigal Barsade and Olivia O'Neill showed that emotional culture influences employee satisfaction, teamwork, and financial performance. The problem isn't that organisations don't have an emotional culture. They all do. The problem is that most of them never chose it.
This course teaches you to change that. To make the invisible visible. To design the emotional culture your team actually wants, instead of settling for the one you inherited.
Read the full article: Manage Your Emotional Culture →Whether you're building culture inside your own team or helping others build theirs, this course gives you the confidence, the tools, and the community to start the conversation most workplaces avoid.
Your engagement survey tells you people are "fine." But in the corridors, the energy is flat. This course teaches you to surface what's underneath "fine."
You've tried values workshops. You've done the team-building day. Nothing sticks. This gives you something that stays alive after the session ends, because your team designed it themselves.
You feel the culture isn't right but you can't name what's wrong. This course gives your team the language to name it, together.
You walk into a room and you need something that works in the first ten minutes. The ECD does that. Even with sceptics.
Your clients ask about culture but you don't have a practical methodology for it. This gives you one, with evidence behind it.
You want to be able to say "I'm certified in this" and have that mean something. The Practitioner badge is the start. The pathway goes all the way to Certified Consultant if you want it.
One hour of self-paced lessons a week, done whenever it suits you. One live call a week with experienced mentors. 90 days to complete at your own pace. A community that stays with you after the course ends.
Bite-sized videos, activities, and reflections. About one hour per week. On the bus. At lunch. Before bed. Whenever it suits you.
Course Conversation Calls led by experienced Elephant Rider Mentors who've used these tools with real teams. Can't make a call? The full replay is always there.
Complete at your own pace. If life gets in the way, you catch up. Nobody's keeping score.
When the course ends, your access to the community doesn't. Practitioners worldwide sharing what's working.
Workshop plans, canvases, handbooks, and conversation guides. Plus access to our full ECD Practice Tool Library covering the four areas where emotions impact work.
ECD Emotional Culture Practitioner certificate and badge. Your first step on the Certification Pathway.
In collaboration with Professor Michael Parke, Wharton School, over the last 18 months we have measured the impact of emotional culture work across 250+ participants, 5 research studies, and 6+ sectors.
More from our research programme — click any study to explore the full results.
LIVE PRACTITIONER DATA · JAN–APRIL 2026
What's happening right now, in real workplaces
115 participants across 17 workshops have reported what changed for them after doing emotional culture work with ECD facilitators around the world. Self-reported improvements.
The Emotional Evidence Platform — coming soon for course graduates
From our graduates — scroll to see more.
If you've already used the deck with your team, you know the conversation works. The course teaches you why it works, how to go deeper, how to handle the room when things get real, and how to keep the culture alive after the session ends. The deck opens the door. The course teaches you to build the house.
When the course ends, you don't leave. You join a global community of practitioners who share what's working, support each other, and keep learning together.
Cohort starts April 27. Use code APRIL2026ECC at checkout.
19 people have already enrolled for the April cohort
30-day money-back guarantee
The entire course starts with yourself. We always suggest starting small. You don't have to think about this being a workshop or a programme right away, although that does create the biggest change we've seen through our research and tracking over time.
But initially? Start small. Test with one person. Use the cards in a 1-on-1 conversation. Try the weekly retro with your team. Experience the difference it makes before you go further.
Many graduates start exactly this way. Small conversations that become meaningful rituals.
These are the kind of conversation tools you'll learn to use and create throughout the course. Download them, try them with your deck, and see what they open up.
NEW TOOL
A private reflection for leaders. Surface what you believe is happening beneath the surface of your team's emotional culture.
Download →NEW TOOL
Name the emotions you're not voicing at work, voice your unspoken concern, and find your bright spots.
Download →The course teaches you the system behind these tools, and gives you the confidence to create conversations like these with any team.
Four sections. Each one builds on the last. By the end, you'll have everything you need to facilitate your first session.
Why emotions at work are not soft. Where The ECD came from. The research at the heart of this work.
Reduce people's fear of talking about emotions. The Weekly Retro: the simplest ECD activity and perfect ice-breaker.
The Map Your Emotional Culture Workshop. The theory. The practice. The self-awareness activity that shows you what you need to feel to do your best work.
Keep emotional culture conversations alive. Rituals, tracking, and the behaviours that make culture stick.
12 creative applications. Two case studies. Bonus facilitation tips. This is where the deck gets hacked.
Complete reflections, receive your certificate and badge, unlock the Certification Pathway.
Emotions show up in four places at work: in how teams feel, how leaders show up, how people navigate change, and how customers experience you.
This course teaches you the first one: Emotional Culture. It's the foundation. How to co-create the emotional culture of a team from the bottom up.
The other three frameworks build on it. You don't need to think about them now. When you're ready, they're there.
Each framework has its own specialist course, tools, and practitioner badge. Complete all four and you unlock the pathway to becoming a Certified ECD Consultant.
We keep a limited number of sponsored spots on each cohort. These are designed for people who work in non-profit organisations focused on social good. If that's you and budget is the barrier, get in touch and tell us your situation. No application form. Just a conversation.
The Emotional Culture Deck is human enough to work in any room or team. And our system is rigorous enough to prove it happened.
The most human part of work has always been the most avoided & unmeasured. We're changing that. Because emotions aren't the soft part of work anymore. They're the foundation of performance & everything hard.
Enrol Now — $299 with code APRIL2026ECC →