New Zealand Rugby - Richard Gilhooly, Head of People & Capability

It’s so important to connect organisational values with the actual state of how people feel, and want to feel, at work. We focus strongly on our culture: staff need to be part of shaping the expressed values, and I think we’ve done a good job of that, but the opportunity we see in the Emotional Culture Deck is to support ongoing conversations that become part of ‘how we do things around here’.   

We began by trialling the deck in a couple of team environments. Our Chief Operating Officer immediately saw the potential, and we brought it to her leadership team. It’s a really valuable set of discussions to have for that group, sparking the immediate question of ‘how can we ourselves engage’ while also being cognizant that this is a positive challenge for everyone across NZ Rugby.  

A lot of organisations struggle to make culture real: what do values truly mean? What does performance look like? But it’s much easier to start with ‘how do I feel’ then work outwards to ‘what shall we do’. The Emotional Culture Deck is a powerful way to make empathy a key part of how you deliver success.