The approach
Why this is difficult, and how it changes.
EdgeEQ is a methodology for seeing the part of yourself you cannot see, understanding it and changing it, applied personally to your situation.
Why it is difficult
You cannot see it from the inside.
Imagine the brain in two parts. One part is conscious and logical. The other is emotional and unconscious.
What percentage of you is conscious and logical, and what percentage is emotional and unconscious?
Most people answer that they are somewhere between 40 and 80 per cent conscious and logical. The research suggests the real figure is closer to 5 per cent. The other 95 per cent operates beneath awareness.
We only ever experience ourselves from inside our conscious mind, so we overestimate how much it is in charge. This is not a lack of intelligence or effort. It is how the brain is built, and it is the same for everyone.
It is why capable people can know exactly what good looks like and still find the same situations difficult.
The frame
The Rider and the Elephant.
Picture the conscious, reasoning mind as a rider. Beneath it is the automatic, emotional mind: the elephant. The rider plans and explains. The elephant moves first.
The Rider
Conscious and deliberate. It holds what you have learned, and believes it is steering.
The Elephant
Automatic and powerful. It learned early what feels safe and what feels like a threat, and it repeats what it knows to save energy. It reacts first, and the rider explains afterwards.
Most development speaks to the rider. The rider understands and agrees, and then the elephant does what it has always done. That is why so much development fades. Change lasts when the elephant changes.
A methodology
Four stages, from seeing to influencing.
The frame is the entry point. Behind it sits a methodology developed from observation over more than 20,000 hours of one-to-one work, and supported by research in neuroscience and behavioural science.
Applied to you
The method is the same for everyone. How it is applied is not.
The work starts with your situation: the people, the pressures and the moments that matter in your role. The methodology is then applied to that, not to a case study.
Sessions work from what is actually happening: a conversation ahead, a decision just taken, a reaction that was not intended. Between sessions you notice the same responses in real time and bring them back.
Over time the methodology becomes yours. You can see what is happening, in yourself, in your team and with the people you report to, and choose how to respond.
What makes it different
Three things, together.
Free guide
The Rider and the Elephant.
A short guide that explores the frame in more depth, with exercises to apply it to yourself.
Read the guide →