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Workplace culture has become one of the most studied and talked-about aspects of organizational success. Research continues to show that strong cultures aren’t built on strategy alone, but on how people relate, communicate, and navigate challenges together. As Brené Brown puts it, “Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind.” Clarity in communication, especially around emotions, has a direct impact on trust, performance, and team health.

When we talk about organizational culture, we’re talking about the shared values, expectations, and behaviors that shape how work gets done. It influences decision-making, leadership, conflict, and collaboration. And at the center of all of it is something often overlooked: group emotional intelligence.

Getting Curious About the Fire

Most people are familiar with emotional intelligence at an individual level. But group emotional intelligence goes further. It’s the collective ability of a team to recognize, understand, and respond to emotions both individually and together. When group emotional intelligence is present, people feel seen, heard, and respected. Collaboration strengthens and productivity becomes a shared outcome rather than a forced result.

One helpful way to think about this is through a simple concept: “follow the smoke.”

A friend once described emotions like smoke rising from a fire. The emotion you see, frustration, excitement, tension, is the smoke. But it’s not the source. If you follow the smoke, you’ll eventually find the fire: the underlying value that’s being affirmed, celebrated, or violated.

When someone expresses a positive emotion, it often points to a core value being honored and affirmed. When the emotion is negative, it may reveal a personal core value that feels threatened or overlooked. The challenge for leaders and teams is not to react to the smoke, but to get curious about the fire.

This requires a different posture. Instead of becoming defensive or dismissive, effective leaders step in with curiosity. They ask questions. They listen. They seek to understand what matters most to the person in front of them, whether it’s in a group or a one-on-one engagement. It’s a willingness to “take your shoes off,” so to speak, and enter someone else’s experience with respect, with care.

Over time, this builds the muscle of emotional intelligence, not just individually, but collectively.

Learning to Name Them

Developing group emotional intelligence also means learning to name emotions more accurately. Many teams operate with only a handful of emotional categories: happy, frustrated, stressed, fine. But the human experience is far more nuanced. Expanding emotional language helps teams better understand what’s really happening beneath the surface. Accurately naming what is being experienced can help us understand better it’s source. Words like irritated, nervous, intimidated, rattled, helpless, uneasy, energetic, fascinated, optimistic, hopeful, satisfied, grateful, apathetic, valued, and appreciated give us a greater clarity and precision.

It also requires humility, self-awareness, and a willingness to take relational risks.

Growth happens when individuals are willing to be known for who they truly are—not more, by trying to impress or perform, and not less, by downplaying their voice, ideas or value. When that happens, teams begin to move from independence toward healthy interdependence.

At Morrison, we’ve seen the impact of this work firsthand. When teams grow in awareness, empathy, and communication, they don’t just function better, they become stronger, more connected, and more effective.

If you’re looking to develop this capacity within your team, we’d welcome the opportunity to walk alongside you. Because when teams learn to follow the smoke, they don’t just manage emotions, they unlock a deeper level of trust, clarity, and performance together.