Elephant rider pathway
Click any node to explore its challenge box, credit requirements, and reflection prompts.
How this works — a guide for Jeremy
- One main trail, four skill tracks. The main trail (Certified → Master) is the practitioner's public identity — their Elephant Rider badge. The four skill tracks (Culture, Leadership, Change, Stakeholder) are where the actual work happens. Credits earned in the tracks accumulate toward main trail milestones.
- A points-based credit system replaces workshop counting. Each track level is a "challenge box" containing Core tasks (mandatory), Explore options (pick from a menu — this is where different practitioners take different paths), and a Reflect prompt that escalates in sophistication at each level. Credits have a steepening Diablo-style curve: early levels are lighter, later levels demand harder, richer work.
- The Consultant gate is the dramatic hinge. Pre-gate work is foundational practice (Levels I–III). Post-gate work shifts to programme design, mentoring, course delivery, and original contribution (Levels IV–VI plus new challenge types). The gate is a 12-month programme, not a points threshold.
- People need ~60% of available credits, not 100%. This is deliberate — it lets practitioners choose tracks that suit their circumstances, skip things that don't fit (e.g., someone who can't do public workshops), and creates an "endgame" where near-Master practitioners go back to fill gaps with a head start.
- One-off modules are the electives. They sit across tracks as Explore options — themed clusters like "Evidence & measurement" or "Context & complexity." They're how practitioners discover tools and approaches outside their main tracks without being locked into a full track commitment.
- Reflections escalate through Bloom's taxonomy. Level I asks "what happened?" (descriptive). By Level VI it asks "how has your practice changed the practice itself?" (transformative). The capstone asks for your personal philosophy of the work. This is where the growth signal lives — not in the volume of activities.
- No one loses earned progress. This principle from the original design brief carries through. Sequential track requirements mean you build on what you've done, and the endgame mechanic means advanced work is recognised even if earlier levels were skipped.
- Cross-track entry for advanced practitioners. If you've reached Level IV+ in one track and want to start a new track, you don't go back to square one. Pre-gate Levels I–III offer a condensed path: you demonstrate every Core tool but with reduced Explore requirements and reflections calibrated to your actual level. The specialist course at Level III is still non-negotiable. Post-gate Levels IV–VI offer an accelerated path: programme design skills transfer more directly, so the gap is mainly track-specific application context. If you've already mentored someone in another track, you don't need to prove it again. Look for the amber boxes in any Level I–VI detail.
Credit economy:
Pre-gate 152 Consultant 45 Post-gate 440
Capstones 160 New types 125
Total 922 Master = 550 (60%)
Phase 1 — foundational practice
Skill tracks I–III (sequential: I before II, II before III)
One-off modules (electives — appear as Explore options in Levels I–III)
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Consultant development programme — unlocked at Senior · 45cr awarded · opens Phase 2
Phase 2 — applied mastery & contribution
Skill tracks IV–VI (sequential continues from III)
One-off modules (electives — appear as Explore options in Levels IV–VI)
Capstones (final stage per track — 2 of 4 required for Master)
New challenge types