Are You Ready?
Performance, Growth & Leadership Readiness Training
- Training Workshops
- Meeting Facilitation
- Curriculum Design
About the Trainer
Craig Summers
For over 20 years, I have been a trainer, organizing lead, retail operations and training manager, and former director of Coro Leadership Institute. Highlights include training over 1,100 professionals, community members, and fellows/students, establishing 5 Los Angeles neighborhood advisory councils, generating political and community support to build a health education facility, and founding a multicultural center at my alma mater. Among cherished honors are memberships on the inaugural Boards of a now thriving urban charter academy (Synergy) and an umbrella agency supporting multiple service providers (Central Cities Neighborhood Partners).
In operations management, I delivered sales, customer service and team performance workshops as well as rolled out development blueprints that accelerated promotions. Additionally, I implemented division-wide replicated team management models and scripting that yielded outcomes exceeding goals. I am a grateful recipient of my alma mater’s Joseph Daggett (highest character and conduct) and Meritorious Service awards, along with sundry City of Los Angeles and AT&T commendations. More treasured and preserved are personal notes of appreciation from former workshop participants and coworkers. In the end, I measure success by the extent my actions have meaningfully impacted people.
About the Training
Training with Purpose
Learning Opportunities that are:
catalytic
Positively and purposely impact, “move the needle” on participant professional efforts
authentic
Address real issues and challenges
simple
Are experiential, interactive, practical; use “Learn by observation and practice” methods; 'Hear Today, Done Tomorrow' Tools
Training Examples
Delivering 1 to 3-hour workshops (leadership, performance, growth readiness, diversity) for multiple agencies (particularly targeting program managers, EEO staff and Special Emphasis Program members). Participants have been from an array of departments including the USDA, NASA, USVA and the Department of Defense who have engaged in exercises, presentations, and dialogues designed to promote authenticity, awareness, intentionality, mindfulness as well as to develop/elevate individual and group confidence, cohesion and performance.
Partnering with the City of Los Angeles to organize City- authorized community councils in ‘orphaned’ areas (communities struggling to officially organize). In response, I designed and executed a campaign comprising a ten week outreach campaign (linchpin to success) followed by a leadership workshop series of equal duration. Stakeholders included home and business owners, renters, professionals, political operatives and students. The training series function was twofold: to complete the formal application process and provide strategies for effective group dynamics/process (e.g. building consensus, conflict preemption/resolution, project management, networking, leveraging resources).
Program Evaluation
& Participant Feedback
To measure the affects of the program from which current workshops are adapted, the University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development evaluated training programs for over two years. Below are excerpts from that evaluation.
“We judge the training to have been largely successful in attaining its specified goals... Specifically, we find that community members to develop specific skills in the following areas:
- Initiate relationships with City officials and learn how to work effectively with City Hall; Achieve consensus and determine a decision-making process;
- Map assets and engage community stakeholders;
- Communicate and advocate a vision for the community;
- Develop critical thinking skills and political intelligence.” “Community impacts included:
- Assisted neighborhood council organizers to work effectively within the City’s decision- making system and built critical ties between the City and neighborhood leaders.
- Catalyzed action in several “slow-to-organize” neighborhoods and brought critical re- sources into communities where organizing efforts were languishing due to limited re- sources or lack of coordinated organizing efforts.
The trainings attracted an increasingly diverse group of participants to the trainings and thereby into the emerging neighborhood councils.”
Over the course of the time, the program showed remarkable flexibility, adapting to the different needs each community presented. Evolution of the program has produced a strong, experientially-based training program that integrates leadership training and organizational development. We believe that Coro has the potential to be a nationally regarded innovator in this area.”
"Your leadership program has changed my life! Now, i understand that we all can brige across any barrier of culture, language and economic circumstance."
"Mr. Summers was masterful in helping all participants understand how to build positive relationships...by the end of the seminar, we learned how ordinary stakeholders can have meaningful impact."
“Craig, It was a pleasure to meet you and thank you for the wonderful workshop. It was excellent! Gracias”
“Thank you for an excellent training Craig, much appreciated. Thank you Sara for inviting Craig to be our trainer and creating this opportunity for us.
Thank you,”
“Thanks for the training, I really enjoyed the content and appreciated the tools you provided for using when promoting my achievements and abilities - having the step-by-step process makes it a very easy task now.”
“Hi Craig,
Thank you for the last two sessions! It was very helpful...”
“Craig,
Thank you for both sessions! It provided a great forum to learn…”
“The Leadership Program was materfully programmed...I am a much better person thanks to the passionate teaching and leaderhip of Craig Summers."
Workshops
Team Engagement
Leadership Initiative
Sign Up
There are those who possess an ability to agilely navigate and perform within their organization. These individuals view the immediate and global, understand multiple perspectives, listen attentively, integrate ideas, prioritize cooperation, and execute effectively, ultimately creating environments conducive to high productivity and morale. Others, while effectually executing assignments, may feel less equipped to generate the latter. These parties may find themselves "siloed" (working almost exclusively within their immediate sphere) and consequently struggle to understand the "bigger" or a different picture. They may have challenges collaborating effectively with co-workers whose opinions, focus, and function differ from their own. Ultimately, there is potential (production, efficiency, morale) of both the individual and their team that goes unrealized.
The Team Engagement Leadership Initiative seeks to convene individuals within organizations (having diverse functions and backgrounds) to dialogue, overcome perceptual and actual barriers, problem-solve, collaborate, advance productivity, and augment morale. Team Engagement is a programmatic and progressive effort promoting macro and micro organizational understanding (structures, functions, issues), transparent, intentional communication, inclusive decision making and critical relationship building. The objective is to arrive at methodological and consensus-building approach towards positive and purposeful collaboration. A focal point: "group competence" i.e. 1) an understanding of the unique roles, functions, and working styles of fellow team members, 2) awareness of how members and the team fit into the larger organization, and 3) the ability to consistently cooperate and produce in a collaborative atmosphere leading to notably improved morale.
Program objectives
Participants engage in exercises, seminars and panel discussions designed to develop individual and group efficacy, promote cohesion and diversity sensitivity, broaden awareness and understanding of key issues, and hone project planning capability.
effective group process
Techniques for consensus building, conflict preemption and resolution, authentic/"real" dialogue, synergy and bonding.
developing network
Building social and political capital enabling mutual support, knowledge/skill cross-pollination and leveraging resources.
Participants practice skills including how to run meetings, analyze institutions and organizations and work in a culturally inclusive manner. Group efforts are structured to allow participants to concurrently apply leadership tools and complete planned initiatives.
competencies gained
1) collaboration with individuals from varying backgrounds
2) macro-micro organizational understanding
3) developing contacts/partnerships
4) authentic communication
5) efficient decision-making
6) negotiating/reaching consensus
7) timely project management
8) understanding organizational structures, functions and issues
9) generating buy-in
10) identifying, engaging coworkers, and addressing identified matters.
Length: Three 3-hour sessions
Cost: $400 per person
Professional Growth Readiness Promoting Diversity
Objective
The Professional Growth Readiness workshops consist of experiential instruction in professional growth and communication. With an emphasis on diversity, talent cultivation and advancing growth preparedness, these sessions are designed to grow competencies in communication (concisely articulating ambitions), heightening self-awareness (of professional drivers), articulating organizational knowledge, identifying actualized relevant/transferable skills, and game-planning (to successfully grow and excel in the workplace).
Goals
1) to cultivate growth readiness among aspirants who are
2) authentic, adaptable, intentional, and curious communicators that are
3) ably equipped to confidently approach decision-makers about growth ambitions, and ultimately
4) map out a professional growth game plan. The objective is to better poise employees as more appealing prospects possessing the clarity, capacity and confidence to pursue and secure sought growth opportunities.
Takeaways
• “Elevator speech” (brief introduction of self, growth goals)
• Scripting (or go-to word tracks, responses, and questions)
• Skills and experience identification and communication
• A customized game plan (clear goals, timeline and milestones)
Length: Two 1.5-hour sessions
Cost: $195 per person
Supervisor Success
Strategies
(Diversity, Performance & Development Readiness)
“Leaders play, from artful listener to entertaining storyteller, as they struggle with circumstances en route to significant accomplishments” (Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Author and Harvard Business School). For new, polished and aspiring managers and supervisors, the Supervisor Success Strategies workshops are designed to present practical, clear, and easily applicable strategies and tools to successfully meet the many rigors and demands of leadership. A distillation of proven approaches and techniques utilized in multiple workshops consisting of hundreds of professionals from various sectors, these two 1-hour sessions outline customizable approaches to:
- Practicing clear one-on-one and group communication
- Optimizing employee talents and differences
- Creating an effective, positive team unit
- Align employee skills with team goals
- Promote group cohesion; generate trust & buy-in
- Improve team, individual competencies and execution
- Boost employee satisfaction, interest and involvement
takeaways
Tailorable step-by-step techniques, effective language and clarity specifically intended to enable and embolden leaders to empower teams to produce sought outcomes while concurrently supporting and developing team members
Length: Two 1.5-hour sessions
Cost: $195 per person
Additional Workshops:
1-hour session - $75 per person
or
3-hour session - $195 per person
Talking Black & White
- Creating trust, Real talk among team members
So-So to Superior
- Frustration to Fulfillment at the Workplace
- Boosting Performance & job satisfaction
It’s Worth Dealing With
- Broaching hard topics
- Address, Resolve standing conflicts
Tools of Engagement
- Hearing vocal & Drawing in introverted team members
- Maximize breadth of employee experiences, creativity and talents