Department of Education

Cynthia has been a role model for me and others. Cynthia created a Boot Camp at the Department of Education and I participated in the program. I was a graduate. After I graduated from the training Cynthia gave me the opportunity to enhance my skills on ability to work with the program. She allowed me to assist in finding a guest speaker, preparing the agenda, planning the program for the graduation ceremony. Cynthia, is great mentor and leader.

It is my distinct privilege to provide a Past Practice Reference Testimonial about the training and education programs that Cynthia Butler created, developed, implemented and institutionalized at the U.S. Department of Education. Cynthia was viewed by the Department’s Principal Office Components (POCs) and individual employees as a phenomenal trainer, facilitator, conciliator, coach, and program manager. Cynthia proactively increased her training knowledge base and quickly became the lead trainer for our team, after obtaining a certification in Crucial Conversations and Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI). She was one of very few Federal employees who had these credentials. As a result, her talents were sought by other Federal agencies to conduct Crucial Conversation and SDI training for their organizations. The training she provided taught participants the skills they needed to communicate in a “safe-space” about crucial matters, give feedback in a constructive and actionable manner, resolve conflict in a productive manner, improve an organization’s culture, and foster engagement to build a high performing team. I specifically recall that Cynthia was able to establish a trusted rapport with POCs after conducting conciliation or facilitation sessions with employees and their supervisors on crucial and controversial topics. Because of her coaching style and ability to provide affirmative outcomes, the supervisors often requested additional training for the rest of their team to improve communication and productivity. Cynthia was able to develop and implement the appropriate training strategy after conducting an organizational assessment, analyzing the team’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) results, and analyzing SDI results. The training strategy was comprised of the many tools she developed and implemented at the Department to include the Learning Library, development of FEVS action plans, and other tools. Lastly, Cynthia served as the Department’s engagement lead for the FEVS and responded to the need to develop a training and development program for employees in grades GS-7 through 11. She developed the concept and curriculum for the Success Boot Camp, obtained senior leadership and union approval, and successfully implemented the program with 100% volunteer staff from across the Department. The initial class had 15 proud graduates! Cynthia was recognized with a Special Act award for creating and implementing the program but most importantly the program was institutionalized at the Department.