commonFont

Client Success Story:

Client: commontFont

K. Lum’s Services: Custom Facilitation / Online Training

commonFont works with the world’s top companies to establish, evolve, and advance Experience Management (XM) programs. With technical expertise, thought leadership, and a client-centric approach, they deliver XM solutions and services to clients in need of better technology solutions.

The Situation 

With their exceptional service driving opportunities to expand, commonFont was scaling their organization. New hiring and internal promotions both delivered the same need: providing foundational skills for leaders and managers at all levels that would facilitate an intentional and successful company culture into the future.

A year earlier, commonFont leadership had attended one of Karen Lum’s Prospera-sponsored events, Managing with a Coach Approach. “As people managers, we got so much out of that training — the material applied directly to our work. We knew that Karen’s content, delivery, and the learning environment she created would be the perfect match to support our team of new managers.”

First, Karen led the “Coach Approach” workshop for commonFont as a virtual, private event, delivering action-oriented methods for real-world management scenarios to help everyone become more effective coaches, mentors, and leaders.

“After our first in-house workshop, it became clear to our team that our new mantra — ‘leadership at every level’ — needed to go beyond just management, and Karen could help us actually make it happen. So, we asked Karen back to give a full-day workshop for all our client leaders. And then our team leaders. And eventually, we said, ‘this is great, but it’s not enough. We need every single person in our organization to experience and benefit from this training.

From these trainings, Karen created the ‘Leadership Foundations’ program — a five-part series that can be delivered as live training or self-paced video training that supplies the greatest hits of the ‘Coach Approach’ workshop along with information specific to our organization’s needs, culture, and values. We utilize this training to onboard all new employees, giving them a strong foundation in leadership skills at every level.

As we saw the benefits of these trainings and heard feedback from participants, it became clear that we could all benefit from more ongoing leadership work — we needed intentional continued education with community support and accountability. That’s why Karen developed the “Leader Circles” program — to support our long-term evolution, as individuals and as a collective. She created a six-month / six-module program designed to guide small groups and teams to deepen their understanding of leadership concepts as they put them into practical use.”

— Angie Rutherford, Development and Onboarding Manager, commonFont

The Approach

Karen’s Training Approach for commonFont

• Guided organizational leadership through strategic decision-making to determine unique values and tangible goals

• Created and led customized workshops for every level of the organization with a dynamic, practical approach

• Supported skill-building with a common language, toolkit, values, and strategies for a “culture of leadership” that empowers individuals to make their own mark on company success

• Developed specific programs to deepen conceptual understanding and practical applications of leadership and management in a positive, productive small-group setting

• De-siloed company communication channels by bringing together diverse participants across different teams and roles for meaningful and focused skill-building and discussion

“The workshop was super engaging, and the information was very relevant, but the biggest factor may have been that Karen took the time to truly understand the culture our company was trying to create. She was really good at asking questions, listening, understanding, and then applying all of it through the specific ways she showed up, and the content that she brought forward and taught our team. There was so much collaboration with Karen — she tailored everything to our specific opportunities and challenges.”

— Joel Maxwell, Managing Director, commonFont

The Results

Karen led trainings that provided layer after layer of value, adapting both curriculum and delivery method for different teams and environments.

With Karen’s expertise and execution, commonFont has been able to develop and deliver training programs that not only provide practical skill-building and lean into their unique organizational values, but also integrate seamlessly into organizational operations. From onboarding to ongoing continued learning and growth, Karen has enabled commonFont to fast-track and vitalize their team success with a common leadership language for every single employee.

“We knew we wanted people to take what they learned and incorporate it into daily work, how they collaborate, how they communicate — that was our intent, but we knew it would be difficult to achieve. And it’s exciting that Karen has helped us to actually achieve that. 

“She’ll draw linkages between topics, respond to questions and help us see a different perspective, and show us how to apply what we learn to real-life situations. Her sessions are so dynamic and highly relevant, focused on where our organization is at and what we’re trying to achieve while translating that for actual situations that individuals may face.” — Joel Maxwell, Managing Director, commonFont

“I can’t overemphasize how thoughtful and effective Karen was at uncovering and listening to our needs and what we wanted to accomplish, and then using her expertise as a leadership coach to create content that helped evolve the skills of our entire team.” — Angie Rutherford, Development and Onboarding Manager, commonFont

“The beauty of our work with Karen is that it’s ongoing — she’s helped us create and implement a system that continues to grow and deepen its impact. It feels proprietary to our team’s needs, with a big-picture understanding of where we’re trying to go. Karen provided us with tangible skills and systems that we can use on an ongoing basis to help our organization truly excel.”  — Angie Rutherford, Development and Onboarding Manager, commonFont

What program participants are saying:

“Having dedicated time to connect on the topics with a group of teammates that I don't normally interact with and who have different roles across the organization was a great opportunity to consider additional perspectives.”

"The most effective aspect was having a shared goal and shared vocabulary across commonFont, so that we could regularly discuss and contextualize these concepts.”

“The collective focus on a new topic each month has created a shared language within the organization, helping teams accelerate into internal conversations about shared understanding, awareness or exchanging feedback with each other. I appreciate that the full company is involved in these trainings!”