NYC Department of Parks and Recreation

Fostering People-Centered Leadership

As part of a broader effort to strengthen its organizational culture and leadership effectiveness, the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation sought to effect change by engaging all leaders in supervisory roles in dialogue and experiential learning focused on people-centered leadership practices. With a diverse workforce and expansive public mission, the agency required a dynamic training approach that would resonate with leaders across levels and functions and promote consistent supervisory expectations and standards.

Challenge

In collaboration with the NYC Parks Commissioner and senior leadership team, Cora Group designed and facilitated a Winter Leadership Conference, a full-day learning experience delivered to approximately 1,200 supervisory leaders over ten days.

The interactive curriculum emphasized:

  • Research-informed practices in people-centered leadership

  • Emotional intelligence, interpersonal awareness, and inclusive communication

  • Practical approaches to giving and receiving feedback, motivating teams, and retaining talent

  • Experiential learning techniques, including self-assessments, case studies, and role plays that encouraged reflection, skill-building, and peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing

Solution

Participants emerged from the conference with a clear understanding of what people-centered leadership looks like in practice – and how it can promote job satisfaction and agency resilience. The program created space for honest dialogue and reflection, reinforcing a sense of collective responsibility for cultivating a developmentally constructive and supportive work environment. It facilitated knowledge exchange that amplified diverse voices in the workforce. It also provided supervisory leaders with actionable tools and a unified vision of excellence for the future.

Outcome