Page 34 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Brand Ambassador helps build teamwork, communication, empathy and personal growth throughout the company.
FBI weren’t talking to each other, but after sharing their stories, some were crying and hugging each other and giving high-fives. And I was thinking: Who the hell is this guy? How does he do that?”
At break time, Bagwell googled Professor Ritten- berg and discovered that he was a lecturer at UC Berkeley—fifteen miles from Peterson’s headquar- ters in San Leandro. “If he’d been at Columbia or Harvard, it would never have gone anywhere,” says Bagwell. “I think God intervened and put him at Berkeley.” From there, Bagwell and other Peterson people attended some of Rittenberg’s classes at UC Berkeley, then Bagwell hosted a few at Peter- son University.1 And each time, Rittenberg recre- ated the magic. In 2012, Bagwell was finally able to get Duane Doyle Sr. and Professor Rittenberg together in a meeting. It took off from there.
EVOLVING CURRICULUM
Since that first round of workshops, Brand Am-
bassador has evolved into a series of courses: Lead- er as Coach, Leader as Teacher, the Leadership Academy, and Leading the Peterson Way. Peter- son assumed the leadership role halfway through the original Brand Ambassador series, at which point the Berkeley team exited. “Over time, we’ve Petersonized the whole thing,” explains Duane Sr. “Half the content is our own.” Some of the newer concepts include Grace, Slice of the Pie (for per- sonal responsibility), the Flywheel of Success, the Trust Factor, the Customer First Equation, and the Four Communication Principles. “Leading the Peterson Way focuses primarily on the Custom- er First Equation and communication skills,” ex- plains Duane Sr. “Both were in the original Brand Ambassador workshop, but we didn’t have enough time to do a deep dive into them.” The Peterson Way is taught in workgroups so employees can benefit from learning alongside their co-workers.
Much of the curriculum came out of the six-month, Berkeley Executive MBA course at Peterson called the Leadership Academy. “We recognized that
1 Peterson University launched in 2009 to provide continuous training for Peterson’s employees, its customers, and other Caterpillar and Navistar dealer employees. See full story in CH19 Peterson University, on pg 305.
32 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG