Maestro Spotlight on Andrés Peters: Learning as a Passion and Purpose

What does it mean to be a C-level executive? Your mind may go first to the acronyms of CEO, COO, CFO: people charged with overseeing decisions that are executive, operational, or financial in nature. But what about a “CLO”? 

A Chief Learning Officer oversees the strategy, design, and development of an organization’s curricula, which applies to not just training of specific sales skills but also onboarding. When an organization names their CLO, they are signaling a commitment to curiosity, continual knowledge acquisition, and best practices for holding the door open to new hires. When an organization is fortunate enough to have Andrés Peters as their CLO, as we are, one should factor in a commitment to the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and a passion for applying the latest research gleaned from scientific and scholarly resources. 

I came to Maestro Group after spending several years primarily employed at the college and university level. So initially, I took comfort in the fact that Peters is also in that world—specifically, he is pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Harvard Extension School, and he devotes volunteer time as a Learning Community Lead for “Out for Undergrad” (O4U), an organization that supports LGBTQ+ undergraduate students secure jobs after college, and an organization that he benefitted from while at Georgetown University. But, while comfortable navigating the jargon of peer-reviewed journals, Peters resists many of the self-indulgent aspects of academia. When he weighs in on strategy, he reinforces an awareness of human nature and the goals of facilitating easy access. 

His groundbreaking collaborative work while at Deloitte, which was featured in a 2019 article for Training Industry Magazine, used gamification principles to move the onboarding of new analysts to the landscape of…zombie apocalypse roleplay. Maestro’s “Walking Dead: Sales Edition” is still a theoretical proposition. But our signature trainings have attained consistency and effectiveness under his guidance, and the Maestro Group Modules offer self-paced learning that use a mix of animated videos, prompts, and quizzes. 

READY, AIM, KICK

“One of the big things that has drawn me into Learning and Development has been that there’s a shift, in general, around it not being a point-in-time intervention; that it can manifest itself in so many different ways,” Peters says. He is a forceful advocate for learning in the flow of work—which he refers to as “micro-interventions”—that can be accessed from one’s phone or a quick click. “Whether that is watching one of our module videos to learn a new skill or reading one of our blogs to pick up a key takeaway, learning happens in many ways. The closer that we can get to the point-of-need, the more relevant and useful it is.”

Peters has experienced this learning curve in his own life. “I play social kickball. One of my teammates went to this clinic to learn how to kick better. They came back and they said, ‘hey, I learned this new way to bunt,’ and taught it to me. I just started using it and, the last game I played, I ended up scoring—using that bunt. Learning is tribal, not just individual.” 

“I have had issues with power kicking, so I watched a soccer video on learning how to kick in my free time,” he admitted. “That curiosity, or always wanting to just try and do a little bit better is, at least for me personally, how I’ve always looked at learning—never feeling like you’re done.” As part of that effort, he has challenged Maestro Group to consider the potential contributions of artificial intelligence, video-creation tools, and mobile apps.

LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Moving into and forward in the education space required pit stops along the way. “I started my career supporting external audit work where I would go into organizations, find issues, report on those issues—but not directly help them resolve those issues,” Peters recounts, thinking back to eras of employment at Deloitte that required independence from clients. Although Peters excelled at the work, he found it unfulfilling. Even after transitioning into roles where he could work more closely with more clients, he noticed that where he felt most fulfilled was when he helped professionals do their jobs more efficiently or with deeper expertise. Despite success and security, Peters took the risk of letting his Deloitte mentors know what he truly loved, which was his (up until that point, volunteer) role in their training initiatives.

Two additional years passed working at Deloitte before Peters joined their Learning and Development team, a process that required several rounds of interviewing. “For me, this sets the stage for how I advise people who are looking at their careers or looking for career changes in general,” Peters recalls. “I was open and honest with the people that I was supporting. I let them know what my overall goals were, but at the same time it wasn’t like I was telling them, ‘Hey, I’m going to run away from this job the first chance I get.’ It’s more like, ‘I’m going to try and find a role that’s right for me. This is a step in the career that I want to have.’ Because I was honest with them, it was an easy transition. When I [eventually] left, people were celebrating the fact that I was going into another role, not sad that I was leaving.”

Peters acknowledges the cost of veering off a predestined path toward promotion, particularly while watching peers ascend to managerial positions. But he chose optimism, believing, “It’s not a ‘No,’ it’s a ‘Not right now, it’s not the right time.’” Interviewing to enter a new field was a risk, but also an opportunity. “Looking at it from a mindset of abundance, right? Someone isn’t taking something away from me. It’s more like, the right thing is waiting for me.”

Once Peters found his “right thing,” employers quickly realized the value of his expertise. He managed programs for those in the government and public services (GPS) sector as they transitioned into roles that required advanced leadership and decision-making skills. In 2020, this consisted of over 25 offerings of seven programs; the next year, he converted these seven programs from an in-person format to 25 virtual models that engaged over 150 facilitators and 1,300 participants. In 2021, his final year with Deloitte, he also oversaw onboarding of over 5,500 employees in the GPS sector. 

One of Peters’ favorite aspects of his work is that it is never done in a vacuum. “I was meeting with industry leaders, firm leaders, and different practice leaders to help develop training that was going out to thousands of people.” He also helped design and manage a transformational senior-manager level sponsorship program for under-represented minorities and women.

“Sales has moved in the right direction by bringing in more women and under-represented minorities,” Peters notes. “But there’s still room from an LGBTQ+ perspective. Even some of the language that’s used to describe success can be masculine-coded.” Through Maestro’s engagements, he advises C-level executives on how to look at learning and culture-building in their organizations. “I’m one small voice, in this large pond of sales leaders, trying to make that change.”

FAMILY MATTERS

“When I was a teenager, I worked at Best Buy,” Peters tells me. “I always say that I got Will [Fuentes] his job, because I interviewed right before he did at Best Buy—I was the one who started him on this path,” he jokes. Peters did upselling as a customer service representative, encouraging customers to add a warranty when they’d come to the register to buy a product. 

We’ve gotten to this backstory not because I asked about a family connection, but because I’ve commented on Maestro Group’s unusually vibrant camaraderie. I came to Maestro through a high school alumni connection, which isn’t the most obvious bond, yet it is the most personable place I have ever worked. This is even more remarkable because we work together using the remote technologies of Slack, Zoom, and email.

“Gracie brought it up the other day,” Peters says, referring to Gracie Perry-Davis, our Lead Instructional and Graphic Designer, who is also in the process of earning her degree at Harvard Extension School. “She said, ‘seven degrees of separation, right?’ We all come to Maestro feeling like we know someone on the team—either from having worked with them before, or from a personal relationship.”

“This goes into things that I always think about when it comes to onboarding someone,” Peters says, “So that they feel like they’re part of an organization, rather than like someone that just got plopped into a team that’s been humming along for some time.” In Peters’ case, the connection is familial, as a brother to Maestro founder Fuentes. “[Will] has said, and I agree somewhat, that he was trying to recruit me for three years when I finally made the decision to join the organization. Obviously, it was a leap of faith, right?” Peters says, smiling. “Everyone says, ‘how can you work with someone that’s your family?’” 

But Peters has an entirely separate professional identity, which extends into his work with Maestro. “Because we have different last names, people don’t realize that we’re brothers. When I go into organizations, or when I speak, it’s not like we’re hiding it,” he says, “but it’s not something you lead with.” Although people usually discern the relationship in time, by then what they’re noticing is Peters’ expertise.

When I take a step back from all that Peters has shared, I’m struck by his resilience: the determination to level up, the willingness to use up “extra lives” in pursuit of a higher goal. He has taken risks toward obtaining outcomes, and they have paid off. One reason Peters embraces learning exercises that use playful approaches and gamification is that he is, himself, a game player. “Final Fantasy 14,” he confirms. “I think there’s seventeen of them, maybe, but I’ve been playing this game—what is it? 2023?—for 11 years now.” 

When Peters realized how useful games were to his wind-down process, it led to a change of office space. He opts to work from his living room. “When I had the same space that I worked in and relaxed in, I never really knew how to shut off my work,” he remembers. “Literally, it was the same hardware too—same monitors, same keyboard, same mouse that I would use for work and for free time.” 

Now, as part of a larger journey toward work-life balance, he takes meetings from a more flexible space where he can stretch, pace, and even clean the floor (video off!) to give his body a sense of mobility that frees up his mental energy. Keeping company on the couch sometimes is Biscuit, who earlier Maestro clients might have encountered as a puppy, but who is now “a full-blown doggo.” Speaking with Andrés Peters, one can’t help but delight in what it means to keep growing, keep learning, and always be open to the next adventure.

Our top-notch team is ready to help yours reach full sales potential. Contact us at mastery@maestrogroup.co for more information on training, coaching, assessments, and more.