A215 Creative Writing! :)

Business Author and OU alumnus Peter Cook has just released his latest book. Curiously titled “Punk Rock People Management”, it takes a critical look at Human Relations and offers some short and straightforward advice on hiring, inspiring and firing staff. In the spirit of punk, Peter has made each chapter just two pages long – ideal for busy people and those who now browse books online. 

Platform caught up with Peter to find out more about his OU study, how it has helped him become an author, his views on Kindles and just what inspired that book title?

What did you study with the OU and how has it helped you write your books?
I studied the OU management courses from the ground up, the slow way, via the Diploma in Management and then the MBA over a total of 6 years, plus an additional year to study financial strategy, which I considered essential in a well-rounded MBA. For many years after, I took other OU modules outside my specialism - Child Development, Philosophy, Classical Music, Systems Thinking and so on. The OU was one of the major formative experiences of my life and helped me leave a well paid job and start my business nearly 18 years ago. Studying with the OU helped me write the books in three ways:

1. The process of writing assignments on real life taught me to write in ways that balance the major learning styles (theory, experience, reflection and pragmatism). I would not have been able to write my 4 books without having done the OU MBA.

2. It gave me a rich tapestry of models and concepts which have gradually synthesised with my experience as a business consultant over the years. I eventually distilled this rich mixture of learning down into "Best Practice Creativity", "Sex, Leadership and Rock'n'Roll" and "Punk Rock People Management".

3. The OUBS gave me the confidence to gain access to the kind of people who have helped me along the way, such as Professor Charles Handy, Tom Peters, The Rt Hon Peter Jay and BBC One TV and Radio 4 / 2. These days, it is not enough to write a book - you also have to be a master of marketing to get the product to your readers and I have no background or training in this area, save for promoting rock and punk bands in my early years.

Punk Rock People Management is a really unusual title? What inspired it and what is the book about?
In case anyone is wondering, I am NOT suggesting that HR people should don mohicans, smash up the reward system and pogo at the office party. I am using punk rock in the sense that punk was about simplicity, brevity and authenticity. Much of the stuff emanating from the HR institutes is about the opposite of these things. Busy managers need short, simple and decent ways of handling people management if they are to generate high performance at work. So Punk Rock People Management is for anyone who manages or has to get things done through people. In terms of what it is about, the subtitle describes exactly what's on offer: A no-nonsense guide to hiring, inspiring and firing staff. It follows the time-honoured 'life, sex and death HR lifecycle': Getting a job, getting on with the job and getting out of a job.

I spent a lot of my early life playing in punk rock and rock bands, plus following bands such as The Damned, The Doctors of Madness, Siouxie and the Banshees, John Otway, Doctor Feelgood et al., having also played with John Otway, Wilco Johnson and Norman Watt Roy, Ian Dury's bass supremo. I love all forms of music, even the pomp and circumstance progressive rock that preceded punk rock and which it aimed to eradicate. Some punk music combines intelligence with brevity and this captured the nexus of what I wanted to do. Just think of the sheer genius of Ian Dury's words and music, Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello and one or two others in the genre. In a way, the values behind the OUBS Creativity, Innovation and Change (B822) course are essentially all about authenticity and challenging existing paradigms. I guess that makes its originators Jane Henry, John Martin and David Mayle honorary Punk Rock Management Professors. A kind of academic version of The Sex Pistols!

In the spirit of punk you have made each chapter just two pages long. How have you condensed the information to make it quick and simple?
This was really difficult. I recall that Winston Churchill said that he needed more time to write a 3 minute speech than a 3 hour one. He is right and I was chatting on this very subject with Tom Peters a few weeks ago. To write a chapter which is just two pages long requires huge amounts of discipline and creativity if you are to avoid the trap of just removing the content. I did this by:

1. Reducing the ‘size’ of each topic to manageable proportions e.g. appraisal, conflict, selection etc.
2. Setting out a simple 3 part structure for every chapter: A critique of traditional HR practice in a particular area; the punk rock HR alternative and; three pithy tips on how to get started.
3. I ruthlessly edited it to remove all unnecessary words – I read the whole thing out to my I Mac and then edited it again so that it wrote like it might be read out, as many of the chapters lend themselves to keynote speaker events.
4. Finally I applied some devices to improve the book’s ‘stickiness’ – a bit of alliteration and rhyming to help things along.

All of this bearing in mind that the content is still more important than the delivery vehicle. It’s really a matter of tremendous goal focus and then following through with precision. I’m absolutely sure that the approach leaves people wanting more in some of the areas I’ve covered. We can always do more detail but we live in a busy world and I aimed to make it possible for people to be able to read a chapter and gain value from it in less time than it would take to pogo to a Sex Pistols or Linkin Park song.

Do you think Kindles and reading online is more popular than print nowadays?
Decca records rejected The Beatles in 1962, saying that ‘Groups with guitars are finished’– they were wrong! My hunch is that the same is true of print books. However, certain types of reader clearly prefer to read books on a Kindle. Reading online is very popular, as Amazon report that more than 50% of books are read in this way. Kindles are not so good for books where you don’t always read from start to finish or you might want to compare something on one page with another etc. For the ‘bookish’ person, I feel that print books as a format will be with certain types of reader for a very long time just as CD’s have not completely eradicated other music formats. For this reason, Punk Rock People Management is available as a print book, a kindle version and a free pdf download.
 
What is next for you….?
In business, I’m off to Greece shortly to give an HR keynote on how companies can rebuild themselves after the economic meltdown. Also some long term management development (without the punk rock) in The United Arab Emirates and a follow on keynote from Tom Peters in South Africa. In music, I am working on some corporate conference offerings with my colleagues John Howitt, session musician to Celine Dion, Anastasia and Shirley Bassey and Bernie Torme, lead guitar player to Ozzy Osbourne and Ian Gillan. In writing, I am constantly busy with The Rock’n’Roll Business Blog – I have a backlog of books to release – one lengthy tome on innovation, a follow up micro book ‘Hard Rock Marketing’ and a possible book of ‘business poetry’. I may even choose to revisit the MBA as it has been some time since I experienced the OU magic as a student. There isn’t time at the moment, but I am also planning to release a new album of electronic guitar soundscapes in 2012, inspired by the work of Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe, who I am proud to know and who has been a continuous inspiration since my teenage years.

Find out more:

• Buy Punk Rock People Management
  • Printed book
  • Kindle version
• Connect to Peter on LinkedIn
• Read his ROCK’N’ROLL BUSINESS BLOG