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A Punk Rock HR Christmas

Posted by Peter Cook on Tue, 04/12/2012 - 10:38
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In this mini series, I'm going to count down 10 HR tips as seen through the eyes and ears of Punk Rock.   A kind of "HR Top of the Pops" but without the DJ.  No need to pogo whilst reading these unless you must.  Punk HR refers to brevity, simplicity and purity of thought in HR.   For more on all this, ping me a note with PUNK in the title to claim your free gift - a copy of my micro book - Punk Rock People Management.

# 10 - What do you want from life? - The Tubes

The VIDEO

THE PUNK HR POINT - The Tubes' revolting anthem on happiness in life and work, coming out of observations on their fans opulent lifestyle in San Francisco, points out that consumption per se does not lead to happiness.  So, rewards given without there being some basic desire for the reward are worthless.  We did not need The Tubes or the happiness movement to tell us this.  All we had to do was to look carefully at Herzberg's Two Factor Theory of Satisfiers and Dissatisfiers. Somehow The Tubes' message is more potent.  In more recent times, Radiohead did something similar with "Fitter Happier".

# 9 - Blank Generation - Richard Hell and the Voidoids 

The VIDEO

THE PUNK HR POINT - This is perhaps the first and only time that Punk Rock and Gary Hamel will find unity ... Hamel recently said that "HR must help kill bureaucracy and encourage greater innovation within organistions".  Why? That comes down to the 'blank generation', aka people who are actively disengaged from work.  We don't need engagement taskforces to know this - it's punk rock common sense.  Less obvious is how to achieve that innnovation in HR, which, after all, is usually part of the risk reduction part of the enterprise.  I spent a third of my life working on scientific innovation and quite a bit of time watching people wringing their hands about innovation on the CIPD Council and frankly, I don't see innovation as a core HR competence.

# 8 - Oh bondage, up yours - X-Ray Spex

The VIDEO

THE PUNK HR POINT - Poly Styrene's point was really all about female empowerment or girl power.  This applies just as much to the guys.  As Poly says "Bind me tie me, Chain me to the wall, I wanna be a slave to you all, Oh bondage up yours". Simply put, if you want to get extra performance out of people, stop controlling every last detail of people's performance through lengthy job descriptions, KPI's, SMART goals for everything, yada, yada ...

# 7 - Public Image - Public Image Ltd

The VIDEO

THE PUNK HR POINT - "You never listen to a word that I said, you only see me for the clothes that I wear" Do we look past people's appearance towards their knowledge, skills and attitudes in interviews, appraisals etc?  After all, it's those things we desperately want rather than an illusion.  In an age where virtually everything is choreographed at work, remember that Steve Jobs would probably have failed an interview at Apple.

Counting down to number 6, 5, 4 next time ...

Picture by Lindsay Wakelin Photography

 

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Musings from Peter Cook - The Rock'n'Roll HR Blogger

A blog by Peter Cook

Business and HR ideas tamed with music from Peter Cook.  Peter leads Human Dynamics and The Academy of Rock, a creativity and innovation management consultancy, blending leading edge ideas from the world’s business schools with the power of music, be it rock, jazz or classical.   He has delivered conference keynotes and longer masterclasses to some of the world’s top businesses and organisations.  

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Editor's Note - May 10

Had a busy week with two days at the Responsible Business Summit in London. What struck me was the appetite for sustainability in the corporate world. I spoke to senior figures from multinationals who knew wholeheartedly that businesses in the future would not succeed if the society around them failed.

Much of this appetite was understandably focused on collaboration - the future of sustainability. Words that were previously indicative of success - power, might, scale, size - are no longer enough in the open source, peer-reviewed future where opponents will not simply grumble and moan and then leave you in peace. Companies must work with governments, NGOs, charities and social enterprises as a matter of course. And even competitors, where necessary.

Facilitating this collaboration is the big challenge of the next five years. Highly-strung and ego-centric companies, feverish with the need to protect their brand, will struggle the most, but it's either adapt or die.

The business/charity relationship is one of the most interesting focal points. Business power can drive positive social change in so many ways but charities are the key holders to communities. As businesses are expected more and more to play a stake in the future, charity partnerships should be top of the corporate priority list. Businesses that don't work closely with a charity will find themselves with reputational problems.

There's a lot more to CSR, of course, but collaboration is the bedding on which CSR will rest. Businesses can no longer find the answers to all their problems in their own resources and assets.

And for many that's a scary thought.

Any thoughts, thoughts or questions, drop me a line on editor@hrzone.co.uk.

Best wishes

Jamie