Peter Cook - The New Rules of Management: How to Revolutionise Productivity, Innovation and Engagement by Implementing Projects That Matter

About the author

Peter Cook is passionate about helping people and organisations implement the important stuff. He is a master business coach, mentor, serial entrepreneur, author, and a warm and engaging presenter.

He has more than 15 years experience as a consultant and business coach, working with hundreds of businesses from one-man start-ups to some of the biggest companies in the world. Peter runs programs across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the United States to help thought leaders and organisations implement the projects that matter.

Peter is a smart cookie. He holds a Masters of Business in Organisational Change, a Bachelor of Science in Advanced Physics and Bachelor of Laws with Honours.

He is happily married to his gorgeous wife, Trish, and, at the time of publishing, he and Trish had just welcomed their first daughter, Scarlett, into the family. The final manuscript of this book was due the same week as the baby. If these two projects werent challenging enough, that week Peter and Trish also moved into their new house, which they had rebuilt in less than two months. When it comes to implementation, Pete clearly practises what he preaches!

Peter believes strongly in giving back to the community. He is the president of Buoyancy, a not-for-profit drug and alcohol counselling service, and is leading a team that has raised $300 000 over five years to end hunger for a group of villages in Senegal, West Africa. He has a second dan black belt in aikido (so dont mess with him!), and is an Olympic-level downhill skier trapped in the body of an average skier.

After a decade of small business coaching, he now focuses on mentoring other thought leaders, whether they be consultants going it alone or leaders within larger organisations. In his spare time he plays significant roles in a couple of start-ups, writes the odd book, speaks about implementation and consults to organisations on their projects that matter.

You can find out what Pete is currently up to and get in touch at www.petercook.com.

Acknowledgements

First, of course, to my beautiful wife, Trish. Thanks for sharing so many amazing projects with me, and creating a life together where anything is possible. Everything is better because of you. Scarlett, my baby daughter, thanks for waiting until I got this book finished before showing up.

To my father Nev: thanks for fighting to make this book the best it could be. For thinking critically about every model and every big idea down to every comma and full stop. As always, you make my writing and my thinking better.

Thanks also go to my mother, Ola, for teaching me the importance of finding the heart and beauty in everything I do, and for your complete support along my journey, through my successes and more importantly through some of my more spectacular failures.

To Cristina, my business manager, thanks for partnering me tirelessly in so many amazing projects in our business, for your commitment to excellence in everything we do, and your willingness to keep being thrown in the deep end with every new project we launch.

Matt Church my mentor, partner and friend, and the best implementer I know this (and many other things in my life) wouldnt have happened without you.

Michael Fink, my best mate and designer extraordinaire, thanks for trying to make me look good with everything that has my name on it, for caring more than me about the importance of good design, teaching me to be annoyed by bad kerning and learning about typesetting just for this project.

Thanks to Jason Fox, Michael Henderson, Derek Sivers and Josh Kaufman. Thanks for your thought leadership, for speaking to me about your areas of expertise and contributing to the book.

And finally thanks to Lucy, Alice, Elizabeth, Meryl, Keira, Gretta, Katie and the whole team at Wiley for making this book one of their projects that matter, and for fighting just as hard as me to make it the best book it could possibly be.

Gratitude, love and respect to you all.

Introduction

What got you here wont get you there.

Marshall Goldsmith, author and executive coach

The first working title for this book was The End of Management , but we eventually decided that that was being a bit too dramatic, and not entirely accurate. But one thing I am certain of is that the way we have managed our organisations, our teams and even our lives in the past isnt cutting it any more. The things that have made us successful in the past are insufficient for the present and the future. Or, as Albert Einstein said, The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.

The game of management has changed, and if we want to win the new game, we need to understand the new rules.

A number of frustrations led me to write this book. The first is seeing, time and again, organisations letting great ideas wither on the vine.

I do a lot of innovation training and consulting to big companies in Australia and around the world. Often I am brought in to help an organisation come up with innovative solutions to a challenge they are facing, or an opportunity that has presented itself. Usually I will spend a day or two facilitating a process of ideation with key staff from the company. Well use a number of different processes to come up with creative ideas. Its quite common for me to go home at the end of the day being really impressed by the calibre of thinking from the people I have worked with, and the strength of the ideas that they have come up with.