Yesterday Frank Cannon, the former security manager at Hinkley Point C who’s now turned consultant, gave a webinar via the Security Institute (he’s a Fellow) on his ‘the CAP way‘, the behavioural-based security programme he’s offering, his distilling of his years of experience securing mega-construction projects. Mark Rowe writes.
The Institute announced at the end that attenders could claim two CPD points, but that doesn’t begin to express how useful and outstanding the hour or so was. Frank did describe himself as a lifelong learner, and now feeling a responsibility to ‘give a bit back’, hence the webinar; but as he is now seeking to sell his knowledge as a consultant, to find out more, ask or hire Frank!
Rather, I was intrigued by a passing story of Frank’s, about how he heard Paul Martin speak at a Security Institute conference (Frank was a speaker at last year’s) and was so impressed that he bought ten copies of Martin’s book The Rules of Security (Oxford University Press, cover pictured). Frank was full of praise for the man and book (‘a master of his trade’). Frank spoke of how he set up a book club of his security team at HPC and in half-hour sessions they discussed a chapter at a time and how it could be usefully applied to HPC.
Straight after the webinar I mailed Frank about books and he mailed back that he was impressed with the simplicity of The Rules of Security’s prose, how Paul Martin was able to explain his strategic thinking and break down his Ten Rules. In my 2019 review I criticised the book for not considering money (which as Frank mentioned in his webinar, at the same time doesn’t come into security, and yet is everything). Frank wrote: “Of course, money is a constraining factor but if you subscribe to his Rules, then you are more likely to use the finite $ in the most impactful way. As I said, no one thing [book] provides all the answers.
“As for a book club, people buy books for one of two reasons: 1) self-development, and 2) shelf development. I, like others, have books on my shelf that I haven’t read cover-to-cover, but I know they are there should I need to reference them if needed. I think there are numerous academic books on the market – you only have to read the bibliography for most dissertations to see those that our universities believe have meaningful content. I guess one approach would be to ask your readers to share their academic dissertation bibliographies, or reach out to those facilitating the numerous security, risk, terrorism degrees out there.”
“My last two purchases were: Charles Swanson’s Professional Security Management: A Strategic Guide (ISBN: 97803673339616) and Prof Alison Wakefield’s Security & Crime, Converging Perspective on a Complex World (ISBN: 9781412931007, published by Sage).”
And for Christmas he has asked for Security Management for Occupational Safety, by Michael Land (CRC Press).
*
Frank is not the only security person around who’s a ‘pracademic’, someone who’s very much a practitioner, but can back it up with academic qualifications and lifelong learning, and who reads. To stay with the Institute, the previous chief exec Rick Mounfield comes to mind, which was reflected in the annual conference speakers, who came at security from little-considered angles. However it has to be said that – understandably, if people are busy with work and family – few others read, whether at all much, or to be a more rounded person who brings wider knowledge to their security management. Besides, there’s much to be said for reading for pleasure, to get away from your work.
Only yesterday at the ASIS UK winter meeting in London, a speaker mentioned ‘black swan events’ – the idea that, like the first English arrivals in western Australia who saw black swans, when they were used to seeing white ones, black swan events are improbable, yet happen and have impacts. The speaker asked for a show of hands; who had read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book The Black Swan, that popularised this idea of unpredictable events – relevant to the security and crisis manager? I was sitting near the back and didn’t see any hands. Nor did I raise mine.
Professional Security Magazine has over the years reviewed hundreds of books, mostly by and aimed at security managers, covering cyber and physical worlds. whether memoirs or criminology textbooks or guidance documents. Paul Martin’s is one of the (few) outstanding ones. From a pile beside my desk I offer a few for any ‘book club’, that’s looking to broaden minds, to do better work, without making the reading feel too much like work (especially if in your own time).
The military similarly can choose to embrace book learning, or not. The American Thomas E Ricks brought out a pair of books, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq (2006) and The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006–2008 (2009). While Fiasco – the word says it all – was a more exciting story, in The Gamble Tom Ricks showed how Petraeus urged his officers to take master’s degrees (which included much reading and writing). That made good use of spare time; for what else was there to do in an army camp in Iraq when not on patrol or on duty?!
A book I have bought two copies of – one I gave away, and one remains to be read – is The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, sub-titled ‘the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power’, by Shoshana Zuboff, that covers not so much surveillance as known by security managers, CCTV, but the online surveillance of our tapping at keyboards and mobile devices, that big tech monetises.
What hard-pressed people will find less intimidating to open is a book not so thick, and a first-person story, relatable, that explains your city or country, or the sort of people you come across. John Sutherland the former Met Police man has brought out two memoirs, Blue, and Crossing the Line, lessons from a life on duty. He writes of knife crime and other crimes, and traces how they have effects on any serving officer, and what society can and ought to do, or chooses not to do, about crime.
Rather than books directly about private security it might be more useful to read about a related field such as crisis management (where the crisis may be a crime or accident, which ultimately hurts reputation (hard to measure) and share price (certainly measurable). For example Crisis Proof: how to prepare for the worst day of your business life, by Jonathan Hemus.
Any book should tell you something you wouldn’t otherwise know, a window on another place or time – either the words contained, or the new thoughts that you’re led to. Yes SIR by LinkedIn phenomenon Chuck Andrews ticks all boxes – in a brief (on purpose) paperback you learn about the Texan, and how he’s build up a formidable network. To round off by returning to Frank Cannon; his webinar was striking by how little he referred to the day to day tasks of security management; fences, gates. They are necessary, but so are strategies and policies underpinning security (and safety). Frank spoke of challenging complacency, being honest, having personal conversations; things vital to getting things done as a manager (whatever your function), yet seldom taught or discussed. Being open to learning, including from books, is not the easiest or fastest way to become proficient in your job, but it’s the only way.
