NORTHERN PLANNER

One of the best parts of being a planner is that every job really is different. I think this is a problem for organisations that stick to rigid processes and models- if you do everything a certain way, it all ends up a little similar. Each project has specific problem, with specific group of people involved, shouldn’t the process be tailored around what’s appropriate right now?

I think this stretches to what you read too. Most books about marketing, planning and stuff are full of fantastic case studies and wonderful rules for approaching projects. It can get a bit confusing though and you often find that when you apply it to your world, it doesn’t quite work in the same way.  Instead of asking,"How can we make this project fit this process?", maybe we should ask, "What bits of what I know will be relevant for this?".

By the way, I’ve nearly finished ‘Everything bad is good for you’ by Steven Johnson. I’ll post are review in a bit if anyone is interested, but does anyone want to borrow it? Give me your address and I’ll post it through. First come first served.