NORTHERN PLANNER

I remember the legendary George Parker talking about his experience at a 'Big Dumb Agency' (his words). Where the Chief Exec asked him what he thought they did. He said, "We make ads'. To which she replied, "No, we manage the process". In other words, sell a professional process, that of course takes ages and uses a lot of people and charge for their time. Not sell ideas.

That's still the model in lots of places and it's wrong. It's dangerously seductive, like the dark side, it's quicker, easier.

But it's wrong.

Wrong commercially, as clients undervalue your ideas and start getting you to trim budgets and therefore people – ultimately harming the work and it's effectiveness…so you end up getting fired.

It's wrong internally as it demotivates people who (hopefully are there to do great work. 

It's wrong because it lets laziness and mediocrity off the hook. There's nothing that lets lazy, untalented people thrive like a good process. Who cares about the quality of a brief if all the boxes are filled and it fits on a page? Who cares if the work is pedestrian is it's 'Disruptive' or 'Brutally Simple'. It doesn't matter if the brand's position in unworkable, it came out of a workshop.

And let's not kid ourselves. We don't ever have ideas in a linear fashion. Sometimes they pop up near the start and you spend some time proving they're good. Sometimes you're terrified that it's near the deadline and nothing good is coming, then it appears in the nick of time. Usually, in fact, most if the time, ideas emerge when you're doing anything but 'work'.

 That's right, the more you work at a process, the harder you make it for yourself.