NORTHERN PLANNER

I hate it when people introduce me and my team as the 'brains'. Especially because, in my case, I'm not very clever, I just see things differently. 

What can be worse than being presented as basically a smart arse?

I think that's why I dislike so many planners or strategists because they actually believe what people say about them. 

I'll cut to the chase.  I have a healthy disrespect of anyone who thinks they have all the answers. It smacks of complacency and failure to collaborate. 

It forces you to right rather than great, or unlock the great in others. 

And who has the answers really? Grown ups and leaders that's who. The ones who don't have the answers really, they've stopped asking questions and are beginning to fight to stop things changing. 

Not children who live in a wonderful world of playing and little responsibility.

Not juniors, just starting out in the job, who haven't learned the rules yet and, therefore, are limited by them. 

When you're a child, the play goes on for years, yet that question starts to rear its ugly head.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Naturally at first when you;re six years old or so, the question is a light one and the answer if blissfully innocent. A Jedi, a Princess an Avenger. 

But when you get to fourteen, the question becomes laden with finality.

Careers officers and subject choices, as if anyone really has a clue at that age about who they really are and what they really want to be. 

I for one was had no idea. I'm still not 100%. Why should I be? I've only lived half my life.

When I finished University I sort of fell into advertising based on an immature idea it would be cool and I could be Mr Charisma.

It's not cool, it's hard work and I had yet to fully realise I'm really quite shy and engage people through passion, raw enthusiasm and authenticity.

I do not own a room, the room devours me. 

Even when you find something you want to do, answering that question with a life ending finality isn't really credible. Not only is the jobs market increasingly built for adaptability, life and culture are more open than they ever were. 

You can see that uncertainty as a stress, or you can embrace the opportunity to not fully have the answers.  

I've been a failing suit, an advertising planner, a digital planner, a media planner, a PR planner, a brand planner, a design planner and now probably find myself doing a little but of all of the above. And I still feel there is more to come. You could say I'm spread too thin, but I would say it makes me versatile. 

And ready for the next adaptation that will almost certainly come. 

I do have a driving life's work which is about doing work that actually matters rather than ticking boxes, but it's even simpler really, the reality I want to spend my time and energy on the things I care. 

Sounds idealist of course, but why would you not want to live in an ideal world? 

We all need a sense of certainty in our lives, but that need for control with control you if you're not careful. 

It's why you need to be careful of most senior people, they exist to justify their existence and block change. 

I don't think experience is about 'experience'. Its about the liberation of realising you know fuck all. 

It's not just about Malcom Gladwell's 10,000 hours of practise (but don't think you can get out of learning by doing, all the information we can get at the click of a button isn't the same as actually putting it into action, just as a pile of books is useless unless you have actually read them).

It's about having the experience to know you don't have all the answers.

And constantly looking for better questions.