Planner Obsolescence

Why the Planner not being the most important person in the room shouldn’t make them the least important

Harry Neale
3 min readMar 31, 2022

The discourse around the importance of a Planner is volatile to say the least, and the majority of the time this comes from how they are perceived both by themselves and by others. As a Planner myself, I see (and take part in) a lot of this first hand.

The classic perception is that Planners see themselves as the smartest people in the room, inflate their own importance and believe only their view — as backed up by ‘insights’ and ‘thinking’ — is the most effective solution. The latest findings from industry reports will be spouted, a book on marketing principles will be name-checked and an intuition without research to back it will be scoffed at. This perception isn’t isolated to the office either, it’s rife across Twitter, LinkedIn and at the pub at a Thirsty Thursday drinks (when the Planner isn’t invited). It goes beyond actually doing the job and being helpful and into the realms of self-gratification and indulgence.

Now, I’ve not experienced this much personally (and I’d like to think that isn’t how I come across) but it is easy to understand the backlash this would receive and the types of conflict this could cause across departments, hampering many a brief. No one likes feeling stupid, which is probably where this over-compensation comes from, but this just passes the feeling on to others. This ‘take’ is clearly incorrect and moves by many to address and correct it are very much welcomed across the industry.

HOWEVER, what this has led to is an even more frustrating stereotype (for a Planner anyway) — the ‘Self Deprecator’.

Sarcastic comments, critiques and clarifications to put ourselves down, openly diminishing our input in the eyes of the rest of the team to prove we aren’t the sycophantic control freaks that we’ve historically been seen as. We apologise for our work before it has even been seen, or say it can be changed if it’s not exactly what people or looking for. We use the previous stereotype as ammo to shoot ourselves in the foot before we even enter the room.

At best it’s done to prove there is no superiority complex and to put others at ease, at worst it’s done because we believe that our input isn’t important and the work would be fine without us ever being involved. I have definitely been guilty of this, particularly when the pressure to deliver is on or when I want to prove to others that I’m collaborative. In a discipline generally filled with over-thinkers where imposter syndrome is rife, the more we self-critique in this way, the more we’ll start to believe it to be true. This shift hasn’t ‘fixed’ anything, it has just moved the goalposts.

As planners, we shouldn’t see ourselves as the smartest in the room, but that doesn’t mean we need to make ourselves the least important person either. Instead, we should be focussed on building everyone up together as at the end of day, although our disciplines may be different, we are all as important as each other when it comes to delivering the work that we do.

The best work is done when we ALL feel comfortable and confident. It’s not about the importance of an individual, but rather our ability to collaborate as a team to create the strongest work. A good idea can come from anyone, from anywhere. It’s no surprise that the best work is coming out of places where this type of culture and ethos are prevalent.

This doesn’t mean we all need to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Being able to agree, disagree and challenge is essential to get to good work. The trick is to do that without our egos getting involved.

Let’s stop focusing on WHO’S important and get back to WHAT’S important — making cool shit (that answers the brief of course).

--

--

Harry Neale

I like to write about and over-analyse the meaning behind things — mainly mental health, advertising and movies.