Page 161 - THE DO-IT-YOURSELF LOBOTOMY Open Your Mind to Greater Creative Thinking

152 ACCIDENTAL GENIUS

PLANNING IS OVERRATED

A number of years ago I read a piece in the Wall Street Journal that
talked about the dangers of adhering too closely to a plan. The point of
the article was this:

If you stick slavishly to what you plan to do you might miss better
opportunities that pop up along the way.

In Bottom Up Marketing, Al Ries and Jack Trout speak of strategic
planning as being overrated as well. These two gentlemen, who have
guided the marketing world for years with best-sellers such as Position-
ing and Marketing Warfare, caution us not to let steadfast adherence to a
strategy prevent us from finding winning tactics along the way. They
point out that strategy is often done by making certain assumptions,
but if those assumptions don’t hold true in the face of reality, then
we’re better off being open to the tactics that will work at that time,
whether they fit with the strategy or not.
As a consultant to ad agencies, I often hear clients or people in
account service complain that the ads the creative people are coming
up with are not “on strategy.” Having creative-directed about 100 of
these sometimes impulsive animals over the years, I can certainly see
how their lack of discipline occasionally derails the strategic process.
At the same time (and maybe this is because I was one of those derail-
ing creative types for so many years), I can understand that in some of
those cases the creative process had the gift of accidental genius. I
know because I have been there that sometimes you actually find a bet-
ter way during the heat of the battle. The foxhole is a lot closer to real-
ity than the insular war room.

OPEN YOUR MIND

So remember this, when you engage in the creative process and
something comes up that you didn’t intend, don’t be so quick to
discount it as being wrong. It just might be better than what you
intended.