On "planning"

Today while speaking with some folks at AKQA, the same topic came up a number of different ways--what is planning, what makes a good planner, and what should a planner do? There seems to be significant discord from one planner, agency, and school of thought to the next. I had been thinking about the role of the planner a lot lately and in fact was writing a bit about it just last night. Now seems as good a time as any to share (especially seeing as I did a fairly poor job of articulating it this afternoon). So here goes:

Strategy must be an actionable work plan that achieves the objectives through tactics that are true to the brand.

At the heart of it, a planner needs to be innately curious and driven to learn.

They need to enjoy planning because of the process of boiling down information into insights, and not only when they're working on something they're particularly inclined towards--to a planner, everything should be interesting in its own right.

They need to internally balance the analytical and the creative, and use both sides of the brain.

They should make the complicated simple, and turn insights into ideas.

They should have their own instincts and opinions.

They should talk with the creative and media folks, and not just at the briefing.

They should feel a responsibility and kinship to the brands they work on--we can't forget that we have a relationship with our clients. If you find out the brand's consumers are consistently upset about one aspect of the product, tell the client. Establish trust.

They should explore outside of the realm of the brands they work on, and see where pieces begin to tie into each other.

They should not post in their blogs when they're this tired. As for what planning is, well, I really think that depends on the agency. Hence the regular communication break-down that I've managed to experience far too many times. We've got far too many names for the same role, and yet at the same time, the same name for multiple roles. And I thought we were in communications.