I used to work for a Creative Director at a big agency who would say, “Process will save your ass.” He would send junior paper shufflers scurrying whenever they asked for something outside of the agency’s established process for such things. It seemed harsh at the time, but I understood the need for it. Since then, I’ve worked for agencies with less formal processes in place, a fact that makes me long for the rigid ways of big agency life (only on a bad day).
Here’s what Seth Godin has to say on the subject:
Process is your ace in the hole when your intuition stops working.
If process makes you nervous, it’s probably because it threatens your reliance on intuition. Get over it. The best processes leverage your intuition and give it room to thrive.
As usual Seth is full of it.
I once worked for a lunatic lady who had a West coast agency. She told me… “We’re not here to make ads, we’re here to manage the process!” Right, that makes as much sense as the un-named CFO of a large WPP agency who when asked about the qulaity of his agencies work replied… “Fuck the work, we’re here to make money!” Sir Martin… “The Poisoned Dwarf” would be proud!
Cheers/George