APG Advice for Junior Planners: Generalise or Specialise?
Young Planners 2014 kicked off last Wednesday at JWT. The event sold out fast (take note for future – get tickets early), with Neal Fairfield of BMB and David Hackworthy of Fallon giving us their two cents on the topic: should junior planners generalise their skills, or specialise?
First up: Pro-Specialism with David Hackhorthy
First up, David reminded us that you don’t need planners: they only exist to make the work better than it would be. And how should they best add value, in a post-digital world where the consumer does not need a voice anymore?
“30-40% of planners time is wasted”
David pointed out that agencies are made of teams, and those teams do particularly well when they have interesting alternative points of view. They can’t be expected to know everything well anyway: so specialisms are more valued.
“It’s fun to look at things with a bunch of people who look at things really differently”
For his strategy teams, David looks for juniors who can show him something that he doesn’t know – someone who opens his mind.
“I love it when a 23 year old planner can tell me I’m looking at something in the wrong way”
Next: Pro-generalism with Neal Fairfield
Neal made a valiant case for generalism, suggesting that hiding behind specialisms avoids learning about what planning really is – a continuous drive to find a better answer (whatever that answer is).
“Generalists can change the world – specialists can only perfect it”
If you’re a specialist, you are limited to only ever see the problem in terms of your specialism – or, to use an old adage, ‘to the man with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail’.
“The blinkered person can’t see variables of which they aren’t aware”
A specialist will be half blind: he can’t predict things he knows nothing about. Generalists, on the other hand, can ask the right questions and not necessarily know the answer – but have the tools and the wherewithal to find out.
Both speakers were pretty clear that neither one nor the other is the absolute answer (classic planners). In fact, both our speakers suggested ‘a bit of both’ is where its at.
Our groups of Junior planners then discussed what that might mean for their day-to-day work, and the discussion afterwards brought out some useful tips:
“Always try to work across accounts and across categories, it will open your mind”
“Pitches are a great opportunity to learn from others”
“Be a generalist when it comes to ideas; be a specialist when it comes to people”
“Bite off more than you can chew, and keep chewing”
“There’s nothing more dangerous than a weak generalist…”
“…but equally you don’t want to be that ‘car planner’ guy”
“Data is like teenage sex: no one knows how to do it, everyone thinks everyone else is doing it”
“Go with what you’re interested in – which is not necessarily always what you’re comfortable with”
So, whilst cultivating specialism/s can bring value to your agency team and help get your foot in the door, you can be involved in interesting, revolutionary work by always being taking the generalist attitude.
Check out the best tweets from the evening here: http://storify.com/sweenagekicks/generalist-vs-specialist-apg-young-planners-19-03