Planning can become a stand-in for doing the actual work.
That work we’re avoiding might be active: We spend all day writing a list of things to take on holiday instead of actually packing our bags.
But a more likely scenario is that we’re using the process of planning to give (ourselves) the illusion of thinking. Using the example of list-writing in lieu of bag-packing: We're avoiding the work of thinking about what we really need to take on holiday and replacing it with the (apparently) productive process of writing a list of everything we think we could need.
Planning is a familiar word in the property industry.* Development plan. City plan. Resource plan. Project plan. Construction plan.
When we prepare these plans, how often are we simply following a pre-determined process deemed appropriate, correct or efficient, instead of doing the hard work of thinking things through and determining the best course of action?
It isn’t that planning isn’t valuable. Written down, actionable plans are needed to deliver a project. Rather, it’s more that experts in planning processes should support the development and implementation of creative ideas, rather than hold court over the process that takes an idea into action steps.
*You could also easily replace ‘planning’ with ‘design’ here and throughout this post, but my feeling is that designers enjoy the creative thinking process to much to defer to a pre-determined planning process.