The Process is More Important than the Product

During the past ten years, I've shaped, written, or edited the gamut of planning products from thousand page regional development plans, city comprehensive plans and school district reorganization plans to ten-page briefs on project design. In spite of these efforts, I've spent a good bit of time disassociating myself from "planners." My typical line has been, "Please don't think of me as a planner... My field is communications." Why this comment? Because I sense that the term "planner" is more often than not a nasty word. "Those planners got in the way of our getting anything done at the legislature." "All that planners care about is keeping zoning codes pure." "What makes sense to planners doesn't make common sense or political sense." "Planners don't seem to have much contact with reality.