Mickie Kennedy had an interesting post on Ragan’s PR Daily last Friday – “How to Know When to Scrap an Idea and Start Over.” It caught my eye because, frankly, I HATE starting over. When I have a plan in place, and the plan is moving along, the last thing I want to do is consider that it might not be moving things in the right direction, that I may need to re-evaluate and course-correct. I much prefer to build a to-do list based on a plan, and tick things off systematically as I go.
However, as the author points out, as painful as it may be, sometimes you just have to face the facts that a plan – however seemingly well-designed – isn’t working out the way you envisioned. To Mickie’s point, it’s not always the whole plan that is faulty. Sometimes, just one or two components need tweaking. And it’s a lot better in the long run to change direction when needed – rather than risk not achieving your (or your client’s) goals.
At GFM, we pride ourselves as an agency on being nimble and able to course-correct in the middle of a project or campaign. It’s not always the easiest path to take (especially for people like me), but it can mean the difference between disappointment and success.
