“Discipline, discipline, discipline is my best friend.”

I can recall the hundreds, maybe thousands of times I wrote that sentence when I was a high school underclassman. It was one of the more common punishments doled out when we committed some infraction to the school’s disciplinary policy.

Although I certainly didn’t appreciate it then, today I see the merits of that one sentence. Discipline, while some may think as a coercive mechanism, can actually be a collaborative process of building consensus regarding accepted behavior within the confines of marketing strategies, programs and tactics.

If we discipline ourselves to developing a solid strategy from the start, we have the framework with which to guide all our communications efforts. This eliminates the second guessing, mid-stream changes that can throw a plan off track and dilute our message.

If we discipline ourselves to building a solid plan guided by our strategy we have the tools to then measure and evaluate performance. I remember an old Scoutmaster telling me to, “Plan the work and work the plan.”

In our business, the creative staffs are considered the non-conformists but if you were to see our creative teams in action, you would see that even they apply a large degree of discipline to their craft.

Discipline is OUR best friend.