Recently, I helped a large NYC agency rebrand one of their clients. The creative challenge was complex, the timing, insane. In fact, we were briefed at noon on a Monday and were expected to share initial ideas the following day at 3 PM.

Yup. You read that right. The following day. What followed is a scenario all too familiar to creatives everywhere.

After a well intentioned, but furious two-week process, the client settled on an idea. And six months later—wait for it—have not budged an inch. All of those late nights and holiday weekends spent in an all-out creative sprint for our collective lives.

Completely and utterly unnecessary.

Of course, there will always be legitimate reasons to speed-up creative ideation. An unexpected media buy. A timely social opportunity. A New Business connection that suddenly materializes.

But more and more, I’m seeing agencies operate in a constant state of artificial urgency. And just like our bodies can become damaged by chronic stress, so can organizations. Here are just a few side effects:

It damages morale.

No one minds working late or canceling their weekend plans for a legitimately urgent creative or business need. We love a gnarly challenge. It’s why we got into the business. But tell us to hurry up and wait too many times? Morale plummets.

It erodes credibility.

The next time you tell your creative team that ‘If we don’t nail that 728x90 banner ad, the account could walk’, they’re going to roll their eyes and half-ass it. Because they’ve seen this movie before. Use your urgency chips sparingly.

It robs the client, agency and consumer of a better solution.

Ultimately no one cares if a junior brand manager pushed a creative review up because of a spa week. No one will ever remember that the Global Chief Muckety Muck Officer demanded to see the work a week early because he has an international flight to catch.

All everyone sees is the final product.

Will it be an idea with the power to legitimately move your client’s business? Strengthen their brand? Provide joy or utility to consumer’s lives? Improve the reputation of your agency?

Or will it be a Celino & Barnes jingle?

Gary Vaynerchuk of Vayner Media talks a lot about ‘negative impressions’. And rightly so. Just because you make an impression, doesn’t make it a valuable one. And negative impressions, more often than not, come from rushing the process and putting a turd out into the universe.

So let’s anticipate more. Ask better questions. Find out what’s driving the urgency, and then help clients break down these barriers. Let’s make protecting the creative process everyone’s job—Project Managers, Account Management, Planners, and yes, even Clients. And finally, let’s empower our teams to politely push back when necessary.

We’re all striving to be more agile in an always-on marketing environment. But let’s make sure we’re injecting authentic urgency into the process and not the artificial, empty calorie variety. Let’s make sure we’re protecting the process that protects our agencies reputations. Because anyone can yell ‘Fire’ in a crowded creative department.

It takes leadership and perspective to ask, ‘Where’?