Black Hatter

I wrote this for the RBH blog, but its needs to live here too…

I’m a doubting Thomas, a died in the wool cynic who never takes his black hat off – even on good days. Against my better judgement, there are still reasons to be cheerful…

Pretty soon I’m going to be proud father to a little girl. May 1st is the due date, but I’ve been told to expect arrivals two weeks before, or possibly after. Given how close this is I now have a short shortlist of possible names that my wife and I can agree on.

Inevitably the meanings of names come under some scrutiny when managing a project such as this, and this has led to some good office banter. Looking up the meanings of the people who sit near me I have found out that Matthew is a gift from the gods, Felicity is the patron saint of pregnant women and Gemma is a jewel (or gem.) All hilarious for different reasons, but what about me? I share my name with world famous disbeliever ‘doubting Thomas’ who required proof that Jesus had arisen from the grave.

This was a comedic treat to my colleagues – but how did my parents get my name so absolutely bang on? I’m a skeptic to the core – a cynical, glass half empty kind of guy who isn’t ideally suited to the ever positive, blue sky world of marketing. Or am I? As a project manager of large digital projects, a hefty slice of pessimism and obsessive attention to detail is required – the goal – to eliminate every possible risk in order to be confident whatever happens. Although I’ve studied the titanic project management system PRINCE and found it thoroughly sensible it can be too time consuming and unwieldy for some smaller jobs. That’s why I think project management is more of an attitude, or possibly a philosophy for life. Some people will never be wholly suited to it, conversely regimented thinking probably wont spark the ‘between the lines’ thinking required for big creative ideas. Such is life, we are all different and a good team needs many different dynamics to work well.

This is what Edward de Bono theorised with his 6 thinking hats model. I’m likely to wear a black hat to work – looking at decisions cautiously and defensively, considering why something wouldn’t work. My colleague Rob Hemus had his green hat on when he drew the illustration for this blog post – as this is the creative hat that considers any and all angles, using an ‘anything’s possible’ approach to free the mind from the day to day assumptions and preconceptions. There are four other hats we all wear from time to time – and we are often invited to make rapid outfit changes at RBH, when in a planning or brainstorm session for a new brief.

So how much of my nature will I pass on to my child I wonder? And how will I pick a name that I like, and will suit the poor child? I think I need a flow chart… oh god I’m doing it again.