Please Vote For Me. I Want To Wear A Hat At SXSW.

 

Dave suggested we should go to the SXSW festival next year. We should do a presentation. About Project Management. Dave says they can use some good presentations about Project Management.

I write under the moniker The Project Shrink. Dave uses DrunkenPM. And we will discuss if this is a good idea. Now is a good time to follow this link and vote for our talk. I will never ask anything of you again. Promised.

SXSW if for cool people. It's in Austin. In Texas. The only things I know about Texas is from watching reruns of the TV hit series Dallas.  I should probably buy a hat for the festival. I think Dave already has one.

Wearing a big cowboy hat would certainly tell a lot about me. Probably it's the first clue for people that I'm not from Texas. And secondly, that I am a Big Stereotyper. Is that a word anyway?

That is basically what Dave and I will be telling people. What will people think if you wear a big hat, and is it good for your career?

You know that the "hat" isn't actually "a hat", do you? It's a metaphor. Right?

Project Managers have their language and their charts as hats. Project Managers have so many ways of saying "no". "Out of scope", "Works as designed", "Request for change", "Not in spec". It's polite. It sounds official and professional.

But, it's still simply "no".

If you hear somebody say "no" in such a difficult way, it's a Project Manager.

I am told that at SXSW (please vote for our talk!) all kinds of weird people will pop up. So. In the end, me walking around looking like J.R. with this awesome hat, might be a good idea. For sure that more people will wear one. Or like one.

Now, the hat becomes a beacon for Hat Aficionados. If you see someone with a hat, you nod politely. He's one of us. It's a secret handshake. Without the secret.

Or. I can say "I never roll on Shabas". If you chuckle and answer with "The Dude Abides" or "New shit has come to light" we establish that we both know the movie The Big Lebowksi. Which actually means we like the same kind of humor. Which means we have something in common.

This would be like a secret handshake. And if you use an obscure movie, with the secret. Not if you yell "I'm on the king of the world". Everybody has seen the ugliness called "Titanic".

In project teams you can play with this mechanism. To make people feel at home. Or to keep people out of your way. This is what we want to discuss with you. Dave and me. Or I.

I write under the moniker The Project Shrink. Dave uses DrunkenPM. Using names like that is a big hat. I mean A BIG FREAKIN' HAT! Metaphorically speaking.

It's part of personal branding to select the right hat for your party. Will your party totally "get it"?

"Wow. A Project Shrink? Yeah man, we should totally focus on the sanity of our projects. Let's listen to what this dude has to say."

Or is it just a big hat? A gimmick.

"Hehehe. Dudes have funny names. Hehehehe."

If you want to know, you have to vote for us. Vote for our talk. Before the end of this week.

And help me to shop for a hat. A big hat.

Awesome.

Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.