By Kenny Meek

The Six Hats of D&Ad (What to write when you forget you have a SCAB due)

It’s 9:41PM on a Saturday and I just remembered that I had a SCAB due at 10, so what to talk about? I’ve spent approximately 2 minutes figuring that out. The conclusion is that in this mad collection of rapid fire word vomit, I might as well go into detail on coping with the D&Ad rush and six hatting.

3 minutes in. Six hatting is fab. See the thing about six hatting (for those who don’t know, just google it) is that it allows you to have an idea, critique it and then – in no uncertain terms – destroy it. Each hat represents a different technique or thinking strategy. Blue makes decisions and plans, black finds holes, yellow… Well yellow does something I’m sure but at the 4th minute of this SCAB, I can’t quite recall.

This week myself and my partner six hat’d the shit out of our ideas and that lead to progress, defeat, anger, happiness and a script being rewritten thirty odd times. Was it frustrating? For sure. Did we progress, you’re damn tootin’ we did.

5 minutes in. Six hatting has become second nature to me. I’m totally aware that’s what Marc wants to hear but it’s true, I found myself contemplating each hat at every point in our D&Ad’s development. When sitting with mentors; ‘this dude is so blue hat’ I’d think. Or when we’re with friends; ‘Why are they just green hatting? Please stop’. The six hats truely take over your brain, heart and very being when you do them enough and thankfully, I think I have.

7 minutes in (that paragraph took a while). Suppose it’s time to talk about D&Ad. Our idea is… Good? I think… See I’m not sure. D&Ad can be such a mixed bag of expectations and hard work. For all the effort in the world you put in, nothing is guaranteed. That’s what’s been going through my head all week. ‘Will we win, won’t we?’. At the end of the day though, I realise that it’s not about winning, it’s about putting a kick-ass project in our book and setting our standards higher. I spoke with a fellow student this week at the pub and what they/he/she/I can’t remember who it was said was that once we do this, all projects we do from now on will be compared to the standard we set here and now. That’s kind of cool and I’d like to think my own, and everyone else’s standards have been raised massively. As a collective we should be proud (still waiting on that wine and cheese Marc).

9 minutes and I’m running out of steam. My girlfriend interrupted me mid dinner to tell me about this SCAB as she’s pretty much in charge of my adult life these days. She’s just reminded me that I have 5 minutes left so I might aswell think of more to say…

So.. How are you? Are you a student, are you a non-student? Did you used to be a student at SCA? Know what? Here’s my advice to anyone thinking of doing this course.

Ehem… D&Ad is a perpetual ball ache from start to finish. Ideas are hard, good ideas are harder and great ideas live in a space that’s unknown. As of yet, I don’t think I’ve had a great idea so don’t worry if you’re in the same boat. It gets better and these tough times of panic, work and confusion make you stronger.

Cheesy stuff over, I have two minutes left before 10PM so I might aswell conclude it here.

Over and out.