My wife Samantha and I arrived at the Albuquerque (ABQ) airport several hours early today. The idea was to check in our bags and then go find a place to have a nice lunch together; we were traveling to different destinations and wouldn’t see each other for several weeks. Check in went smoothly, but as we walked towards the escalator the to TSA check-in, I immediately sensed something was up. The lobby was jammed full of people, and no one was going up the escalators—some people told us there had been an incident in the concourse, and no one was being allowed up through security. We weaved through the mass of people to find restrooms, which were in an area adjacent to the escalators. I noticed a sign next to a staircase that indicated you could reach the concourse through them. I figured …
Innovation ThinkTime
What Paper Towels Tell Your Employees
I recently walked into the break room at U.S. Dataworks and noticed someone had bought replacement paper towels. Based on my status of not having anything to do on my off time, along with my Sam’s Club membership, I had assumed responsibility for provision of our kitchen items. However, I had been out of town for an extended period and having run out of paper towels, someone took it upon themselves to get some. Kudos for the initiative! I take my responsibility of keeping our kitchen appropriately stocked to keep our staff fully allotted with snacks, drinks, and most importantly, coffee. I believe in having great coffee—I order coffee for the office from The Beanery (www.thebeanery.com) and they make sure we have the finest coffee at reasonable prices, as quality coffee is something …
The Importance of Speaking Well
As the emcee of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia Annual Conference, I get to introduce speakers and listen to their presentations. One of the highlights of this year's conference was a talk by the newly minted ICBA CEO Rebecca Romero Rainey. Rebecca comes from a line of community bankers and was previously CEO of her hometown bank located in Taos, New Mexico. Rebecca did not have any slides for her presentation. As far as I could tell, she did not have any notes from which she referred during her talk either. What she did was offer a vision of how community banks can strengthen their communities by offering great products and solutions with superior service. What struck me the most was just how competent and confident she was as a speaker. I am a professional speaker. …
Do What You Can Do
After two long, but rewarding weeks teaching technology and innovation at the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Colorado, I was at the Denver airport waiting on my flight back to Houston. I had parked at a charging station and was working on my computer when out of the corner of my eye, I saw something hit the ground right in front of where I was sitting. I couldn’t identify what it was, but looked up and saw a Southwest flight attendant that was running in the other direction. As I gazed back to look at what had fallen, a man sitting closer to the item than me jumped up, picked it up and started running after the woman. They both disappeared around the corner. Hmmmm, something’s up! After a couple of minutes, the man returned. I told him how impressed I was at how …
Apple Watch and the Kardia Watchband
While in a Graduate School of Banking class on Effective Use of Technology, I discussed the future of technology, such as the Apple Watch. Along with the future C-Suite leaders that were in attendance, I talked about the fact that there was still no “killer” watch app for banking. Other than notifications that come to the watch (which also come to your phone), I was lamenting that there was as of yet, no specific watch feature that would enhance the banking customer experience. I will admit that I didn’t have any good ideas; the watch is essentially an extension of the phone, so what would truly be unique for the watch to do related to financial services that wouldn’t be just as effective on a smartphone? That very evening, I was out at dinner with Mike Beird and Erin Handel, the …