I fly a lot. And since my residence is in South Georgia, I have to fly from Valdosta to Atlanta to get basically anywhere. On a recent trip from Valdosta to Oklahoma City (OKC), the inbound flight from Atlanta to Valdosta was late by almost an hour. All the passengers on my flight were aware of the situation because we were getting updates from the gate agents at the Valdosta airport and through the Delta app (which is pretty good, by the way). When I fly, I generally just carry on a rollaboard—I rarely check this bag. But on the flight from Valdosta to Atlanta, the aircraft used is a regional 33 seat jet, so the bags have to be gate checked. As you walk to the plane, you hand over your bag. When you arrive in Atlanta, you deplane and then wait for all the pink-tagged bags to show up in …
Innovation ThinkTime
You Must Get Automated Communication Right!
A couple of months ago, I took my 2013 Ford Expedition into Joe Cooper Ford in Oklahoma City. My check engine light was on and my windshield washer reservoir was cracked, so I figured I would get those items fixed. I had purchased my Expedition from a different Ford dealership, and I had never been to the Joe Cooper dealership for service in the past. Driving up to the service bay, I could tell right away this was going to be a different experience. There was a large multi-lane drive-through with electronic signs that told you when to wait and when to drive forward. This process allowed several automated diagnostic tools to inspect your car. For example, my front-end alignment was checked, and I could see the immediate results on a big screen (It showed my alignment was green (good)). …
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How Much is the Macaroni and How Much is the Cheese?
I recently spoke with several professional speakers about the state of our industry. As you can imagine, every in-person conference and meeting of consequence has been canceled. And the outlook for our industry in the coming months is bleak. At the beginning of May 2020, industry expert Mark Schaefer surveyed business executives who routinely travel to conferences and conventions; the results of the survey showed that in-person conferences over 500 people may not come back until early 2022. You can see that full article and the survey results here. During these conversations with other industry professionals, I learned meeting planners have been expecting speakers to be available for free (or just about) when doing events remotely. For example, let’s say a speaker was booked for an …
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A Gift that is Not Giving …
There will always be people who are more thoughtful than you are—or they’re at least better at showing it. They remember things like birthdays and anniversaries, and they are always finding ways to show how thoughtful and caring they are. Kevin Sasser is that type of friend for me. He and I worked together for many years, but these days we don’t get to see each other that frequently. And yet, out of the blue, I recently received a birthday gift from Kevin—a $10 gift card to Starbucks. Kevin knows how much I love coffee, and I can certainly make use of this excellent gift. Here is the email I received: It seemed pretty straightforward. All I had to do was click and receive my gift. Before I did, however, I investigated the URL behind the link to make sure it was not malware. The …
Defining the Problem
I had a recent online exchange with a colleague. He had responded to a post I’d made regarding how to use creative brainstorming to harvest new and unusual solutions to a problem. But he had a problem about his problem. Here was his original text to me: Hey David, Thanks for the tip yesterday about finding a solution. Do you have any favorite techniques for defining the problem? I find I get wrapped up in my view or interpretation of the problem. Going to try the Five Whys approach today on several problems to try to identify root causes. He had identified an issue that throws off many of my strategic planning clients, so I want to address it here. If you don’t have a well-defined problem, how do you know you are brainstorming the right solution? I sent him this text in response: …