Month: February 2010

1

Step 50: Innovation in Banking

Christa Avampato

Here’s a sad story: I arrived home to find Fast Company in my mailbox with the cover story being the world’s 50 most innovative companies and not a single one is a U.S. bank. Not one. An entire industry that underpins our whole economy, indeed the world economy, and none are innovating to a high enough level. Of course this isn’t surprising – what is surprising is that this sorry fact is not lighting a fire under the banking industry’s behind. And it should.

This can’t continue. Innovation, rapid, responsive, tech-savvy innovation, has got to take the banking industry by storm in short-order. And I’m not talking about the shenanigans of creative accounting that almost brought our entire economy to a complete halt in recent history. I’m talking about enhanced servicing, products that people crave, and new lines of business that enable ordinary people to live extraordinary lives. I’m talking about innovation that invigorates the best, brightest, and most creative minds we’ve got to do the most good in the world that can be done.

Bankers have got to stop watching out for their bonuses more than their customers. They’ve got to be more concerned with being great than being rich. And this isn’t a naive wish – this is reality. If they are going to survive, let alone thrive, banks need to get with the program, stop thinking like stodgy old has-beens, and start thinking like passionate entrepreneurs who have a great sense of urgency. The top 50 most innovative companies list needs to be littered with financial services companies, not devoid of them. And it’s up to us in financial services to see that this gets done.

change

Step 49: Usefulness

Christa Avampato

“There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple, and useful life.”
~ Booker T. Washington, American political leader and educator

“I release this,” I thought to myself today more than once. “I am removing myself from any attachment to the outcome of this conversation. I am free to do what I love, to do what’s useful.” This simple statement gave me a very powerful feeling and a rush of energy that I wasn’t expecting. It gave me room to breathe.

For all of the times we feel powerless or helpless or victimized, there is one remedy that we can practice that gets easier the more often we try it: release attachment to the outcome. So much of our pain is generated by trying to hang on to something that has slipped away, or worse yet something we have willingly left that has left a mark on our hearts.

So how can we let go of what hurts in favor of what heals and nurtures?:

1.) Visualization is a powerful tool. Imagine leaving something painful behind. Wrap it up, tuck it away, and then walk away knowing that it’s done.

2.) Remember that something which causes pain can also provide us with incredible learning. There is a principle in yoga that says the world gives us exactly the learning we need exactly when we need it. Something that didn’t go the way we had planned is not time wasted. We’re better for the trials we endure.

3.) A friend of mine once sent me a quote during a very difficult time. It said, “the world is a very generous place. It will give you the same lesson over and over again until you finally learn it and don’t need to go through it anymore.” Learn the lesson and move on.

4.) Tough times clear out what our lives no longer need. If we release what’s causing us pain, what’s no longer useful to us, we make room for a life composed of things that bring us joy and make our days worthwhile. When you’re going through tough times, remember that at the end of that tunnel, and no matter how bad things are there certainly is an end, there is a great and glorious light waiting to receive us. Trust the journey and keep going.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

Olympics, sports

Step 48: Just Enough is Enough

Christa Avampato

I am addicted to the Winter Olympics coverage. I am staying up way past my bedtime on a regular basis, cheering for the athletes as if I know them personally. It’s getting a bit out of hand. Thank goodness that the Olympic Games (winter or summer) only run for a handful of days every two years.

I just watched Apolo Ohno skate for the trials of the 1000 meter on the speed skating short track. He stayed in 3rd place for a good amount of time in his heat, and then made his move along the inside of the track to secure a first place finish. The commentator remarked that Ohno only pushed as much as he needed to so that he was assured a spot in the final race. “Remember,” the commentator said, “he’s got a relay leg to do tonight.”

Pacing. It’s all about the pacing. Doing what you have to do to get where you need to be. It’s a concept I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It’s easy to wear ourselves out in the pursuit of perfection. Luckily we rarely, if ever, need to be perfect. Follow Apolo Ohno. Know what you need to do in the moment and get it done.

The photo above depicts Apolo Ohno at the head of the pack. It was taken by Wolfgang Rattay of REUTERS.

China, communication, culture

Step 47: Chicken Talks to Duck

Christa Avampato

I recently took a spin through Chinatown with my friend, Michael. He and his lovely wife, Min, have been schooling me on Chinese culture. My friend, Allan, is grateful for the help. Being from Beijing, Allan has been showing me the ways of the Chinese for almost 5 years now. With my endless questions, Allan can use all the reinforcements he can get!

Allan, Min, and Michael have shown me so many incredible aspects of Chinese culture, a culture we so sadly know precious little about in the U.S. P.F. Chang’s and electronics do not a culture make. Chinese manufacturing is largely responsible for our lifestyle in this country, and yet we have not taken to their literature or philosophy as readily as we should. It’s a shame, really. Their wisdom has so much to offer us as we make our way down the road to enlightenment.

One aspect of Chinese culture that I adore are the proverbs. In a handful of words, they encompass so much learning. Michael hit me with one the other day that’s been on my mind ever since. “Ji tong ya jiang” – in English it literally translates to “chicken talks to duck.” Both birds, found in the same geographies, and no matter what, they can’t understand each other. How many times a day do we have this same conundrum with others? You say something to me, I say something back, sometimes in the same language, and neither of us have a clue what the other said.

So how do we get beyond chicken talks to duck? In other words, can we learn empathy and understanding? Yes, I believe we can. It’s not easy, and if we aren’t born with an innate sense of empathy, I think it always remains a challenge. Not impossible, but indeed challenging.

Here are 6 ways to get some empathy and gain a better sense of understanding of others:
1.) Volunteer – spending time on a project with others, and particularly helping others who are struggling, instills us with a remarkable sense of understanding. It forces us to walk in another’s shoes.

2.) Travel and seek out the locals. I can’t stand resorts and fancy digs on vacation. They create such an unnatural barrier between tourists and locals. They impede understanding. So whenever I’m traveling, I get out, way out, of my comfort zone.

3.) Read literature, listen to music, eat food, and see art that’s entirely foreign to you. A peoples’ culture comes alive in their art. It tells their history, their trials and tribulations. Give it a whirl and you’ll discover things about others and about yourself that you never even imagined.

4.) Learn a new language. Inexpensive language classes and conversation groups exist in almost every major U.S. city. You really want to understand another culture? Literally try to speak with their words and you’ll learn and earn their hearts.

5.) Take up the sport, exercise, or meditation of another culture. Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, karate, cricket. A nation’s pastime is an enjoyable way to more deeply understand their culture.

6.) Stop in at the church, synagogue, temple, ashram, or mosque of another culture. I’m not saying you have to believe in what’s being preached. Just listen. Culture the world over is deeply rooted in religions. Learn how a culture prays, where they turn to when times are tough, and understanding their daily lives becomes easier.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

career, childhood, dreams

Step 46: Closing the Heart-Mind Gap

Christa Avampato

“The greatest distance in the world is the 14 inches from our minds to our hearts.” ~ Agnes Baker Pilgrim

On Friday, I had my annual physical and for the first time the doctor performed an EKG. I had these little electrodes placed all over my body. Even the slightest movement, even clearing my throat, caused my heart rate to change. Its beat is the center of our existence, and yet we spend very little time actually considered the needs and wants of the heart, or rather our minds spend a lot of time dismissing the heart’s needs and wants.

How do we close the gap? How do we help our lives sing out from the heart while being informed by the tremendous cognitive abilities pulsing inside our enormous brains? I just finished reading Michael Pollan’s excellent book In Defense of Food. Pollan points out that we actually already know how to eat; we don’t need any scientist to tell us. What’s happened is that we’ve allowed “nutrionism” and food science to lead us astray. He advocates for getting back to our roots to help us re-learn how to eat well. I think the same method could be used to close our heart-mind gap.

A few months back I wrote an article for Examiner.com about getting back to age 9 to discover what will make us the happiest in our careers. The trouble is that once we get too far beyond age 9, we allow too many people to tell us what is best for us. We let others tell us what to do with our lives so often that we actually begin to believe them. When we’re 9, all we can do is imagine what kind of life will make us happiest. That’s the only focus of a 9 year old. As a 33 year old, I want to have that same maniacal focus on happiness that my 9 year old self had. I deserve it. You deserve it. We all deserve it.

In a recent job interview, someone remarked that my professional experience was “weird”. (I ended up opting out of the interview process as a result.) By “weird”, he meant that I have always done what I wanted to do. In my career, I just follow my heart rather than some plan defined my someone else as a “good way to go”. My friend, Susan Strayer, brilliantly advocates for following your heart in her incredible book The Right Job Right Now. Susan asks her readers to look up and then look in to find out what they really want to do with their careers. It’s the only career book in my personal library and I consult it regularly to keep me leading my career with my heart.

I’m not saying it’s easy to get back to being 9. There are some things I do to put me in that frame of mind. This isn’t a comprehensive list, but it helps me and I hope it helps you, too.

6 Ways I get back to 9:
1.) Play on the swings in the park near my house
2.) Spend time with kids – getting back to 9 by osmosis
3.) I paint with watercolors, sing, and dance with wild abandon on a regular basis – even if it’s just in my apartment by myself
4.) I watch cartoons – who says there’s nothing good on TV? Sesame Street is my favorite show.
5.) I spend time in nature. As a kid I grew up on an apple orchard in a rural area of upstate New York. Getting out into nature reminds me of running around the woods with my sister, Weez.
6.) I read children’s books and fairy tales. Those words and feelings of the young characters still resonate with me, and remind me to celebrate all that I felt when I was that age.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

love, relationships

Step 45: Love, Love, Love

Christa Avampato

Valentine’s Day. I know lots of people who hate this holiday. “Invented by Hallmark,” so they say. “Gross, canoodling couples. Every day should be Valentine’s Day. Love, yuck. Men suck. Girls are mean. And all the rest of it. Who needs it?” Me. I need it.

Valentine’s Day always keeps me looking up. I don’t have a Valentine this year, but I wish I did. Love and romance are really wonderful things to have, and I do believe that the more we truly are open to them, the easier it will be to find them. We have to be positive about love. If we have a negative attitude toward finding it, or not finding it as the case may be, we can be sure it will continue to elude us.

My friends, Jeff and Ashley, and I have a little love pact. We go out of our way to find singles events that we can all go to so that we can meet as many people as possible. Parties, mixers, events, etc. If it’s possible that we can meet new people, we bring one another along. It’s our philosophy that we never know when love will find its way to us, but we’re certain that the more we get out there into the world, the easier it will be.

In our quest for love, we need support to keep us going and looking. Maybe 2010 will be my year for love. Or at least one step closer to it. Happy Valentine’s Day.

inspiration, sports, travel

Step 44: Ski, Skate, and Be from Canada

Christa Avampato

About a year ago I wrote a book review of Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi by Nanci Kincaid. It’s a love letter to a state and a culture that a brother and sister left behind in pursuit of dreams housed elsewhere. Their nostalgia and pride felt for their home seeps through in every line.

Last night while watching the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics I felt that same kind of pride and nostalgia that most certainly was felt in the heart of every Canadian. Earlier that day I had emailed with my friend, Derek, quite possibly the proudest Canadian there is. This morning I received a long, multi-paragraphed email from him recounting his favorite details of the ceremony. I love being an American, though there’s something about Derek’s pride, the pride of every Canadian, that sometimes makes me wish I was even just part Canadian.

At Darden, I sat next to a friend of mine from Vancouver. I’ve never been and when I asked him what it was like, he called it “the Paris of Canada.” And I love Paris. Since then, I’ve been fascinated with that city. I had planned to go about 18 months ago when I was in Seattle for a wedding. Because I had just gotten a new job, I had to sadly lob off the Vancouver portion of my trip. This year, I’m going. After those opening ceremonies, I have to see a city that inspired a show at once so grand and so intimate.

Despite that I grew up in the mountains, I’ve never been skiing or snowboarding or even snowshoeing. It’s sad really. And I have to do something about that. I think this is going to be my year to take to the snow and to get that rush that an entire nation feels when they just think of that luscious white powder. If I can’t be a Canadian, I at least want to be able to walk in their shoes (or ski boots as the case may be) for a while.

As always, the Olympics has arrived exactly when we need it most. For a few weeks, we can turn our attention and focus to the exhibition of excellence and triumph and determination. We can look at the gritty, grinning, and unflappable athletes with awe and admiration. For 17 days, we can be inspired by hope and gorgeous performance. As K.D. Lang sang with such passion last night, “Hallelujah”.

choices, education, time

Step 43: Traveling a Path Takes Time

Christa Avampato

“Yes there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there’s still time to change the road you’re on.” ~ Led Zeppelin, “Stairway to Heaven”

This week has been filled with ups and downs of very high and very low proportions. On the very high side, I was offered and accepted a new position at my company, an assignment so fantastic that I’m going to tempt fate a bit and say it’s a dream assignment. A blank sheet of paper and lots of opportunity with a fantastic team.

The very tough decision to make was to not conduct Innovation Station, my after-school program about product development, with Citizen Schools. With all this newness hitting of the job and the program at exactly the same time, I was feeling a little overwhlemed and pulled in too many directions. Usually I just allow myself to be overwhelmed and go with it. I’m trying to be better about this. Something had to give and that something couldn’t be my sanity or my time with my friends and family. So I will have to find another way forward for Innovation Station.

I’ve been feeling badly about this decision, recognizing that I couldn’t have it all, at least not right now. And then this quote made me feel a bit better. We can always change the road we’re on; we don’t always recognize that. We sometimes forget that almost everything that happens in our lives in something we choose. If we really want to make something happen, we can find a new avenue for it.

Yes, we can find the right path, but traveling the path takes time and we don’t always progress in the manner or in the time frame that we’d like to. Sometimes, we have to slow down, for our own sake and for the sake of our calling. It’s a tough, powerful lesson to learn and I’m trying.

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

choices, journey

Step 42: The Hero’s Choice

Christa Avampato

This week Brian and I were talking through some personal choices I will need to make in the coming months. I’m having trouble deciding what to do – all of the options are fabulous. Poor, unfortunate me, right? Having to choose between fabulous and fabulous is a tough row to hoe.

Brian has a way of staring at me very directly as if to say, “seriously, this is what you’re worried about?” Then I start laughing, fall over to my side on the couch, and shake my head in wonder. If all else fails, I never have to worry about knowing how to entertain myself with my whirling, churning mind.

“Let me get a little Joseph Campbell on you,” Brian said. “The hero’s journey involves choices, and the nature of those choices must be difficult. Anyone can choose between a fantastic choice and a terrible choice. A hero, or heroine, has to make tough choices. That’s the nature of the hero’s journey.”

I sat with that thought for a while, turning it over and over in my mind. “I guess you’re right,” I conceded. “I can’t go wrong, can I?”

“No. May you always have a life where you have to choose between wonderful options,” Brian said.

“Let’s hope so, Brian,” I said.

“Forget hope. Let’s just make it happen.”

I laughed. “Yes. Let’s.”

The image above is not my own. It can be found here.

Examiner, technology

Divvyshot opens its doors to the world

Christa Avampato

A few months ago I interviewed Sam Odio, Founder of Divvyshot, a fantastic photo site that takes the pain out of sharing your favorite pics. Today, only hours ago, Sam and the crew at Divvyshot opened its online doors to the world with a fantastic new site. Now you don’t have to worry about selecting files in batches and uploading them, painfully and slowly. Divvyshot utilizes a drag-and-drop method that’s elegant, simple, and brilliant.

Team Divvyshot took the idea of customer simplicity one step further with an iPhone app that gives users the capability to upload photos in real time. Can’t be bothered with tapping keys in the app? Check this out: the Divvyshot iPhone app also allows users to transfer thousands of photos by shaking two phones together. Seriously, can this app get any better? No iPhone? No problem. Users can also email photos to an event.

Did I mention Divvyshot is free? Yes, free, to everyone. I’m not sure why anyone would ever use another photo upload service. Not convinced? Check out the demo here.

Divvyshot is a YCombinator start-up.