How a pair of red sneakers became the symbol of digital transformation at U.S. Bank — Part 1

An interesting thing happened on the way to helping the fifth largest bank with their digital transformation, Vice Chairmen Tim Welsh and John Elmore, wore red sneakers on stage at our all-employee event wearing red sneakers and spoke about how their shoes were a symbol of our newfound spirit to be bold and different.

That’s when I realized, how the simple act of wearing red sneakers has become a symbol of our organizational shift. But, like other trends, its beginning was much more modest.

The origins

In late 2017, a large team of folks from all corners of the enterprise were thrown in a training room, told to self organize using an agile mindset and given the goal of aggressively growing mobile deposits. To say this was a departure from the status quo would be an understatement.

The team assembled was smart, its members were motivated, but to have a chance at achieving the goal, I knew we would have to not only be creative in our approach, but we would have to experiment continuously with what was considered crazy ideas and we would have to question how quickly work got done. In other words, I needed the rebel in all of them to come out.