While having dinner with a couple of old banker friends recently, our conversation turned to a consistent challenge many management teams face. It started when one friend shared that he was recently in a meeting in which his bank's "revised" incentive plan for branch managers and frontline employees was being explained.

On a recent flight, the gentleman next to me shared a banking story that made my day.

Over the past couple of years, the seemingly dull topic of time management has become one that senior managers are showing increased interest in discussing with their teams. I suspect this has as least something to do with the fact that we are asking smaller and smaller branch teams to accomplish more with less.

I recently recounted a personal story to a bank's management team that I've shared frequently over the years. I tell it to drive home the point about the importance of eliminating "clutter" that accumulates in our organizations over time. As the group laughed, I assured them that, sadly, this was a true story.

Recently, after giving a speech to a banker group that skewed rather young, the bank's head recruiter offered me a ride to the airport. Along the way, she told me that she had paid special attention during my presentation to the reactions of their newer hires in the audience.

In our increasingly detached world, where folks spend more time staring at little screens in their hands than interacting with people, the things that create real customer relationships are as simple as ever.

I recently caught up with friends, colleagues, and customers at a large banking conference.

All of the bank-bashing I've witnessed in recent months has me reflecting on one of my favorite Buffett lines. I'm talking about Jimmy, not Warren.

One of my mantras over the past few years has been that as our industry becomes more technology-driven and our products and services more commoditized, our people become more important, not less.

There are few topics as easy to get into a friendly, if a bit heated, debate these days as "the future of branches" in banking. Many folks quickly compare branches to buggy whip factories and traditional bankers to Luddites. Others jump in and cite research or survey results that say customers still prefer to open accounts in branches, and that, by the way, branches are still profitable.