When it comes to back of the napkin thinking, I love Southwest Airlines.
First, the airline was originally conceived of on the back of a napkin. (In 1967, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher sketched out their idea at the St. Anthony's Club in San Antonio, Texas).
Second, Southwest is the only airline that prints its route map on the cocktail napkins they hand out in flight.
Yesterday, I found out about the third Southwest napkin story. It turns out that Southwest flight attendants use napkins to report cabin details to the Captain. Seriously.
Here's the story. A couple weeks ago I gave a visual thinking workshop at Gap Inc. here in San Francisco, and I told the Southwest napkin tale. Afterward, a Gap employee named Marnie told me that she had a friend who was a flight attendant on Southwest, and asked if I was interested in how napkins are used by the flight crews today. I said yes, at which point Marnie promised to send me "something".
I kind of forgot about it, until I received an envelope in the mail yesterday from Marnie. Inside was an actual Southwest Airlines "Rev Napkin" from a Las Vegas - Seattle flight, accompanied by a detailed description of how the cabin crew uses napkins in flight.
After everyone has boarded the plane and settled in, the head flight attendant takes a final tally of the number of passengers and jots the number on a cocktail napkin. He or she then writes down the flight number, route of flight, and names of the cabin attendants. Just before takeoff, the napkin is passed up to the cockpit. Based on this info, the Captain and First Officer complete their final preflight reports and get underway.
The humble napkin can stand up and take a bow. On Southwest, at least, it plays a key role in flight.
And which side of the napkin does the crew write on? The back, of course.
