This book will resonate with anyone no matter where you reside on this journey, whether newbie or old guard. If you want to be part of this change, you need to understand all about the messy middle that Leda so expertly describes in this book. If you read this book and it doesn’t resonate, then I suggest you think about stepping aside. —Curt Queyrouze, President, Coastal Community Bank
The world is going digital, and so is banking—in fits, starts, and circles. Why is it so hard? Why is the industry constantly getting in the way of its own technological progress and what can we do about it all? This book looks at the human and structural obstacles to innovation-driven transformation and at the change in habits, mindsets and leadership needed for the next stage of the digital journey and argues that this change will be brought about, not by external heroes and saviours, not by a generation yet to be born, but people just like us. People who understand the industry and its quirks. Bankers who have the grit, determination and energy to drive change. Bankers like us.
This book celebrates and chronicles the shared experience of bankers like us. It starts with a ‘this is who we are’ piece, including the author’s trench credentials. It then present an overview of corporate culture (this is what we deal with and a few ideas on how to handle it), as well as a piece on why transformation is so difficult and so many get it wrong; a piece on the challenges our lack of diversity brings or compounds, and a hopeful look-ahead on what a team of principled, dedicated folks can do despite everything.
Author(s): Leda Glyptis
Publisher: CRC Press/Auerbach
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 290
City: Boca Raton
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Foreword by Brett King
Foreword by Anthony Jenkins
Preface
Acknowledgements
Author
Chapter 1 FinTech, Bad Habits and Great People: The Main Ingredients of the Story Ahead
Sneak Preview
The Accidental Banker
Money Makes the World Go Round. It’s Not a Statement of Preference. Just a Statement of Fact
Almost Half of Our Actions Are Habitual
Why Do That to Yourself?
Asking Why, and Not Accepting ‘Just Because’ as an Answer
The Optimists
Enter Left: The Tribe
We Didn’t Become a Tribe, We Just Found Each Other and Realised We Already Were
In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was with the Banks and the Word Was FinTech
Forget Digital Banking: It’s the Economy That’s Digital
We Were Not Taken Unawares by Any of This
Chapter 2 Why This, Why Now and Why Working Towards a Big Dream Doesn’t Feel Big and Dreamy
Sneak Preview
A Banker’s Story Is Not Just for Bankers
We Inhabit a Small Part of a Niche Industry
What Is ‘Business as Usual’ in a Changed World?
Does That Sound Too Fluffy?
Bankers Are Not a Thing Apart
There’s More Than a ‘Cool App’ at Stake
Very Specific Manifestations of Universal Experiences or the CUSIP Story
No-One Is as Special as They Would Like to Think
Where Did You Grow Up?
The Challenge Is Universal, but the Solution Must Be Specific
Chapter 3 Bankers Behaving Badly
Sneak Preview
The Naughty Step
Starting at the Start: What Do We Mean When We Speak of Legacy
Legacy Ain’t All Bad
‘This Guy Dave’
The Times They Are a’Changin’
Plus, It Gets Emotional
The Heaviest Thing about Legacy Is the Humans That Perpetuate It
Hard Choices Made on Incomplete Information
Bankers Behaving Badly in the Wild
Exhibit A: The Cult of Busy
If You Are Not Angry, Are You Even Senior?
And If You Are Thinking, Well Thankfully All That Stopped with COVID, Don’t
Being Too Busy to Think Is Bad for You and Bad for Business. And Yet Here We Are
The Cult of Busy Infantilises Decision-Makers
We Have Normalised the Thinking Patterns of Exhaustion
Bankers Behaving Badly in the Wild
Exhibit B: The Dark Arts of Planning and Measuring
Hating the Player, Not the Game
The Problem with Asking Why Is That You Need to Keep Asking
Careers Are Built on Not Asking Why
What You Measure Defines What You Do
We Measure for Accountability but End Up Rewarding Inaction
The Myth of Inevitability
How Planning Gets in the Way of Applied Learning
What You Are Not Doing While Acting Like You Are in Control
So What Can Each of Us Do about All This?
Creating Healthy Habits Inside Your Organisation Starts with You
Bankers Behaving Badly in the Wild
Exhibit C: When Habits Breed Structures
Paper Monsters and RFPs
The Truth about Risk-Avoidance in Procurement
Bankers Behaving Badly in the Wild
Exhibit D: The Cycle of Aggressive Conformity
I Am Not Sure Who Needs to Hear This but I Ain’t No Cookie
We Have Normalised Sneering at Otherness. Time to Stop
What Is the Price You Are Not Willing to Pay?
The Closet of Shame
The Space between Accountability and Deniability
Learning to Learn from Our Mistakes, One Team at a Time
Call to Action Cheat Sheet
Chapter 4 Painting by Numbers: Diversity, Innovation and Why Lip Service Won’t Move the Needle
Sneak Preview
This Is a Story about Mansplaining
The Scene of the Crime
This Could Happen to You. In Fact. It Will
Omission
Commission
Collusion
Double Jeopardy
Walking a Mile in Our Shoes
Mouthing the Words
This Is Not a Perpetrator-Less Crime
Use That in a Sentence
It Will Happen Again, Because You Let It
Still Standing
Diversity Is a Fact. Not a Favour
It Is Time to Make Intentional, Consistent Choices
Talking Lions
Changing All the Things
The Thing about Meritocracy
Your Call to Action
Chapter 5 Fierce Grace: What Drives Us On, Despite Our Bad Habits and Demographic Constraints
Sneak Preview
The Biggest Cliché of Our Time Is Also True: Change Is the New Normal
We Are Not Talking About New Tools. We Are Talking About New Economic Models
Resistance Is Futile
Choices, Choices
When ‘the Very Beginning’ Is No Longer ‘a Very Good Place to Start’
Happy Endings Are Not Inevitable
This Is Going to Hurt
The Problem with the Future Is That the Present Was Here First
The Arcane Art of Consistent Decision-Making, Consistently
Not All Innovation Is Good for You
A Plague of Innovation Teams and How to Salvage What Matters
The ‘Innovation’ Trap
Maintaining Urgency in the Middle of Things
Half Way Hall or a Very Personal Story About ‘Middles’
Looking Back, to Look Ahead
Doing the Hard Things Well: The Messy Middle Manifesto
Navigating the Messy Middle: Hiring for Adversity
Then, Go Find Your Story Tellers
Your Last Group, Once You Found the Builders and the Story Tellers, Is the Plumbers
So Where Does That Leave Us?
When Evolution Can’t Keep Up, Intervention Is Inevitable
The King Is Dead, Long Live the King
Friends in Low Places
Saving Graces
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Not All Bankers Are Created Equal
Your Call to Action
Chapter 6 So (Now) What?
Sneak Preview
Admitting That ‘This Is Hard’ Is a Superpower
Furnish Change with Predictability
Remember to Ask Why
Aint’ About Lookin’ Cool
You Are Not, in Yourself, Enough: It Takes a Village
Know Your Place
The Complicated ‘How’ of a Simple ‘What’
Turkeys, Christmas and a Duty to Imagine
Finding Our Purpose
We Are, Above All Else, a Service Industry
We Are in the Money Business
Would You Move on, Already?
Financial Inclusion: A Much-Used, Much-Misused and Little-Understood Term
Demographic Reality Checks
We Have the Technology to Be Better Bankers, and Better Humans. All We Need Is Intent
It’s Been Done Before
I Ain’t Gonna Break My Stride: Maintaining Intent Through Discomfort
Contrary to What Your Mother Told You
What Does That Look Like, in Real Terms?
Smuggling the Future in Through the Back Door
Holding onto the Past Is an Extreme Sport
The Technocrats Need to Learn to Dream, or Stand Aside
There Is One More Thing, You Will Need for the Journey: Companions
It Takes a Village
#MyTribe
Final Call to Action (I Promise)
