5 Lessons Bankers Can Learn From The West Wing

As summer ends in the Northern Hemisphere, I've been re-watching The West Wing and thinking not of politics - but about banking.

source: TV Guide

As the end of August approaches, I assume some of you are reading this far from your office or fetching school supplies or schlepping a child to college or reading Theo Lau’s new book Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence or just wishing summer could last a little longer. Or all of the above. Or none of the above. I’ve been doing a lot of each of these things. In the spirit of summer, not yet fall, I’d like to explore some lessons that The West Wing can teach us. Are there other, maybe better, teachable moments? Probably. Is this list reflective of my favorite West Wing episodes? You bet.

1. Let Barlett be Bartlett

The Barlett administration finds that Congressional representatives, military representatives don’t take the President’s advisors seriously when they put out tentative feelers on an issue. Why? Because their experience is that these feelers aren’t authentic. They sense that the President isn’t serious about them because he doesn’t take a clear position on the issues. Consequently, his advisors don’t have any power to persuade the reps to change their positions in one direction or another. In trying to please competing interests, the President loses the essence that appealed to voters in the first place. The episode revolves around this point: If you can’t be yourself, hold positions that are true to your beliefs, at your job, whatever are you doing there? If you don’t encourage & reward your staff to be themselves, why are you leading? When President Barlett and his Chief of Staff finally embrace the President’s authentic self, the issues & positions he really wants to champion, the team, his advisors, finally come together. They can finally act with independence and confidence.

• Are your FIs products and services so generic that they are no longer representative of your FI’s own mission and beliefs? I’m thinking especially of credit unions and community banks that typically have clear membership and communities that they serve.

• Are you letting FOMO on the latest & greatest tech hype cloud your mission, your strategy, your relationship with and understanding of your customers?

• What are your FI’s values? This is a topic that Rik Coeckelsbergs goes into detail about in his book A New Ethos in Banking

• Identify the gaps between your products/services and your mission and values. This is not easy but you can direct your product development in a way that aligns with that mission and those values. This alignment will matter to your customers – and prospective customers.

2. The Fall’s Gonna Kill You

Toby figures out that the Vice President is taking initial steps to run for President and he wants to know why. This leads to the revelation inside the White House that President Barlett didn’t tell anyone except the Vice President about his Multiple Sclerosis (MS) diagnosis during his campaign for the US Presidency. As a result, all kinds of personal, political, ethical and relationship problems are unleashed. Would he have won anyway? We don’t know. What we do know is that hiding the diagnosis put a wedge in his relationship with his closest advisors and staff – most of whom have been with him since the beginning of his candidacy – before he was even a viable candidate for the Presidency. While most of his staff are concerned about the optics and political fallout of the President telling the public about his having MS, CJ Craig, the Press Secretary tells Josh Lyman that all this worry about polling is nothing because “the fall’s gonna to kill you” a reference to the classic American movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

• Prepare to be transparent & honest on the front end. Once you’ve broken trust in your relationships, whether with partners, employees or customers, it’s much more difficult to repair. This isn’t news to anyone, of course. But think about this in context of the multiple ways your FI communicates when:

  • your mobile banking app crashes

  • your FI experiences a cyber attack

  • you prepare an opaque email to customers about anything

  • you give your customer service reps a bland script for talking to customers and no way to actually solve problems quickly - or elevate them to the right internal person.

  • Your customers know.

• The fall may have already killed you. What steps are you taking to repair trust and confidence?

3. 18th & Potomac & Two Cathedrals

Yes, two episodes but they are deeply connected. President Barlett’s faithful secretary Mrs. Landingham is killed by a drunk driver. She and the President have known each other since he was a student at a private school where his father was head master. She inspired him to do more with his life, to become a leader. Her death forces the President to confront some of his past, his relationship with God. We don’t know how long each of us have. Grief doesn’t follow a timeline, stop at the door to the office. Grief affects everyone differently. Grief is part of everyone’s past and impacts our present and future. Grief shapes each of us - you and your employees – and your customers in both predictable and unpredictable ways.

• Reconsider the culture, especially in innovation teams, that encourages work weeks that exceed 50-60 hours per week without regard to personal lives, health, families.

• Does your corporate culture reflect sensitivity to your employees’ grief and how people grieve? When was the last time you reviewed your leave policy for attending funerals and bereavement? Do male employees take less time off than women? If you’re worried about the impact of offering more time off on productivity, consider the impact on productivity for your employees who come back to work overwhelmed with sadness. That said, some people grieve (or avoid grief) by digging harder into their work. Does your culture encourage that?

• How do you remember employees who are also friends who die? Whether and how you do will say a lot about your FI.

• Do your banking products, services, processes and customer journeys include your customers’ grief? Many people are trying to manage both profound grief with all the paperwork required by death and/or illness.

4. Twenty-Five

The President’s daughter is drugged and kidnapped from a nightclub. The President is suddenly responding to the event only as a father; he’s unable to function as a President. Following the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, he must temporarily resign the Presidency to the person next in line.

• Your personal and business environment can change in minutes. Geopolitics are changing the economic environments all over the world with increasing unpredictability and causing even more uncertainty. A single event can change your POV/strategy/plan etc. Things might go back to normal - or they might not.

• How does your FI accommodate new sources of change and stress?

• How have your vendors and other suppliers accommodated changes to the business environment? Have you talked with them about the impact of these changes on your digital banking solutions?

• Have you thought about or planned for how these changes might/will impact your fintech - and other - partnerships?

5. The Supremes

Compromise, disagreement and debate lead to better decisions and outcomes and innovation. The President gets to pick a new Supreme Court Justice. These picks are typically viewed as a big part of the President’s legacy. It’s natural to want to focus on this goal, to continue with business as it’s usually done. Leda Glyptis recently wrote about this. During this process the President’s advisors see two judges – one who is left of center and one who is right of center spar with each other. The advisors, Toby and Josh, see that choosing one Justice who does not promote any controversy is the easy way out. This business as usual decision will deprive the Supreme Court and consequently the country of the value of rigorous debate about the legal issues that come before them and compromises that typically result from such debates. So, the President’s advisors recommend 2 nominees. (Also, great writing can come from sadness and grief. See above. You’ll have to listen to this The West Wing Weekly podcast episode to understand why.)

• Are your staff meetings “violent agreement fests” where your team members may disagree on minor points but no one ever disagrees on the overall project, proposal or idea?

• How do you promote civil disagreement, debate and compromise in your team

• Do you reward or encourage or discourage people on your team to disagree with strategic plans, system upgrades, features, technology changes? Do you penalize people who disagree or are critical by not promoting them or not allowing them to get involved with new projects and technologies?

What’s Next?

in honor & memory of Barb MacLean

• Finovate Fall NYC 7-10 September. On September 7th, Jim Perry, Efi Pylarinou and I will be in conversation with Theodora Lau about what we’ve learned from the books we’ve read in the Fintech Book Club.

• Join us on 9 September when we discuss Lau’s new book Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence.

• Want to talk with me while we’re at Finovate? DM via LinkedIn or email me to schedule time.

Who writes PivotAssets?

I’m an independent analyst, strategic advisor & consultant (& a former Gartner analyst). I’ve worked in and covered the banking industry for over 2 decades.

My aim is not to confirm what you know (and you are plenty smart!) but to challenge you & give you a fresh perspective & analysis on the transformation that is —and isn’t happening - in the industry.

How can I help you?

• Want more insights and analysis on small innovations, ghosting customers, hidden tribes and leveraging your bank’s legacy? Need help positioning your digital banking solution or fintech to meet the demands of today’s banking environment? I have my own firm PivotAssets.

• To collaborate with me: I can analyze your GTM strategy or sales or VC presentation, help you prepare for your first vendor briefing or your first funding pitch meeting. I also write pieces of thought leadership relevant to your business, solutions or technology. I also organize and moderate webinars, podcasts, panels and other events.

• Contact me at stessa@pivotassets.co or via LinkedIn.

• I’m also available for inquiry and strategy sessions via Third Eye Advisory.

Me, Elsewhere

• FinVino. Ivo Spigel and Nick Holland and I have co-founded FinVino, a new banking/fintech retreat for CxOs coming to Hvar, Croatia in 2026. It’s an opportunity for senior banking executives to explore the intersection between banking and the wine industry - two legacy industries facing disruption and innovation. Follow our LinkedIn page for details. Interested in sponsoring this event? Send me an email or direct message!

• I’m an expert advisor at Third Eye Advisory. Check out my latest research there.

• I’ve moderated a great panel of folks for a conversation on innovation. We cut through the hype and share practical advice for making your digital transformation efforts pay off. We definitely talked about the importance of small innovations.