A Trifecta of Disasters

A trifecta of disasters before, during and on the way home from Finovate made me think about resiliency. Do you have the skills to adapt to the future upon us now? How do you cultivate resiliency?

Trifecta of Disasters

A couple of days before I left for Finovate Fall, I called a plumber. Something was happening in my basement and it was getting worse. If you’ve ever lived in an apartment or house you don’t need any details. The plumber came, diagnosed the problem and a solution. I, however, would have to be home when they made the repairs. In the meantime, we could not use the kitchen sink, dishwasher or clothes washer until the problem was fixed. Doing so would only compound the problem. The fix would also have to wait until I got home the following week. In reality, this meant my kids could not use all those appliances. You might think this isn’t a big deal until you know my son is a chef. His idea of homework is fabricating a duck or creating a new gel made from beets or making chicken stock.

When I got to New York, I exchanged text messages with my daughter who should have been back at her dorm. She was still at our house. She texted that the cat had distracted her. A text the next day from her older brother revealed that she understated the distraction. The cat had peed on my bed. In between long days at culinary school, my son had to deal with the soiled blankets and sheets without a washer.

Late Wednesday afternoon, I got the train to return to Philadelphia. It’s an easy train trip. There are lots of trains and they usually run on time. Depending on the train, it’s typically a 1.5 - 2 hour trip. Before I left NYC, my son offered to pick me up at the train station which I accepted. We arranged for him to meet my train about 15 minutes after it was scheduled to arrive. A few hundred feet from the last stop before Philadelphia, the train stopped. It never really started again. We sat on the train for 3 hours before the train moved back to Trenton. Since we didn’t know when the train would get moving again – no firm statement from Amtrak just updates on the status – my son was still at the station. During the wait, we texted about dinner. Both of us were already hungry. At some point, he suggested that he pick up dinner at the student restaurant at his school which wasn’t far from the train station. A while later, the conductor announced that a train bound for Harrisburg, west of Philadelphia, was on the other track and passengers like me who were going to Philadelphia could get on. I grabbed my bags and got on the new train. I was exhausted and hungry when I got into the Philadelphia station.

When my kids were younger, I had a sitter who stayed overnight with them, made dinners, breakfasts, made sure they did their homework and got up for school in the morning. She slept in my bed. She was a college student who had her own studies and schedule to follow, so she obviously relied on me to arrive home on time. The kids were too young to leave on their own. Any of these events would have been enough to force me to cancel a trip, figure out some way for our sitter to manage for several days without a washer, sink or dishwasher. And an increasingly bad situation in the basement that was making itself known upstairs.

The point of all this? The trifectas of bad luck would have broken my system for work travel as a single parent. That system that was carefully held in place with a compassionate sitter, pre-made meals and lunches and a 10 page document that detailed routines, school bus stops and schedules and people to call.

Now, they are young adults. They’ve seen and maybe read that document, watched me handle multiple house issues, including a kitchen renovation that required us to cook with a microwave, hot plate and convection oven & live without a stove and sink for 3 months. Each of them has been responsible for their own laundry for 10 years. Obviously, my son can cook any meal  and they can go on their own to a grocery store, etc.

Resilience Requires Opportunities to Adapt

This trifecta of disasters made me think about financial services and resilience.

During the course of several unexpected problems, my kids used what they knew how to do to adapt to the current situation. When I got to the station, my son had 2 steaks ready to eat at home. Later, I learned that he had figured out to clean the bed linens so that there was no odors in the house. He had chef whites that had to be washed and dried before his next class, so he took them to his girlfriend’s house. He spent a bunch of money buying meals out. His girlfriend stayed over for a couple of nights which calmed the cat down a lot (she likes his girlfriend more than me). He didn’t ask me before he did these things; he just did them. The next day, the plumbers came and fixed the problem.

How have you empowered your staff – not just senior level staff or IT or business teams – but everyone in the financial institution to

• Use their knowledge to make decisions on their own? If my kids had merely followed the now out-of-date document, they probably would have left the house for the duration.

• Give them opportunities to do new things – maybe before they are ready. As I mentioned, my kids have been doing their own laundry for 10+ years. When I could no longer figure out which clothes in my son’s room were clean and which were dirty, I showed him how to use the washer and dryer. I told him to read the tags on his clothes before washing them. When he got to college, he was one of the few who already knew how to use a washer.

• Talk about what went wrong – and right. After the plumbing issue was completely fixed, my son and I talked about it. I admitted that I let the problem go too long. I also told him how impressed I was that he cleaned sheets without a washer or dryer.

• Be honest about longstanding challenges and problems. This cat situatuion is not new. But I think it’s time to talk to the vet about antidepressants for the cat. Change makes her more anxious than usual and I don’t think that’s an opportunity for anything good. She is not that resilient.

This list may seem trite and redundant but if you spend any time on an app, website or physical store, you know that the products available and the services you need or want are rotting.

Timing is Everything

Timing is everything, though. If these events had happened 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have been writing this piece. I’d be more worried about corporate survival, etc. But the same is true of financial services today isn’t it? Technologies weren’t advancing and improving at the rate they are now.

When are you going to give your employees the time & opportunities to propel your FI to the future that is already here?

Are you going to be content to push out broken customer service processes to AI agents that save FTEs but don’t really help? Or will you enable the people who know those processes best – and likely *know* they are broken – to re-imagine them?

One of the key takeaways from Finovate Fall for me was that AI is not an application, a silo or line of business or product or service. AI capabilities will permeate everything. It already is.

The FI that thinks in siloes is doomed. And, not the way you think. Employees who aren’t learning about AI in the context of their role will go somewhere that will give them the tools and opportunities to figure out how to solve problems and deliver solutions. They will because they too know that AI is everywhere and everything is changing. Timing is everything.

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.