Gideon’s sword

I am channelling Pollyanna more and more as I get older, which is a surprise to me as much as the people who knew me growing up.

Don’t respond to every trend, fad and media cycle. Focus on what matters.

I was a firebrand, and in some ways, I still am. But I am a mellow firebrand these days, if that’s a thing that is possible.

I value kindness and positivity alongside my principles and my flaming sword.

I value principles that come with integrity, the ability to live in a world that makes space for disagreement and a willingness to discuss and listen (crazy, I know) before picking up arms.

Be it your position on DEI, politics or the immediate usefulness of stablecoins, there must be a way to exist that doesn’t involve choosing violence as the only accompaniment to your morning coffee.

Principles, consistency and focus on what matters. Which can’t be all the things. It just can’t.

And that last part is maybe what’s missing the most.

I get asked about trends a lot. What are you seeing next? What will happen next? And although I have an answer, I rarely give it. The answer I give instead, consistently over the last 20 years, is “What’s next and what’s next for you are not one and the same”.

Trends matter. Of course they do. Context matters. We operate in a globally interconnected economy. We are consumers of technology not invented by or for us. Only a fool would advocate ignoring the geopolitical, regulatory, economic and technological context for business, and I am no fool.

But not ignoring the context and getting whiplash from trying to decode its foibles are not interchangeable. Keeping an eye on the context and knowing which way to move your organisation aren’t the same thing. Especially as, more often than not, we seem to be looking around us for reasons to stick to our guns. Under the guise of “What’s next? What should I lose sleep over?”, we ignore everything but the scary and the reassuring. As if the only information relevant to business was in the extremes. And for everything else… we stick to our guns.

But the question of whether our guns were fit for purpose in the first place hardly comes up.

It’s hard work, filtering the information the world bombards us with and determining what to act on and what to let pass by. But it needn’t be.

Let me demonstrate.

Funnily enough, the story starts with a sword.

How apt.

Remember my wonderful godson, Gideon? Yes, yes, it is he of commit to not dying fame. Well. He’s back with another life lesson for you. From the mouths of babes, business sense emerges.

We were in a store just before Halloween.

My general approach to buying toys is: I have no idea what kids like, so let the kid pick what they like, provided mum and dad approve. I solve a lot of my problems that way. Come to me for more godparenting tips any time.

Anyway, back to the story.

We walk around the store. Gideon’s sister has a deeply involved set of trade-offs to negotiate as she’s working out what she wants. I am delighted with a Nightmare Before Christmas beanie I have snagged for myself and Gideon emerges, after much deliberation, wielding a sword.

Eye contact with mum made. Are we OK with swords? Sure? Fine. Let’s go.

On the way to the car, Gideon is well chuffed, making battle with the air until he is stopped dead in his tracks by his sister, who can read, looking at the label still attached to his sword and saying, “This is Anna’s sword.”

That’s Anna from Frozen. Of course. Come on people, do keep up.

Gideon can’t read yet but doesn’t question his sister. If she says the label says it’s Anna’s sword, then that’s what the label says.

But he is shaken a bit.

He stops.

His little face looks like there may be a tear coming.

And then it totally clears. “Who is Anna?” he says flippantly. “This is Gideon’s sword.” Nothing to see here. Normal service resumes.

Now, the lesson in this is: be more Gideon in all things.

Sticking to your guns is not and should not be a default position. Your guns may be the wrong guns or not what is needed right now. Doubling down on the thing you were going to do just because you were going to do it, defending a choice just because it was made, is not a helpful posture. Not in life and not in business.

It’s how we’ve ended up with the heavy tech and operational legacy we carry. It’s how we’ve ended up with the ridiculous residual risk exposures most of our organisations carry. Because people stuck to their guns long after those guns were of any use. Long after the guns were the right thing to be sticking to.

But equally, not every piece of information that comes your way is relevant to you and worth changing your course over.

Was the sword a replica of the sword Anna has in Frozen? Yes.

Was there a moment there where Gideon, who is a young child exposed to exactly the sort of media, role-models and mental constructs the world around him provides, could have gone into a vortex of ‘is this a toy for girls’? Perhaps.

Were his mum and I poised to jump in and explain ‘there is no such thing’ and whatnot? You better believe it.

But what happened instead, was that he filtered the information for usefulness.

Maybe it is Anna’s sword. Maybe it was initially intended to be marketed to a different demographic, not a young boy.

Does this sword make him happy? Yes.

Is it his now? Also yes.

Problem solved.

The information was true but not relevant. And relevance is as important as truth. Perhaps more so. Especially when the questions of “What now?” and “What next?” are asked.

We are in a weird limbo at the moment.

Interest rates are coming down. The world remains volatile. And although the language of confidence is returning, the acts that go with it are slow to follow, and we are not seeing investment plays and strategically significant large projects hit the decks quite yet.

Inside boardrooms, organisations are looking at regulatory demands in a world that is increasingly not looking like it is moving in lockstep like it had done for a while. Knowing that we used to have a lot of regulation to contend with was bad enough, but for global players there was some comfort to be had in the fact that it was all pointing in one direction. Now, for global players, we are looking at a lot of regulation pointing in all directions. And that causes complexity. And complexity spells ‘non-optional budget requirement’.

That is a first order problem to be solved. Before any ‘nice to haves’ are considered.

Because systems that are limping along and aspirational plays will always coexist under the shadow of regulatory priorities and firefighting. And can rapidly become ‘nice to haves’ under pressure.

So, plus ça change, you may say. And you could be right, unless you choose to change the one thing in your control: your attitude.

You could change one thing and be more Gideon.

Don’t get drawn into every fight.

Don’t respond to every trend, fad and media cycle.

Pause and reflect: is this true?

If not, ignore.

If yes, reflect further: is it relevant to me? Or will it distract me when I can’t afford to be distracted? Deplete resources that are already under strain… and have me running after an issue that, even if solved, it solves nothing?

Focus on what matters. And if you are not sure what that is, make your next board retreat, park the question of “What’s next?” for a minute, and focus on “What now?”

#LedaWrites

Leda Glyptis is FinTech Futures’ resident thought provocateur – she leads, writes on, lives and breathes transformation and digital disruption.

She is a recovering banker, lapsed academic and long-term resident of the banking ecosystem. 

Leda is also a published author – her first book, Bankers Like Us: Dispatches from an Industry in Transition, is available to order here.

All opinions are her own. You can’t have them – but you are welcome to debate and comment!

Follow Leda on X @LedaGlyptis and LinkedIn.