The Monster HumanDebt of Banking

First off an apology to all the tops/ranks/awards that have included me on their "International Women's Day" top technologists today - I've decided I won't reshare those because while it's nice to be included, women-only lists are one of the ills we must overcome. I'll always welcome, repost and be proud of any non-pay-for-play inclusion in a "top tech minds" or "top people going on and on about the importance of happy teams" but it ought to include all genders, otherwise we make the problem bigger.

There's a lot in the HumanDebt which is connected to inequality and how, despite years of lip service we haven't sorted the many many obstacles that women have in technology and while it needs solving parading one's IWD banners won't pass as action anymore.

Speaking of HumanDebt, last week I was immersed in banking at this Banking Reinassance event that had all of us FinTech influencers on the same stage and even around the same table putting the world to rights. My point of view is now so far removed from just financial services that I found myself disagreeing (at times so adamantly that they may not have liked it) with some of the titans that were in fact rather behind the curve in understanding modern technology-making practices and certainly bemused and shaky on the topic of the new paradigm of work.

Added to how banking is probably one of the industries lacking behind the most in the people conversation - with how no culture change or leadership move from command and control to servant or even focus on teaching the "harder skills" (shoutout to Paul Tevis for restarting the conversation) is happening in earnest and at scale anywhere, I was appalled by the extreme inertia and the mass of HumanDebt that grows by every call back to the office.

I was also shocked about how few banking execs were interested in taking my "Emotional Intelligence, EQ and Servant Leadership" masterclass which would have put them ahead of all the curves at the end of two hours of condensed knowledge and new skills acquisition but that, it seems, was not a need they perceived, surely they are just amazing on these topics.