Depositing money in the bank, and culture

It is 1430 on a very hot summer day in Tel Aviv. The bank closes at 1500 and Miri (f, Israel) has 25000 USD in cash to deposit in her account . Traffic is horrible, there aren’t even illegal parking spots available and Miri thinks she is going to miss the bank closing.

 

It is 230 PM in Boston on a rainy summer afternoon. The bank closes at 3 pm and Annie (f, USA )also has 25000 USD in cash to deposit in her account . Traffic is horrible, there aren’t  parking spots available and Annie thinks she is going to miss the bank closing.

 

Miri keeps the mobile phone number of her banker in her “quick dial”. She calls up her banker and says “Adi, please DO ME A FAVOR, I am going to be late. Please let me in via the back door. I have a lot of cash with me. I’ll text you when I arrive.” Adi agrees.  Adi and Miri both believe that very often, systems do not work, and relationships must be leveraged to work around the system.

 

Annie, looking at her watch thinks: “I’m late; I will have to come back tomorrow morning. I don’t like keeping all that cash at home, but the closing hour of the bank can’t be negotiated.” Annie’s banker left the bank at 3.01 pm. Both Annie and the banker believe systems are made to work.

Share Button

2 thoughts on “Depositing money in the bank, and culture

  1. Fascinating! “Relationships must be leveraged to work around the system” is the hallmark of Communities of Practice here in the USA; they compensate for shortcomings in the system. A key difference seems to be that in the example you give about Israel, relationships are leveraged in a personal context whereas in Communities of Practice here in the USA they are leveraged in a working context.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.