The Future of Insurance – Making Tough Relationships Work Better

Episode Detail

Claims professionals often begin a conversation already cast as the adversary. Many claimants have been primed to expect a fight, so they arrive ready for one, and the person trying to help has to find a way through that before anything productive can happen. In this solo episode of The Future of Insurance, Bryan Falchuk shares the framework behind his keynote at the Western Loss Association Fall Conference: the 50 75 100 Solution, an approach to making tough relationships work better by recognizing how much of any difficult interaction is within your influence.

The episode features Bryan's TEDx talk from Pensacola, where he first laid out the approach. Drawing on three Buddhist principles (happiness seeking, interdependence, and impermanence), he explains why owning your half of a relationship gives you influence over three quarters of it, and walks through a workplace conflict where choosing not to fight back changed the outcome. The ideas apply equally to a tense claim conversation, a difficult colleague, family, or a one-time encounter with a stranger. Whether or not you caused a difficult relationship, you can still be the one who changes it.

Show Notes:

Why This Matters in Claims:

Many claimants arrive expecting a fight, shaped by messaging that tells them their insurer is on the other side.

The adjusters who see past the initial hostility and stay focused on helping are the ones who move a difficult interaction somewhere far more productive.

The framework is the basis of Bryan's keynote at the Western Loss Association Fall Conference, and he has shared it with adjuster groups and carrier claims teams in training.

Three Principles Behind the Approach:

Happiness seeking: Everyone acts in pursuit of their own happiness. When someone's actions cost you, it is usually not about you, which makes it easier not to feel attacked or bite back.

Interdependence: No one is all good or all bad. People behave differently in different situations, so changing the situation can change the dynamic.

Impermanence: Everything can and will change, which is exactly why the effort is worth making.