This is a quote from the last episode of Ted Lasso, the popular AppleTV series. In this episode, Trent Crimm, the reporter who left a local newspaper to spend the year embedded with AFC Richmond wrote a book he was going to title, “The Lasso Way.”
While the show ended over a year ago, Heather and I finally got around to watching it because we were hesitant to get another streaming service and when we committed, we didn’t want to watch while the kids were around because of the “colorful” language and adult storylines.
My friend and former colleague Dave Halvorson mentioned I would like the show and he was so right! Ted’s leadership and coaching combined the best of your favorite high school coaches with the great John Wooden and other legendary coaches.
So what does this have to do with learning? While I am fairly certain the main purpose Jason Sudeikis and team had for Ted Lasso was to entertain, I absolutely learned through the experience!
First, I learned about soccer and the league structure which is quite interesting. It could provide a formula for American football someday if and when we move past the college and NFL structure of today. Hopefully Green Bay will never get relegated to a lesser league!
Second, I learned about leadership and coaching. I had John Wooden’s book, “Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success” queued up for awhile, but watching Ted Lasso inspired me to start reading and it’s been outstanding! (More on Wooden’s teachings in future blog posts.)
In addition, while it’s fiction, I completely adore Ted’s leadership including his eternal optimism, willingness to try different tactics to drive behavior change, and commitment to caring first and foremost for his players as human beings before their role on the team. I am hopeful others see a little Ted Lasso in me 😉!
Finally, I learned about taking care of yourself. Ted avoided facing his own demons before finally opening up to help in the form of counseling and culminating in a willingness to make a tough decision to prioritize what he values most in the world. Note, I tried to be obtuse here to avoid spoiling the show if you haven’t watched it.
In the end, the show is called Ted Lasso, but as he closed out the show with feedback to Trent Crimm on the title of the book, it wasn’t about Ted, it was about he team.
His leadership, while fictional, demonstrates role model behavior that works well in real life too!
Learn In The Flow Of Life
Jason
PS: The cover photo is likely the highest level of soccer I will ever coach!
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