Lessons from Ted Lasso

I love the nuance, the buoyancy, the optimism of Ted Lasso.

One particular episode stuck out for me. Essentially, Ted is bullied and belittled by a person - Rupert - who potentially holds more power than him. Rupert challenges him to a game of darts, fully expecting to thrash Ted and leave him looking stupid, given darts is more closely associated with Brits than Americans. Rupert sets up the scene in full view of an entire pub - he wants Ted's downfall to be witnessed and ridiculed by as many people as possible.

As Ted steps up to the dart board, he muses aloud:

“Guys underestimated me my entire life. And for years, I never understood why. It used to really bother me. But then one day I was driving my little boy to school and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman and it was painted on the wall there. It said: ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ And I liked that. So I get back in my car and I’m driving to work, and all of a sudden it hits me. All them fellas that used to be belittle me; not a single one of them were curious. They thought they had everything all figured out. So they judged everything, and everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me…who I was had nothing to do with it. Cause if they were curious, they could’ve asked questions. You know? Questions like: ‘Have you played a lot of darts, Ted?’ To which I would’ve answered: ‘Yes, sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father, from age ten til I was 16 when he passed away.’?

He plays his shots - and wins.

The power of curiosity vs judgement.

It's important to have conviction. But how often do we allow our conviction, our opinions, our viewpoints to be so set in stone, that we neglect being curious? And therefore miss out on valuable information that completely changes the whole situation? The whole game?

Where is curiosity introduced in your meetings? Your 1:1's? Your Zoom and Teams calls? How much is curiosity encouraged?

I'm curious to know.

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