I've been a huge fan of the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso. Even if Season 3 hasn't been my favorite (and I thought that the most reason episode this past week was awful), there are still a lot of lessons on leadership that I think are important. I've talked about a number of these lessons in previous posts (see for example, "I think I literally have a better understanding of who killed Kennedy than what is offside", "Be a goldfish", "Simplify your offense", and "Believe", among others).
If you haven't seen the show, the character Ted Lasso (played by the American actor Jason Sudeikis) is an American collegiate football coach who is unexpectedly recruited (and even more unexpectedly, agrees) to coach the fictional English Premier League football soccer team, AFC Richmond. It's all unexpected because Lasso has absolutely no experience (or knowledge) of soccer (which is called football everywhere else in the world). AFC Richmond's owner, Rebecca Welton (played by the English actress Hannah Waddingham) wants Lasso to fail so that she can exact revenge on her ex-husband, who is the former owner of the team. However, Lasso's unique charm, personality, and humor win her over, and everyone else for that matter, including the players on the team.
We are led to believe that Lasso coaches AFC Richmond exactly how he coached his college football team, which won a national championship. Coach Lasso plays the role of mentor, advisor, and ultimate decisionmaker, leaving the tactical execution of the strategy to the rest of his coaching staff. One could argue, that at least early on, Coach Lasso has more to do with creating a vision than developing the strategy. During the very first episode, we see his best friend and long-time assistant, Coach Beard (played by the American actor Brendan Hunt) reading the classic Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics on the flight over to London. In other words, Coach Lasso leaves all of the details on strategy and execution to Coach Beard while he focuses on how best to lead and motivate his players to achieve their fullest potential.
I'm not sure how realistic this last point is though, as I see the leader's role as both creating a vision and developing the strategy needed to achieve that vision. Regardless, my point is that Ted Lasso's style of leadership is consistent with at least one of the five characteristics of a High Reliability Organization, specifically that of "Deference to Expertise". During Season 3, there is a particularly poignant episode that makes this case perfectly. The team is struggling to find wins, and no one is sure what they should do next. Coach Lasso comes up with a strategy that he soon learns is called "Total Football". "Total Football" was developed in the 1970's by the Dutch football club Ajax and the Netherlands national football team. Here, there are no specified positions - aside from the goalkeeper, every player can play any of the different positions. The players have the freedom to move around all over the field, depending upon the specific situation that occurs during the game. Everyone - his assistant coaches included - thinks that Coach Lasso is crazy for completely changing the strategy and style of play during the middle of the season. But, as we find out, it was exactly the right decision to make. He makes that decision to change the strategy, but he leaves the execution of that strategy to his assistants and to his players. "Deference to Expertise"
Next time we will take a closer look at this concept. I will use another sports metaphor (sorry) of the player and the coach to further illustrate the concept of "Deference to Expertise", specifically in regards to the principles of high reliability leadership.
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