Curiosity #109 - Who Would Ted Lasso Vote For?

“The purpose of learning isn't to affirm our beliefs; it's to evolve our beliefs.”

Adam Grant, Think Again

We have a confession to make.

We have a longstanding, unofficial rule here at Weekly Curiosities. We don't talk about politics. It's not that we don't have opinions. Trust us, we do. We just figure there's enough political commentary out there without adding two more voices to the mix.

But yesterday was Election Day here in the United States, and we're going to break our rule.

Sort of.

We're writing this before the results are in, so we have no idea who won, who lost, or how many people are currently researching real estate in Canada. But we do have a question we'd like you to consider.

Who would Ted Lasso vote for?

Go ahead. Think about it for a moment. You probably have an answer, and you might be pretty confident about it.

But are you sure?

🏟 Is Ted a Democrat or a Republican?

We suspect a lot of people would immediately place Ted on one side of the political aisle. After all, he's compassionate, empathetic, accepting of others, and deeply committed to helping people who need it.

But Ted also believes in personal responsibility, accountability, hard work, and expecting people to own their decisions. He offers second chances, but he doesn't believe that second chances eliminate consequences.

Think about Jamie Tartt. Ted cares about Jamie and wants him to succeed, but he doesn't let Jamie's extraordinary talent excuse behavior that hurts the team. Or consider Rebecca. Ted demonstrates remarkable compassion toward her, but that doesn't mean pretending the decisions she made were okay.

Ted manages to do something we sometimes struggle with ourselves. He can care deeply about someone while still expecting better from them.

He doesn't confuse kindness with an absence of standards. And he doesn't confuse accountability with a lack of compassion.

So which political party gets to claim those qualities?

Maybe that's the wrong question.

🧠 Are You Curious, or Are You Certain?

One of our favorite books is Think Again by organizational psychologist Adam Grant. The central idea is that being intelligent isn't just about what you know. It's also about your willingness to reconsider what you think you know.

Grant explores how easily we become attached to our beliefs. Once we've decided we're right about something, we naturally look for information that confirms our position. We become skilled at defending our opinions, sometimes without spending nearly as much time examining them.

And politics may be one of the best examples of this.

Think about the last time you had a political disagreement with someone. Were you genuinely trying to understand how they arrived at their position? Or were you mentally preparing your response while they were still talking?

We've certainly been guilty of the latter.

That's why we find Ted so interesting. He's not afraid to have convictions, and he's certainly willing to challenge people. But he also has a remarkable ability to approach people with curiosity before deciding what to think about them.

He doesn't have to agree with someone to want to understand them.

What if the problem isn't that we disagree? What if it's that we've stopped being curious about why we disagree?

⚽ The Danger of Picking Teams

There's something about politics that makes us behave a little like sports fans.

We pick a team. We cheer for our team. We defend our team. And occasionally, we find ourselves defending something we might have criticized if the other team had done exactly the same thing.

Sound familiar?

Sports rivalries can be fun. Political disagreements, of course, have real consequences for people's lives, so the stakes are considerably higher. But the tendency to see everything through the lens of our side versus their side can make it difficult to evaluate an idea on its own merits.

Imagine Ted walking into the Richmond locker room and deciding that anyone who disagreed with him must be a bad person. Or refusing to listen to Beard because Beard had a different opinion. Or dismissing Higgins because he saw a situation differently.

Richmond wouldn't have gotten very far.

In fact, some of the most important moments in the show happen because people challenge one another. Beard pushes back on Ted. Roy challenges Jamie. Rebecca questions Ted. And Ted, despite all his optimism, doesn't always get things right.

The disagreement isn't necessarily the problem.

It's what we do with it.

🔄 The Courage to Think Again

Here's something we think gets lost in conversations about open-mindedness.

Being willing to reconsider your beliefs doesn't mean you don't stand for anything. It doesn't mean every argument is equally valid, or that you should abandon your principles whenever someone disagrees with you.

It means being confident enough in your values to examine your assumptions.

You can listen to someone and still disagree. You can understand why someone believes something without adopting that belief yourself. And you can change your mind when new information gives you a good reason to do so.

That last one might be the hardest.

Somewhere along the way, changing our minds started to look like weakness. We reward certainty, celebrate people who never back down, and occasionally treat the phrase "I was wrong" as though it were a confession of incompetence.

But what if changing your mind is sometimes evidence that you're actually thinking?

We'd argue that's a pretty valuable leadership skill. It's a pretty valuable parenting skill too. And perhaps it's something we could use a little more of in our political conversations.

🏁 Final Thought

So, who would Ted Lasso vote for?

We don't know.

And we're not particularly interested in pretending that we do.

But we'd like to think he'd ask questions. He'd listen. He'd challenge assumptions, including his own. He'd care about the people affected by his decisions, and he'd take the responsibility seriously.

And when the election was over, we suspect he'd remember something that seems increasingly easy to forget.

The person who voted differently from you is still your neighbor, your colleague, your friend, or your family member. You may disagree with them on issues that matter deeply to you. You may even decide that some of those disagreements are too significant to overlook.

But disagreement doesn't have to eliminate curiosity, and conviction doesn't have to eliminate compassion.

An election determines who holds office.

It doesn't have to determine how we treat one another.

And maybe that's something worth thinking about, regardless of who won yesterday.

— Nick & Marnie
Your tea sipping, assumption questioning, still curious friends

More leadership musings

🍪 Biscuits with the Boss: 

Here's a challenge for this week, particularly if yesterday's election left you feeling strongly about the results.

Think about someone whose political beliefs are very different from yours. What's one thing you genuinely admire or respect about that person?

Maybe they're a wonderful parent. Maybe they're the first person to help a neighbor. Maybe they're someone you trust, someone who works hard, or someone who has always been there when you needed them.

Now for the harder question.

Have you ever asked them what experiences shaped their political beliefs, without trying to change their mind?

Not to debate. Not to prepare your counterargument. Just to understand.

You might learn something about them.

You might even learn something about yourself.

🌎 This week in Here - There - Every F’ing where

It was a full house at Chesapeake College's convening of Shore Leadership for a Lead it Like Lasso - When Leadership Gets Messy workshop.

Two of our favorite comments:

1) Can we get this slide deck - this just changed my life!

2) That was 3 hours?! The time flew (you know what they say about that ;) )

Believe! 

Nick & Marnie