Have been hearing about and reading about Ted Lasso and his great show on Apple TV.
I watched one episode on someone else’s apple tv account and I’m intrigued by his approach and coaching a sport he knows little about , and why and how he has had success and the time it takes to do so.
I took my second grader to her first basketball game ; both she and I had very little experience with basketball . When warming up , someone asked me to referee the game. I thought what the heck , refereeing seven year olds can’t be too intense , so I agreed.
Before the game got going , someone from the other court said they needed me to referee the eighth grade team , gave me my shirt and my whistle and five minutes notice before tip off. So , not so much asked me as told me there was no one else to do this.
I went into combination panic and action mode to make the most of my five minutes of preparation time . I had to engage coaches, scorekeepers , statisticians , players , knowledgeable resources and most of all parents as to make it a fair contest, ask their help and support and assure we all wanted the same experience for the ball players.
I couldn’t afford to have us working at odds with one another regarding foul count, clock management, flagrant rule violations and needless noise.
Right before the starting buzzer ….. the best thing happened, I woke up.
Realizing it was a vivid dream , perhaps from a late night football game affected by the referees, a recent community meeting regarding Covid protocol or having grandchildren in second grade , it came together while sleeping.
I think for me the take away is that whether working , engaging in a community , competing or trying to accomplish anything; it’s important to identify the constituents , the objectives , the desired outcomes , the potential pitfalls , the key influencers , acknowledge shortcomings in people and process and then play the game to the best of one’s ability.
Like Ted Lasso , being asked to referee a game of 13 and 14-year-olds knowing a little bit about it required a retreat to fundamentals , own the key principles , make it about the people and move forward with confidence and relentless determination.
Well , it’s not always easy and we tend to take shortcuts or make assumptions on topics we believe we know something about . It’s always good to get back to basics , learn as much as we can , engage as many as we can and move full speed ahead !
Ok , I won’t be a script writer anytime soon , but nice to know the Ted Lasso stories get traction when sometimes life feels like the deck is stacked against folks and they surprise themselves with what they dream and can accomplish .
Comments