It’s not hard to understand why so many people are watching Ted Lasso (Apple TV), nor why it was nominated for twenty Emmy Awards and won seven. Believe it or not, it is twenty years since The Office first premiered on the BBC. Not since then has a comedy series cut so close to the bone of our cultural needs and anxieties.
The first scene of The Office shows the infamous boss, David Brent, (played by one of the series creators, Ricky Gervais) lying about the first aid credentials of a person that Brent wants to employ. While on the phone, Brent pretends that his nose is growing like that of Pinocchio. The scene set the tone for all the excruciating moments that were to follow.
The Office is the story of a workplace where there is opportunity for advancement but none for authenticity; there is a career structure but no personal growth. Brent was the model of the self-absorbed leader whose main mission was to make himself feel good. In a beautiful irony, the firm that employs him, Wernham Hogg, is a paper wholesaler. It sells appearance, not substance.
Ted Lasso touches the same nerve but in a much more endearing way. The series speaks to a world that is weary of encoded leadership, the idea of career advancement through learning the right things to say and pushing the right buttons. It addresses the lifelessness of the scripted workplace. People long for leadership that sets them free, liberates them to make a genuine contribution the human family, rather than patrolling policies and procedures. Lockdown has revealed to many people the central place of human connection in a healthy workplace, the sense of belonging to others for which cliches such as ‘well-being’ and ‘resilience’ are plastic substitutes. Working from home, some people have started to ask themselves what they are actually doing with their lives.
Enter Ted Lasso, the most unlikely coach ever to take over an English Football Club. His unique approach to leadership is poignant, funny, humane, wise and successful in ways that really matter. Of course, there are many elements of fairytale in this show, especially the glorious Christmas episode which will stand for the ages alongside the Christmas episodes in The Vicar of Dibley and the Festivus episode of Seinfeld. But don’t forget there are elements of fairytale in Cinderella as well, not to mention Jack and the Bean Stalk, not to mention reality.
'The series speaks to a world that is weary of encoded leadership, the idea of career advancement through learning the right things to say and pushing the right buttons. It addresses the lifelessness of the scripted workplace.'
When he arrives at Richmond FC from Kansas, Ted Lasso hardly knows the rules of football. He says he has a better idea of who killed Kennedy that of the offside rule. But he knows people. He reads them like a comic book. They respond because they are more in his eyes than the numbers on their back or positions on the field. It takes time but time is what he gives. He knows that, at first, the owner of Richmond FC, Rebecca, is taking advantage of him to get back at her ex-husband by destroying the club he loved more than her. But Ted keeps turning up with special biscuits which she pretends not to like. Her pretence is so flimsy that it eventually brings down her other more sophisticated pretences. Initially, she treats him as a pawn in her game, as an object. But Lasso refuses to be frightened by her and gradually she starts to move beyond the anger that controls her life. Ted gets results because he knows that life is ultimately not about results. People are not cars to be driven.
Lasso has an unending string of wonderful quips, one-liners and nuggets of wisdom, usually memorable and original. He never asks anybody to bring more to the table, take a deep dive, work on their brand or any of that managerial gobbledy-gook. He says ‘even Woody and Buzz got under each other’s plastic.’ He sends up the burble culture. When Rebecca asks him if he believes in ghosts, he says that it is more important for ghosts to believe in themselves.
In other words, Lasso embodies the difference between leadership and management. He never dodges hard questions, fronting every press conference. Even when clever journalists try to trash him, he answers honestly, with dignity and often with the kind of humour that gets the journalist to think again. There is a festival of celebration in his voice when he says ‘that’s a heaped spoonful of truth soup right there.’ Truth soup is a lovely image: the good stuff that nourishes and brings flavour.
Ted invests in the dreams of others. Lasso allows the lowly helper, Nate, a man whose spirit has been crushed by an overbearing father, to fulfill the impossible dream of joining the coaching staff. He knows that Nathan knows the game with greater integrity than people who have learned coaching skills from within the system. Eventually, Nate will have to find his own voice. Rebecca and Keely, the marketing manager, will help him and this is beautiful to watch. Later Nate will get too big for his boots and he will also need to learn the meaning of ‘sorry.’ Everyone in this series is growing.
Ted sees the world from ground level, not a pedestal. His office is next to the locker room and is off limits to no-one. It has no symbols of status. He doesn’t go to fancy restaurants. He shares sandwiches with his colleagues. He tells the team: ‘I promise you, there is something worse out there than being sad. And that is being alone and being sad. Ain’t no one in this room alone.’
'Ted Lasso actually doesn’t talk much about leadership, a notable quality in many true leaders. He only talks about people. He loves life with all its mysteries and confusions. It rubs off on others and so he changes a poisonous culture into a creative one.'
Most revealing is Ted’s relationship with the psychologist, Dr Sharon. At first, he does not appear threatened by her. He allows Sharon full access to everyone and doesn’t try to provide instructions for her. He is fascinated by the diversity of the human circus. He tells his boss when he meets her mother: ‘I like meeting people’s mothers. It’s like getting an instruction book for what makes them nuts.’ Yet the one person to whom Ted does not give Sharon access is himself. His own grief is profound and it appears that he brings a smile to the world so that he has a place to hide. Ted is a wounded leader whose deep pain will become creative. He is estranged from his own family and has trouble accepting the fact that his wife wants to separate. This is part of what has brought him to England, even though it makes connection difficult with his young son. He finally connects with the psychologist after she opens up about her own struggles with alcohol. As professionals, their relationship was formulaic and wary. As vulnerable and frail people, it is much richer, more honest and more generative. They both need to befriend reality. Reality does not have a mission statement.
Ted Lasso actually doesn’t talk much about leadership, a notable quality in many true leaders. He only talks about people. He loves life with all its mysteries and confusions. It rubs off on others and so he changes a poisonous culture into a creative one. He says ‘Be curious. Not judgmental,’ but needs to apply those words to himself, benefitting from the unfailing positive regard he has for others.
Ted Lasso inadvertently addresses the existential aridity of so much contemporary workplace culture. Among his many fans, he constantly provokes stories about quirky and eccentric colleagues who made work so much richer. Sadly, many of these stories relate to the past. Please God, Ted will open the door slightly to allow people not just to bring their best selves to work, but to bring their whole selves. Ted Lasso lets us think about what it might be like to work for the common good. He is worth a shelf full of books on leadership.
Michael McGirr works for Caritas Australia. His new book, Ideas to Save Your Life, will be published by text next month.
Michael is the bestselling author of Snooze: The Lost Art of Sleep, Bypass and Things You Get for Free. He has reviewed almost one thousand books for various newspapers; his short fiction has appeared in Australian and overseas publications; and he has been a publisher of Eureka Street and fiction editor at Meanjin.