a minipost
I was listening to a panel discussion of elite sports psychologists, sports scientists, and a sports anthropologist when a question was posed:
Could a Ted Lasso exist?
If you haven't seen the show, Lasso is an American college football coach who is suddenly hired to coach an English Premier League team. He had success in his D-II school, but it was clear he was hired to fail. It turns out he didn't.
There was some laughter among audience members, but the panel members took it seriously. It could work. You'd need someone who was an incredible learner with success leading a team of some kind. Someone great at listening, observing and thinking. They've need a Beard - a character who happens to be a serious soccer expert (among other things), but would never cut it as a coach. Creating a bond with the players, listening to them, and be willing to experiment is key. You'd also need management willing to put up with the time required to create a success.
The anthropologist noted some of these qualities are missing in NFL, NBA, MBA, and NHL coaching. Coaches tend to be extremely confident of themselves and there is pressure to win. Team culture can suffer and creativity is low compared with some other types of teams. He pointed out some women's teams - particularly soccer and indoor volleyball - are extremely innovative with positive team cultures well beyond any men's pro team he's seen.
There was general agreement among those in the panel. Coaching has a way to go in the big pro leagues, but the types of coaches selected are an issue. A great women's soccer or indoor volleyball coach (several were mentioned) could be a Ted Lasso if they had a Beard at their side and the time to create change. As an example a women's volleyball coach was mentioned. Something of a household name in sports, he's as passionate figuring out how to coach a team of pre-teens as he is his countries national team. He's experimenting and learning and might make a discovery with some twelve year old kids that works with his olympians.
It's culture all the way down at the top. Maybe some of these multimillion dollar coaches aren't worth it, but it's unlikely the culture that selects them will change.
It's an interesting game to think about the question in teams outside of sports.
after a fall
a quick minipost
Or after THE fall..
The Olympics can brings years of effort into very sharp focus for some of the best athletes in the world. A decade or more of hard work and sacrifice can fall one way or another in under a second. By any rational measure they're all amazing to get as far as they have. And of course the athletes don't buy that - at least not initially.
A few people have recommended a new book on regret. I haven't read it, but getting the recommendations while the Olympics are underway seems natural. I don't consider the phrase no regrets to be useful. Regret can be a powerful motivator, teacher and catalyst for self-reflection.
Every successful group and organization I've been around holds postmortems for projects independent of outcome. In large particle physics experiments it's common to hold internal and external postmortems. These are particularly important where the culture and institutional memory are long term goals. External postmortems are held for other experts - often competitors - and are important for ferreting out and fixing issues that hadn't been considered. (Feynman frequently said ~ The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool...) Of course there are regrets and people can feel a bit stupid, but you learn and grow.
At a personal level regret can be a highly motivating teacher. With enough reflection you become much better at making decisions and you get better at what you're doing. And sometimes life's big decisions come into clearer focus. Are you really doing what you like? Are you doing what you should be doing? Should you change your goals or invent completely new ones? A life with a singular focus can lead you down a path that you realize all too late was the wrong one. The self reflection of regret seems like a mechanism to make midcourse corrections, learning and growing as you travel.
I've had wonderful failures and mostly useful regrets. To some I may seem like a failure, to others a success, but to myself I'm lucky enough to still be learning - plus - all of my fingers and eyelashes are still intact.
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