In this episode I want to reflect on three themes of the TV show Ted Lasso that I think make up part of how alluring I believe it is, and what’s happening in our culture and world right now that make it such a compelling set of stories for so many people.

This is probably most relevant for folks who have seen it, but only very mild spoilers, if any, in this, so probably safe for people who haven’t seen all of it or any of it as well.

These three threads are:

1. Really excellent coach-based leadership
2. Community, belonging, and identity to a shared mission or purpose.
3. The good intentions of most of the characters, and the capacity for acting on those good intentions, and the awareness that people have of others’ good intentions.

These reflections offer some fun and interesting insight into how we interact with other people, but also how we think about designing more effective and humane workplaces, organizations, and communities.

Additional Links:

• TV show Ted Lasso:
  • https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10986410/
• Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam
  • https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/478.Bowling_Alone
• John Vervaeke’s Meaning Crisis
  • https://vervaekefoundation.org/what-is-the-meaning-crisis/
• Yuval Noah Harrari’s Sapiens
  • https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens
• Alain DeBotton:
  • Alain De Botton – Religion For Atheists (Ideas at the House)
• Johann Hari’s Lost Connections
  • https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34921573-lost-connections
• Interview with Adam Kleinbaum from Dartmouth’s Tuck School:
  • https://hanoverhappenings.castos.com/episodes/what-happens-in-our-brain-when-having-consensus-building-converastions-a-converastion-with-tuck-associate-professor-of-business-administration-adam-kleinbaum
• Several sources of information about local community planning:
  • Revitalize or Die: https://revitalizeordie.com/
  • Climate Town on problems wit suburbanism: The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry | Climate Town (feat. Not Just Bikes)
  • https://www.planning.org/blog/9227411/active-living-opportunities-through-cluster-housing/

In this month’s Five Minute Book Review, I give a strong recommendation for Aldo Leopold’s The Sand County Almanac. Leopold is an incredibly insightful naturalist/conservationist storyteller, and a Sand County Almanac is a really engaging read that not only drops you into stories of many of the dramas playing out in nature all around us, but leaves us with some valuable insights and reflections about development and our species’ part in the broader environment.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in a world where people constantly shared and consumed video content, for an unknown real larger purpose? Hmmmm… Well EM Forster imagined this world, in 1909.

Join me for the restart of the Five Minute Book Review series on the banks of the White River in Vermont for a discussion of one of the most creative, reflective, and weirdly forward thinking sci-fi short stories I’ve ever read.

It’s a 45 minute read that will touch on technology, philosophy, human connection, freedom and agency, climate, governance, travel, and so much more. Surely worth a read!