Culture Change – The Simple Lesson from Ted Lasso

This is definitely one that’s better to watch on video.  Click here, 5 mins, with captions.

Have you seen the show Ted Lasso?  You should.  Warms the coldest heart, and it’s funny.  And…we can find lessons in there about how we can make our own workplaces better.

The background is that Ted Lasso, American football coach, is hired to coach a Premier League soccer team by the owner who wants the club to tank.  Lasso knows nothing about soccer….but as we learn, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what he’s doing….particularly in this circumstance.

The Culture 4Ss

First…a bit of organisational knowledge.  When we are talking culture change, I combine ideas from the  work of Anne Morriss and Frances Frei, as well as that of Ian Macdonald, Catherine Burke and Karl Stewart which is known as Systems Leadership.   

What I use are four elements that play a huge role in the culture of your workplace.  Making up the tangible world in which your people operate, they impact directly on the intangible world of culture.  I call them the ‘Culture 4Ss’, and they are:

• Strategy – the work itself and why we’re doing it
• Structure – the roles and relationships people work in
• Systems – the ways and processes by which things get done
• Symbols – what everyone can see and observe in the environment which will both reflect…and create culture.

The example from Ted Lasso focusses on the last two – a perfect example of a practical systems change, with a huge symbolic effect on culture.

So here’s the deal:

Shower Prostates

Of all things, Ted had put in a suggestion box, asking the players to let him know if anything’s “got you all hot and bothered”.  This of course is met with scathing cynicism, particularly from veteran angry tough guy Roy Kent – “we’ve lost three of four, and you want to know if the snacks in the locker room are tasty enough?”

Later, Ted is meeting with his assistant coach, the taciturn Coach Beard, and out comes the suggestion box.  Both are genuinely excited to see what’s in it, which quickly turns out to be:

“W#&ker”

“P!#ss off w#&ker”

“I hope you choke on a Big Mac” which Roy actually signed.

Ted, undeterred, puts all these notes to one side.

And then, Ted says “Here’s a good one”, reading out “shower pressure is rubbish”, and then says  “make a note of that”.  He passes the note to Coach Beard, who immediately puts it in his pocket.

We later find Ted and Coach Beard checking out the showers, which indeed have such little pressure that Ted announces “somebody ought to check this thing’s prostate”.

Then toward the end of the episode, tough guy Roy Kent stalks off into the showers.  This time, the water comes on strong and in a nice piece of acting by Brett Goldstein (also a writer of the show) Roy is slightly confused, surprised and understands something at the same time.  He is experiencing cultural dissonance, as the story he has about how the club works is changing.

This comes to fruition beautifully a minute later when a young player turns on his shower and is blasted backwards by the pressure, and Roy snarls:

“Careful son…the Gaffer’s fixed the water pressure”

Roy is moving toward Ted’s desired culture..…and the change has started to occur.

Symbols are Powerful

I know, I know, it’s a TV show.  But what we have seen is a great example of using Systems and Symbols to effect culture.  We can take inspiration.

Ted’s desired culture is one where the players are a team that cares about each other.  Which means they need to know the organisation cares about them.  What he was looking for with his suggestion box was something he could fix which was both a practical thing, a System, and a Symbol that would show his talk and behaviour was real.

And fixing the ‘System’ of the showers gave him the perfect opportunity to create that Symbol.  Which he quietly just did.

It’s the Symbol that is crucial here.   And it needs to be done well….

How Not To Do It

Macdonald, Burke and Stewart talk about an example where a new General Manager of a mine personally handed out high quality new caps to the frontline workers, in a well-meaning demonstration that things will be different. 

What happened?  The caps were duly discarded by the frontline workers on the side of the road to demonstrate that they couldn’t be bought that easily.  The caps for them symbolised management’s disconnection with what they needed, and willingness to spend money on frivolous symbols rather than address any real issues.

Contrast this with Ted who went to the effort to personally find out what was bothering players, looked into it himself, then quietly went about fixing it.  

Remember, those that have the power to change things like the showers are often not the ones that have to use them. 

It’s easy to write a report, or delegate things in a sweeping gesture to ‘improve amenity for staff’.  Such things have nowhere near the impact of personally ensuring that those who do the work that the customer values are actually valued themselves.

Fixing Systems has a huge Symbolic effect.

Find your equivalent of the showers in your workplace.  And get them fixed yourself. 

Otherwise, it’s all just talk.

Now, over to you.

(And watch Ted Lasso, it’s brilliant).