The best scene in “Ted Lasso” happens in the first season.
One of the show’s antagonists, Rupert Mannion, challenges Lasso to a game of darts. Mannion watches Lasso make a few poor throws and believes he’ll crush him.
The two of them play, and Mannion races out to a lead. Lasso needs two “triple 20s” and a bullseye on his final three shots. If you’ve played darts, you know that’s really hard.
Lasso, though, turns to Mannion and says this:
"You know, Rupert, guys have underestimated me my entire life. It used to really bother me, but then one day I was driving my little boy to school and saw a quote by Walt Whitman painted on a wall that said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental’. I liked that. See all those fellas who belittled me, none of them were curious. They thought they had everything figured out. So, they judged everything and everyone. And then I realized that their underestimating me had nothing to do with it …
Because if they were curious, they would have asked questions. Questions like, ‘Have you played a lot of darts, Ted?’ Which I would have answered, ‘Yes sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age 10 until I was 16 until he passed away’.”
Lasso proceeds to hit all three shots and win the game in large part because Mannion was unwilling to admit that maybe the world as he was seeing it wasn’t fully accurate, that maybe he didn’t know all he needed to know.
I think that’s a good reminder for all of us about the power of curiosity. Let’s talk about how.
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HopeLab has a curious approach to how they think of some of the world’s most vexing problems.
The nonprofit organization, whose tactics are laid out in this Harvard Business Review article, designs video games, some to fight cancer, others to encourage physical activity and healthy habits among kids.
They approach the culture of their organization similarly, with simple tools, prompts, and systems that help cultivate curiosity in their employees, a trait they believe is responsible for spurring the organization’s culture of innovation.
Here’s how:
1. Gentle nudges – HopeLab places decks of cards around their offices with questions called “Questions for Curious Leaders.” The cards touch on the values of the organization, like candor, 100% responsibility, and beauty. The cards are used by individuals on their own and in team meetings as icebreakers. Sometimes the hardest part of asking good questions is finding time to write those questions. These nudges help.
2. Reframing – Meetings at the org are called Problem-Solving Opportunities, but it’s not just semantics. Facilitators write their meeting agendas in the form of questions that they intend to try and answer through debate, discussion, and diversity of perspectives in the meeting. The impact? Participants feel much more agency thinking they can affect the outcome through their participation, a signal that their voice matters.
3. Avoid pointing fingers – When one of the games HopeLab designs flops, leaders are known for assembling the team, taking full responsibility, and then actually asking the team what should be done next. The team feels empowered to take part in the solution knowing its members won’t be unnecessarily blamed for an error.
4. Any learning is good learning – their CEO, Pat Christin, has one rule when it comes to employees seeking approval for professional development opportunities, “I don’t need a rationale. Just keep learning things,” she explained. “If you’re practicing curiosity, no matter what you’re learning, I believe it will benefit the organization.”
What could this look like for our organizations and teams?
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HopeLab’s practices should encourage us to think through how, even if radical curiosity isn’t a value in our own organizations, we can at least encourage more of it. The benefits, especially for a workforce deep in the throes of languishing at this point, are clear.
Here are four simple ways to encourage more curiosity in your own organization or team:
1. Gentle nudges – how can you build asking questions into repeated meeting structures you have during the week? How can you relate those questions back to the values, norms, or priorities your team has right now?
2. Reframing – how can you frame meeting objectives in the form of questions that you want the team to answer? How can you connect quantitative outcomes to qualitative problems you’re trying to solve to build deeper investment from your team?
3. Avoid pointing fingers – how can you take more responsibility when mistakes are made so your team isn’t afraid to take risks and innovate? How can you celebrate risk-taking and learning from mistakes actively on your team?
4. Any learning is good learning – how can you communicate the importance of learning to your team? How can you celebrate them when they do? How can you connect that learning to impact to tell a story about how important it is to continue to be learning?
As Lasso reminds us, quoting Walt Whitman, “Be curious. Not judgmental.” Let’s be leaders and teams who know we don’t have everything figured out. Those are the teams we’d all want to be on.