How Reality TV Makes Me Better at My Job
It’s no secret that I watch a lot of reality TV. I’m not the only one either. Bravo shows and the current season of Love Island take up a surprising amount of conversation real estate in our office. At first it started as frivolous entertainment and a fun way to bond with each other. But as always, my brain takes things a step further and all the different programs I watch have turned into social experiments on human behavior.
Watching Traitors and Real Housewives, along with Love on The Spectrum and Temptation Island (not to mention 10 seasons of Vanderpump Rules, 10 seasons of Southern Charm, and some light dabbling in Summer House), has given me lots of reps in watching human behavior under high pressure conditions. It turns out that if you watch enough of this sort of thing, you get a pretty honest look at how people actually behave under pressure, not just how they say they do.
I guess, in a nutshell, I’m well practiced in harnessing the freedom to change your mind.
There is something deeply human about committing to a read on a situation and then holding onto it past the point where it makes sense. It happens constantly on shows like The Traitors, where the whole game hinges on whether people can update their thinking in real time or whether they get so attached to a theory that they neglect new information. The ones who are able to stay curious throughout tend to last longer in the game. The ability to change our minds after being presented with new information is simple and innate, however sometimes our ego, pride, or anxiety gets in the way of us exercising that ability.
The sheer quantity of tv I have consumed over the past year has given me a simpler grasp on the concept of “changing my mind.” I feel it is a given now. A commitment almost. Something that will inevitably happen several times over the course of a season. And many times, that is how I quantify if the season itself was any good compared to others. The more times I change my mind, the higher I regard the season. What a privilege it is to watch people navigate conflict, raw and unfiltered, and experience group dynamics change. The same things happen in the conference rooms and board meetings I am apart of at work.