Coming May 2026
ABOUT THE BOOK
Teams That Meet the Moment is a radically practical guide to fixing how work actually gets done, drawn from a decade of hands-on experience. Rejecting outdated “best practices,” this concise and accessible book introduces nine simple yet powerful methods that empower those closest to the work, while also making work more joyful.
Mangu-Ward begins by challenging three deeply held beliefs that quietly undermine teamwork:
- Lie #1: We Just Need a Better Strategy to Win
- Lie #2: Superstar Talent Leads to Superstar Teamwork
- Lie #3: Working Harder Leads to Better Results
The truth is: Even the most brilliant strategy is worthless if your teams can’t bring it to life.
Through real-world stories, from the C-Suite to the front lines, this book shows you how to redesign the messy day-to-day of working together: making purpose and power explicit, reducing meeting overload, avoiding consensus traps, navigating tough trade-offs, and learning from failure.
For leaders who know their organizations need to work differently but don’t know how, this book is the missing piece.
Praise for THE BOOK:
“Teams That Meet the Moment is a refreshingly practical guide to fixing what’s broken in most organizations: how teams work day-to-day. Karina Mangu-Ward and the August team show how excellence is produced through small, repeatable habits that underpin agility and enable progress in an uncertain world. A great read and a deeply smart book.”
Amy C Edmondson
Novartis Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School; Author, Right kind of wrong: The science of failing well (Atria, 2023)
“A must read for any team leader. My favorite organization development consulting firm has created a must-read playbook documenting how they help teams become more effective. Full of practical exercises that they've tested internally and with clients, this is a book you'll reference again and again.”
Mollie West Duffy
Co-author of the WSJ Bestseller No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work
“Karina Mangu-Ward is the Marie Kondo of teams. She'll show you how to organize your team for joy and impact, while shedding the endless meetings, circular decision making, and draining days at the office. The wisdom in Teams That Meet The Moment is at once so simple you'll think, 'Why didn't I think of that?' and so powerful you'll want to start working differently tomorrow. If you work in a team, you need to read this.”
Bree Groff
Author of Today Was Fun
“Nearly every company is desperate to eliminate bureaucracy, unlock innovation, and increase speed and agility. Teams that Meet the Moment delivers the how — universal practices refined through rigorous experimentation with some of the world's most influential brands and cultural institutions. August Public has gifted us their hard-earned wisdom in a form you can implement immediately and iterate continuously. For teams ready to stay ahead in a relentlessly unpredictable world, this is your guidebook.”
Aimee Groth
Journalist (NYTimes, TIME), author of Kingdom of Happiness, co-founder of Third Way Ventures.
MEET THE AUTHOR
FOLLOW ALONG
August is a consulting partner with a difference: we specialize in boosting your organization's capacity to sense and respond to change. From organization-wide programs to people-centered strategies, we focus on practical solutions instead of PowerPoint decks – changing the paradigm of how we organize, lead, and work.
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