Wow! eBook
Teams That Meet the Moment: 9 Practices for Unlocking Performance and Growth in Uncertain Times
Author(s): Karina Mangu-Ward (Author)
- Publisher: Page Two Press
- Publication Date: April 8, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 246 pages
- ISBN-10: 1774587777
- ISBN-13: 9781774587775
Book Description
“A refreshingly practical guide to fixing what’s broken in most organizations: how teams work day-to-day.”
―Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School and author of Right Kind of Wrong
“Karina Mangu-Ward has written the playbook leaders need now: a practical, trust-building guide to turning everyday teamwork into a competitive advantage, so you can move with speed, clarity, and courage in a world that refuses to slow down.”
―Frances Frei, Professor of Technology and Operations Management at Harvard Business School, co-author of Move Fast and Fix Things
“This difference between a great team and a meh one is everything. Stop hoping you’ll just get lucky. This book is the modern guide for teams that make a difference.”
―Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit
Unlock Your Team’s Full Potential in Turbulent Times.
In today’s uncertain world, even the smartest companies struggle—not for lack of strategy or talent, but because their people are bogged down by the messy reality of modern teamwork. Teams That Meet the Moment is a radically practical guide to fixing how work actually gets done inside complex organizations, drawn from a decade of hands-on experience. Karina Mangu-Ward and August, the company she co-leads, have helped teams inside giants like PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive, and Planned Parenthood transform how they collaborate under pressure.
Rejecting outdated “best practices,” this concise and accessible book introduces nine simple yet powerful methods that empower those closest to the work to make better decisions, move faster, and pivot quickly to meet customer needs—all while 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.
At its core, Teams That Meet the Moment argues that great teaming is the marriage of vision and habits: a compelling purpose paired with the disciplined, repeatable practices that bring it to life. For leaders who know their organizations need to work differently but don’t know how, Karina Mangu-Ward provides the missing piece.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School and author of Right Kind of Wrong
“Karina Mangu-Ward has written the playbook leaders need now: a practical, trust-building guide to turning everyday teamwork into a competitive advantage, so you can move with speed, clarity, and courage in a world that refuses to slow down.”
“I’ve been applying these practices for over a decade, and I wish this book had existed sooner. Rooted in thoughtful organizational design and real-world application, the practices recommended by Karina Mangu-Ward and the August team have helped my teams build trust, move faster, and operate with consistency across very different organizations.
Teams That Meet the Moment is the operating manual every leader navigating complexity wishes they had earlier.”Marissa Jarratt, former Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer at 7-Eleven
“Leading a creative, mission-driven organization in a fast-changing world requires careful balance of purpose, imagination, and execution.
Teams That Meet the Moment is a practical guide for aligning teams to meet today’s exciting opportunities in new ways. It offers simple, repeatable practices that help teams stay values-driven while still making decisions and moving forward.”Keri Putnam, former CEO of Sundance Institute
“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.”
“
Teams That Meet the Moment is a refreshingly practical playbook not just for equipping today’s fast-paced enterprise, but for preparing for AI superintelligence ahead. Grounded in real-world testing, these nine simple, actionable practices strip away the hyperbole and deliver profound, practical value to any team.”Chris Ernst, Chief Learning Officer at Workday
“Smart, clear-eyed, and hopeful for our moment,
Teams That Meet the Moment replaces outdated rules of working with practical methods that help teams adapt, perform, and find joy.”Lindy Greer, Professor of Management and Organizations at University of Michigan
“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.”
“With technology advancing so quickly, the expectations of every team are growing exponentially. This book provides the ‘unlocks’ we all need to multiply our interpersonal strengths to make meeting these audacious expectations possible.”
“This difference between a great team and a meh one is everything. Stop hoping you’ll just get lucky. This book is the modern guide for teams that make a difference.”
“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, from Bayer to Sundance Institute. Karina Mangu-Ward and the August team have 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 (New York Times, TIME), author of The Kingdom of Happiness, and cofounder of Third Way Ventures
