The first time I went rock climbing was on my 40th birthday. 🧗

I know, you probably think I'm crazy (or about to break a knee). But I had decided I wanted to be profoundly bad at something so I could remember what it felt like to get good. Or, at least, incrementally better.

When I enter organizations, ready to help them untangle their issues and get good at teaming, I have decades of experience under my belt. Curveballs don't feel stressful because I've seen the same dysfunctions in all types of teams. 

But I do remember what it felt like when I tried to climb and couldn't even grip the holds. The frustration of falling off because my hands weren't strong enough yet.

Climbing has been an exercise in empathy. It reminds me that you can't expect people to get good at new ways of working without putting in the reps, without being able to tolerate the discomfort of growth. 

Midlife rock climbing, coaching stressed-out teams…they're complex things. But I like complexity. I like knots, I like mess. 🪢

That's why, for the last decade, I've made a career at August working in the most complex organizations possible, trying to help them untangle their teaming knots.  

My path to this work wasn’t linear. My story begins as a theater kid with a psychology degree and a fascination with the ephemeral nature of teams. 

Fresh out of college, I got my MFA at Columbia and spent my early years managing an experimental theater in downtown Manhattan. 🎭

Then, enter Richard—an organizational development consultant hired to help my theater try new things. While he changed the way our team worked together, he unknowingly changed my perspective on my career:

I didn't want to work in organizations. I wanted to work on organizations. 

And so, I did what any sane person does. I quit my job and went to work with him. 

I spent the next seven years learning how to help arts organizations behave as creatively behind the scenes as they do on stage. Then, when I was ready for a new challenge, I found August with miraculous serendipity. 

Here was a small team of brilliant people helping the world's largest organizations reinvent how they work.💡

August wasn't just making lofty promises or inspirational keynotes. They were in the trenches with clients, trying to create impactful change. 

The rest, as they say, is history.

As a Partner at August, I've coached executives navigating high-stakes transformations, stood in conference rooms knee-deep in sticky notes, and facilitated what feels like millions of meetings that sucked less.

I don’t have an MBA or a stint at McKinsey or Accenture. That used to be something I tried to hide. But I’ve come to believe that my experiences as a stage manager, producer, coach, facilitator, consultant, and even as a mom matter more than any pedigree ever could.

This quirky path, the one that brought me from stages to boardrooms to climbing gyms on Monday nights, helped me immensely while I drafted Teams That Meet The Moment. ✍️

Come May, I hope this book can help you navigate your own path toward better work.

Karina Mangu-Ward
Partner, August Public