Most of my daily decisions are two-way doors. I can walk through them, and I can walk right back out. 

These types of decisions open up opportunities for experimentation and iteration, and they feel a whole lot less stressful than the other type: One-way door decisions. The type where you can’t go back once you’re through.

A few months ago, the August team had to make a pretty monumental one-way door decision. 

Teams That Meet The Moment was nearly complete. The words were finalized, the figures were drawn. There was just one missing piece before the book could be sent off for production. 

The cover. 

Pretty big decision, right? One that would be quite hard and expensive to reverse.

Our publishers presented us with a great exploration of cover options. Different thematic motifs, different colors, different fonts. 

But, sitting in these decision-making meetings, I felt my blood pressure spike. The stakes felt high. The frustration was real. 

And it was because there wasn’t one version of cover that the entire August team was absolutely, unquestionably, 100% aligned with. 

Someone liked orange, someone else preferred green. Some people liked boats as a metaphor for teams, some thought it looked like a book about sailing. Round and round we went, gathering endless feedback in pursuit of perfection. 

Suddenly, the room (and the Slack channel) stumbled into many of the traps we help pull our clients from: analysis paralysis, unclear proposals, chasing consensus, designing by committee.

This realization gave me a lot of empathy for my clients.

My days are spent coaching people through difficult decisions with a cool, collected attitude. I tell teams to listen to all perspectives, integrate where they're able, but still move forward even with imperfect information or disagreement.

When I had to do that myself? Whoo. Easier said than done, people. 😮‍💨

Decision-making under pressure can be emotionally messy. And that’s not inherently a negative thing. In fact, it’s usually a sign that we care. Our body’s way of saying “Hey, this matters to me!”

But if your team isn’t equipped with strategies to help cut through the stress, that’s when things fall apart. 

At the end of the day, our team came together around the tried-and-true Safe To Try practice. 

We decided that even if there wasn’t total consensus on the cover, what truly mattered was getting these practices we’re passionate about into people’s hands.

And let me be clear, I love our cover.

I love how the green pops. It’s fresh and timely and just a bit unusual for a business book. 

And I love the metaphor. The dots and lines represent both the independence and the connection between team members. They also represent the nonlinear, adaptive, twisty journey that teams take to get from where they are to the outcomes they want.

Just like the journey we took to choose this cover. 📗

Karina Mangu-Ward

Partner, August Public

P.S. Deepest gratitude to all the August pals who engaged in this process with open hearts.

Extra special shout-out to Jessie Punia, whose eye for what pops seems like a superpower to someone like me, who identifies as having no taste at all.