The most important ‘meeting’ the August Pals had at our annual Summit retreat last week wasn’t a strategy session or a budget discussion. In fact, it had nothing to do with work at all.

It was karaoke on a party bus.

Driving around the outskirts of San Francisco, belting our lungs out to cheesy pop hits, I felt a moment of connection, a true spark of joy, that reminded me how team bonding can be reason enough to gather.

(Gold star to anyone who can guess what I was singing)

When I started at August almost ten years ago, Summit was four full days of WORK. Hard thinking, hard learning, making plans, doing workshops, learning from experts…we drowned ourselves in Post-its and worked ourselves to the bone.

We believed that if we wanted to improve, we had to work really, really hard.

This was all pre-pandemic, when we could take in-person connection for granted. Most of us worked together in the New York office, and getting face time with the whole team wasn’t anything special.

But then the pandemic came and upended our ways of working.

Initially, we tried to hold onto the idea that Summit was a time for work. But, over the past few years, there’s been an undeniable shift. We’ve all learned how to work really well asynchronously, getting tons of stuff done for clients without a lot of friction, and sometimes, without a lot of contact with teammates outside of our immediate working groups.

The work was flowing. But the connection had faltered.

When all of us got together again for Summit, that marketing planning session or Q4 strategy review didn’t seem as important as a meaningful conversation with a coworker. The in-person time suddenly felt like a gift. A moment to catch up with the humans behind the work.

Today, Summit still exists for the reason it always has: to learn, reflect, and pivot as we head into the next phase of the year. We fully believe that stepping out of the flow of everyday work to reflect on the larger mission is a necessary beat for any annual cadence.

But now, we’ve come to learn that sometimes the best use of our time is prioritizing connection and joy, even at the expense of work.

When we strengthen our human-to-human bond, we strengthen all the other things that matter, too. Communication, purpose, trust, joy…the secret sauce of any great team.

This year, that looked like reconnecting with our core tenet of a capable team for every meaningful mission. We wanted to remember what that means for us and how we can integrate it even more deeply in our daily work.

In Teams That Meet The Moment, I talk about four core meeting purposes for any working team. Define/prioritize the work, do the work, share the work, and learn from the work.

Well, I will humbly admit that a moment for connection is its own unique and critical way of gathering that we should all add to the schedule…whether it be party bus karaoke, coastal hikes, off-the-clock wine tasting, or just a simple coffee break with your team.

Karina Mangu-Ward

Partner, August Public