As a fan of all things pop culture, the upcoming Emmy nominations have been on my mind, including one show in particular.

The Pitt.

For those who don’t know, each season of the HBO show follows the emergency department at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center over a single 12-hour shift. Every episode is shown in real-time. Fast-paced? Yup. Emotional? Absolutely. And also a fantastic look at modern teaming.

Now, medical dramas have always been hugely popular. Grey’s Anatomy, House, ER, Scrubs…people love the high-stakes stories that come from the emergency room.

I've always been a casual partaker of the medical drama, but my relationship to The Pitt feels different. I'm obsessed. And I think it has to do with the realism.

Even though The Pitt is fictional, it’s showcasing the very real challenges faced by healthcare teams and the people within them.

Amidst hospital chaos, everyone’s dealing with something. It’s never easy, it’s always messy, and people—even super talented medical professionals—are just people. But The Pitt shows how a group can still be high performing in moments that matter if they have great habits to rely on.

That’s why so many folks (myself included) love this show. It’s an extraordinary study of the in-the-trenches dynamics of teamwork, and it deserves some appreciation for the things it gets really right.

So, here are five great teaming moments from season two of The Pitt, and a little bit about why they meet this moment:

1. Season 2, Episode 1. Dr. Al-Hashimi: "Alright, who can tell me what went well?"

One thing about The Pitt is that they always say yes to reflection. In this scene, the team just lost a dummy patient. Inside of playing the blame game, the first thing the new boss asks is "Who can tell me what went well?" As a champion of Retrospectives, I love how they make time for habitual reflection—starting with what went well. It shows the team that learning is a priority and every situation is a growth opportunity.

2. Season 2, Episode 1. Dr. Robby. "Here we let the residents and fellows take charge."

Dr. Robby is a complex leader. He’s candid, he pushes people, and his struggle with burnout hurts his team at times. But he also has very clear leadership strengths. In this scene, the new attending physician, Dr. Al-Hashimi, jumps in to give direction. Dr. Robby stops her. "Here, we let residents and fellows take charge." He knows that the best way to develop people and get great results in the long run is to give people chances to run with the ball (within safe boundaries).

3. Season 2, Episode 6. Donnie steps in with his superior suture skills

A prime example of capability even over hierarchy. In this scene, Whittaker (a resident doctor) is teaching two students how to stitch a patient’s knee laceration. When Donnie (a nurse) offers advice, he cedes the task to Donnie because of his expertise with closing wounds. It’s a great showcase of how title or rank doesn’t always determine the best person for the job.

4. Season 2, Episode 6. The team honors a lost patient with a group ritual

Grief is ever-present in a hospital, and The Pitt doesn’t shy away from the hard reality of losing patients. When a long-term patient passes, the team gathers for a ritual they all know well: honoring a patient they’ve lost. The space invites joy alongside sadness. In moments of high emotion, having shared habits to ground you can make all the difference.

5. Season 2, Episode 8. An IT shutdown forces the team to adapt

When their tech systems go offline, a massive team suddenly needs to reinvent their ways of working on the spot. How do they manage? By making the implicit explicit and fluidly redesigning roles that meet the moment. It takes a few rounds of trial and error to find the right people to fill those roles, but when they do, the ER starts to run like clockwork again, despite being in a wild new reality. It demonstrates how teams are less likely to break under pressure when flexibility is an assumed need.

In the business world, we can feel a distance between the clicky-clacky work we do at our computers and the real-world results.

But in hospitals? They’re dealing with life and death. The feedback loop between effort and outcome is super tight. The impact of their work is clear. And that makes the need for great teaming habits even more powerful.

The lesson here is that, while business teams aren’t (usually) faced with the same urgency as an emergency room, the habits that enable great teamwork stay the same.

At last year’s Emmys, The Pitt walked away with five awards, including top honors in the Drama Series category. With nominations coming out on Wednesday, I’ve got my fingers crossed that good teaming will win big again.

Karina Mangu-Ward

Partner, August Public

P.S. If you watch the show and have a favorite moment, reply to this email or comment on my LinkedIn post. I’d love to nerd out about the show (and Noah Wyle) together…