I’m going on a book tour! Scroll to the end of this email for details.

World Cup fever has taken over the globe for the past month.

We’ve seen epic wins, heartbreaking losses, and an abundance of memes that have made the soccer competition hard to miss.

We’ve also seen some pretty amazing lessons in excellent teaming.

Admittedly, I’m not a huge soccer fan. I haven’t been following the World Cup as closely as some of the August Pals. But lucky for me (and all you readers!), the Pals have told me their favorite teaming takeaways from the past month:

1. Erling Haaland’s contagious joy (and excellence) on the field 😁

Norway’s striker Erling Haaland has become a breakout star for his contagious joy, much like Olympic skater Alyssa Liu a few months back.

If you’ve seen Haaland play, you’ll know what I mean. The guy is having fun, both on and off the field. But he’s also undeniably one of the top players in the world.

He exemplifies August’s core value of joy at work. Approaching tough tasks with an open, curious, excited, joyful mindset can totally change your experience, and often create the environment for even greater outcomes.

(Plus, the guy is literally an antidote to toxic masculinity, which is always refreshing to see on the world stage. Cleated Rivalry, anyone?)

Teaming Takeaway: Make time for joy at work. It’ll open up opportunities for better ideas, better learning, a whole lot of fun, and most importantly, better outcomes.

2. How “Country Roads” became the unofficial Team USA anthem…with A/B testing! 🎶

When FIFA officials added John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” to its postgame playlist, they were hoping to create a moment between Team USA and the fans. And create a moment they did.

The song has become the unofficial Team USA anthem because of a small bet taken by chief strategy & planning officer Amy Hopfinger, who knew that American fans in particular rally around popular songs.

After Team USA beat Australia, she texted the head of event production to add two songs to the queue: Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer” and “Country Roads.” During the first, a few people sang along. During the second? Magic happened. And continued to happen at every USA game after.

It’s a great showcase of how small bets with radical intent can pay off in massive ways. And also a reminder to always A/B test your ideas!

Teaming Takeaway: Take more Small Bets! This practice of designing mini-experiments to test bigger concepts can help your team take action toward goals that would otherwise seem too daunting (like choosing a song an entire country will rally around).

3. England’s locker room team-bonding activities 🥳

Building a team out of a country’s top players means bringing together people who are usually enemies. Week in, week out, these guys are in direct opposition to each other’s goals.

Managers need to be intentional about how they design these teams AND their environments. And England has become a stand-out example of how to do that.

You’ve probably seen viral locker-room videos of the players dancing together, playing pranks, and cracking jokes. This is totally by design.

These moments invite authenticity, trust, psychological safety…the works. It may seem like a small thing, but it allowed their team to come together as a cohesive unit on the world stage.

Teaming Takeaway: Strategy is important, but it’s not the whole picture. Don’t forget the importance of how your people work together. Does everyone know their goal? Do people trust each other? This is where a Team Charter can really make a difference.

Now, I’m writing this newsletter on Friday. While you likely know the outcome of Sunday’s final, current me is still in the dark.

One thing I can say with certainty is that good teaming surely played a role in the winner's victory, because at the end of the day, even elite soccer stars can only succeed as an exceptional unit.

Congrats to whoever takes the big win! And kudos to all the participating teams who showed us important lessons that hold value on the field AND in the office.

Karina Mangu-Ward

Partner, August Public

I’m going on a book tour!

And I’m guaranteed to be in your city/country/town/island/remote cabin in the woods, because it’s VIRTUAL! Here’s the current plan:

🙋 July 30th - Author Q&A Session

📝 August 27th - Better Teaming Workshop

🔥 Sept 24th - Fireside Chat (+ special guest!)

I’ll be talking all things Teams That Meet The Moment—the lies we love, the practices, the case studies—with a few surprises along the way.

Whether you’ve read the book yet or not, this tour is for everyone who knows that teamwork can be better, but needs help with the how.

Click the button to register your interest—I’ll be following up with more details soon! And you can always check out my LinkedIn for current updates.