Inspirational and Educational Quotes on Teams and Teamwork

Quotes on the Purpose of Teams

Very often management doesn't know what they want teams to do in the first place. Various executives may have done some easy reading on empowerment and since they want to downsize anyway, see teams as the natural vehicle. Training Magazine

The first reality is that many organizations are under serious pressure to improve their performance in order to gain a competitive position and to survive. The second reality is
that the most consistently successful strategy to improve performance has proven to
be the use of teams and teamwork. Kinlaw 

The goal is not to have a team, but to increase productivity and employee satisfaction.

What we want is performance...
What we ask for is teams...
What we get is confusion!
What we want is performance...
What we should ask for is performance...
What we will get is performance!

Teams are not ends in themselves; they are a means by which to achieve other organizational goals. Richard Wellins, William Byham, Jeanne Wilson

In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two. Lee Iacocca

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Quotes on Work Teams

I've always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team. Lee Iacocca

Most teams aren't teams at all but merely collections of individual relationships with the boss. Each individual vying with the others for power, prestige and position. Douglas McGregor

What sets apart high-performance teams, however, is the degree of commitment, particularly how deeply committed the members are to one another. Jon R. Katzenbach & Douglas K. Smith

Work and self-worth are the two factors in pride that interact with each other and that tend to increase the strong sense of pride found in superior work teams. When people do something of obvious worth, they feel a strong sense of personal worth. Dennis Kinlaw

A demanding performance challenge tends to create a Team. In any situation requiring a combination of multiple skills, experiences and judgments, a team inevitably gets better results than a collection of individuals. Teams provide the kind of responsiveness, speed, on-line customization and quality that is beyond the reach of individual performance. Katzenbach & Smith

Teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations. This is where the "rubber stamp meets the road"; unless teams can learn, the organization cannot learn. Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline

Team learning is the process of aligning and developing the capacity of a team to create the results its members desire. It builds on the discipline of developing a shared vision. It also builds on personal mastery, for talented teams are made up of talented individuals. Peter Senge

Members of groups that do not meet regularly usually do not feel a strong sense of belonging and do not take ownership for the success of the group.

Empowered teams provide organzations with a capacity to leverage people as a competitive advantage. Russell D. Robinson

Teams are successful when they are focused, have a short cycle time, and are supported by the executives. Tom Bouchard

Shared value is the unifying force of a team.

The same dynamics that promote performance also support learning and behavioural change. Katzenbach & Smith

Overcoming barriers to performance is how groups become teams. Katzenbach & Smith

Teamwork represents a set of values that encourage behaviors such as listening and constructively responding to points of view expressed by others, giving others the benefit of the doubt, providing support to those who need it, and recognizing the interests and achievements of others. Katzenbach & Smith

Fun is only real and sustainable if it feeds off the team's purpose and performance aspirations. Katzenbach & Smith

Managing Teams
(HBR Pocket Mentor Series)

The Wisdom of Teams

The Discipline of Teams

Teams, Conflict, Collaboration and Consensus

Conflict is inevitable in a team ... in fact, to achieve synergistic solutions, a variety of ideas and approaches are needed. These are the ingredients for conflict. Susan Gerke

Excellence in our society is less a product of conflict and hostility than of collaboration.Secretan

Teams do not seek consensus; they seek the best answer. Katzenbach & Smith

Most potential teams can become real teams, but not without taking risks involving conflict, trust, interdependence, and hard work. For example, a common team purpose, set of performance goals, and approach rarely arise without conflict. Indeed, quite the contrary -- the most successful teams recognize their members' conflicting views and experiences as a source of strength. Similarly, mutual accountability requires trust and interdependence, which usually do not grow without risk taking. And, finally, most potential teams include members who must develop the skills needed by the team after they have joined the team itself. This, too, implies risks and hard work for everyone on the team. Katzenbach &. Smith

People have been known to achieve more as a result of working with others than against them. Dr. Allan Fromme

The key elements in the art of working together are how to deal with change, how to deal with conflict, and how to reach our potential...the needs of the team are best met when we meet the needs of individuals persons. Max DePree

Whenever ideas are shared, the result is always greater than the sum of the parts. Rich Willis

If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.
Thomas Edison, when asked why he had a team of twenty-one assistants

Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people. Stephen Covey

Synergism is the simultaneous actions of separate entities which together have greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects. Buchholz and Roth

If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary. Winston Churchill

Do you want a collection of brilliant minds or a brilliant collection of minds? R. Meredith Belbin

Members of trusting teams admit weaknesses and mistakes, take risks in offering feedback and assistance, and focus time and energy on important issues, not politics. Patrick Lencioni

Team members who feel threatened but who are not aware of it become rigid -- and that stops teamwork. Will Schutz

Without forgiveness, there can be no real freedom to act within a group. Max DePree

A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of the others. Norman Shidle

You will be most effective when members can complement each other without embarrassment and disagree without fear. Peter R. Scholtes, Brian L. Joiner, Barbara J. Streibel

When Teams Work Best

The Silos and Politics
of Turf Wars

The Paradoxes of
Group Life

Quotes on Teamwork

Teamwork is the quintessential contradiction of a society grounded in individual achievement.
Marvin Weisbord

The greater the loyalty of a group toward the group, the greater is the motivation among the members to achieve the goals of the group, and the greater the probability that the group will achieve its goals. Rensis Likert

Members of trusting teams accept questions and input about their areas or responsibility, appreciate and tap into one another’s skills and experiences, and look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group. Patrick Lencioni

Trust is the confidence among team members that their peers’ intentions are good, and that there is no reason to be protective or careful around the group. Teammates are vulnerable with one another; they are confident that their respective vulnerabilities will not be used against them. Patrick Lencioni

Achieving vulnerability-based trust (where team members have overcome their need for invulnerability) is difficult because in the course of career advancement and education, most successful people learn to be competitive with their peers, and protective of their reputations. It is a challenge for them to turn those instincts off for the good of the team, but that is exactly what is required. Patrick Lencioni

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality. Joe Paterno

A major reason capable people fail to advance is that they don’t work well with their colleagues.
Lee Iacocca

In these times of self-directed teams, empowered employees, and "boundaryless" organizations, your worth as an individual employee will also get measured by your work group's collective results. Price Pritchett

Teamplayer: One who unites others toward a shared destiny through sharing information and ideas, empowering others and developing trust. Dennis Kinlaw

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to obtain uncommon results.

The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
Vince Lombardi

Work and self-worth are the two factors in pride that interact with each other and that tend to increase the strong sense of pride found in superior work teams. When people do something of obvious worth, they feel a strong sense of personal worth. Dennis Kinlaw

A self-reinforcing upward spiral: performance stimulating pride stimulating performance.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Ultimately the team must serve the needs of the individual.

Trust is the foundation of real teamwork (there is nothing touchy-feely about this).
Patrick Lencioni

The key ingredient to building trust is not time. It is courage. Patrick Lencioni

 The Five Dysfunctions
of a Team

The Speed of Trust

Teamwork is an
Individual Skill

Inspirational Quotes on Teamwork

There is no "I" in "TEAMWORK".

Contrary to popular belief, there most certainly is an "I" in "team." It is the same "I" that appears three times in "responsibility.
Amber Harding

Wearing the same shirts doesn't make you a team. Buchholz and Roth

Team spirit is knowing and living the belief that what a group of people can accomplish together is much larger, far greater, and will exceed that which an individual can accomplish alone. Diane Arias

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed. It is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

Group desire is different than individual desire. With individual desire, it's up to you to feed the fire. With group desire, you get all kinds of people rolling logs on from every direction. Vince Pfaff

To say my fate is not tied to your fate is like saying, "Your end of the boat is sinking." Hugh Downs

The vehicle of accomplishment is fuelled by teamwork.

Strength is derived from unity. The range of our collective vision is far greater when individual insights become one.

Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together. Vesta M. Kelly

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

E Pluribus Unum - From many, One

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts

Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

Synergy -- the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously. Mark Twain

None of us is as smart as all of us. Ken Blanchard

Working together works. Dr. Rob Gilbert

Either we're pulling together or we're pulling apart.

Teamwork is working together -- even when apart.

Teamwork doesn't tolerate the inconvenience of distance.

Coming together, sharing together, working together, succeeding together.

Teamwork divides the task and doubles the success.

No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it. H.E. Luccock

I love to hear a choir. I love the humanity... to see the faces of real people devoting themselves to a piece of music. I like the teamwork. It makes me feel optimistic about the human race when I see them cooperating like that. Paul McCartney

To be a Most Valuable Player (MVP) on a team, you must have a Mission, a Vision, and a Passion.

A successful team is a group of many hands but of one mind.

It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit.

We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
Benjamin Franklin

Light is the task where many share the toil. Homer

Coming together is a beginning
Staying together is progress
Working together is success
Henry Ford

A farmer who had a quarrelsome family called his sons and told them to lay a bunch of sticks before him. Then, after laying the sticks parallel to one another and binding them, he challenged his sons, one after one, to pick up the bundle and break it. They all tried, but in vain. Then, untying the bundle, he gave them the sticks to break one by one. This they did with the greatest ease. Then said the father, "Thus, my sons, as long as you remain united, you are a match for anything, but differ and separate, and you are undone.- Aesop

FIVE LESSONS FROM GEESE

1. As each goose flaps its wings, it creates a "uplift" for the birds following. By flying in a "V" formation the whole flock adds 71% more flying range than if each bird flew alone.

LESSON: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

2. Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the birds immediately in front.

LESSON: If we have as much sense as a goose, we will join formation with those who are headed where we want to go.

3. When a lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies at the point position.

LESSON: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership - with people, as with geese interdependent with one another.

4. The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
LESSON: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging - not something less helpful.

5. When a goose get sick, wounded or shot, two geese drop out of formation and follow their fellow member, to help and provide protection. They stay with this member of the flock until he or she either is able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their own, with another formation, or to catch up with their own flock.

LESSON: If we have as much sense as the geese, we'll stand by one another like they do.

How NASA Builds Teams

Failures is not an Option

 

Leadership Lessons from the Limits
of Human Endurance - the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition

Great Business Teams

Creating Effective
Work Teams

Team Wisdom from the Sports Arena

A team should never practice on a field that is not lined. Your players have to become aware of the field's boundaries. Former NFL Coach John Madden

When you score a goal, or hit a three, or get a touchdown, you dont do it for yourself, you do it for the team cause the name in the front of the shirt is more important than the one on the back.

Gettin' good players is easy. Gettin' 'em to play together is the hard part. Casey Stengel

Michael, if you can't pass, you can't play.
Coach Dean Smith to Michael Jordan in his freshman year at UNC

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. Michael Jordan

No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Individuals score points, but teams win games. Zig Ziglar

Teamwork doesn't mean everyone runs to left field when the ball is hit there.

The era of the rugged individual is giving way to the era of the team player.
Everyone is needed, but no one is necessary.
Bruce Coslet, Coach, Bengals

The strength of the team is each individual member...the strength of each member is the team.
Coach Phil Jackson, Chicago Bulls

They told me there is no “I” in team.

I am an athlete.
I am an individual.
I am strong.
I am weak.
I have desires, hopes, and dreams.
I have goals.
I have fears.
As a team my opponent will never see my weaknesses.
Only my strength, never my fears, only my goals as they unfold before them.
I am not afraid that my team will see my fears, my hopes, dreams, or desires.
I trust them to an unlimited level.
I am not afraid that my team will see my faults, because
With them I can overcome my faults, with them I am
fearless, with them I have hopes and dreams.
With my team I am not weak, I do not have the strength
of one athlete, but of many, combined, focused,
And dangerous to my un-united opponent.
I become my team and my team becomes me.
I do not judge, and I am not judged.
I have a goal, and the team has a goal.
The team goal is my goal.
All that matters is that the team reaches its goal.
They always told me there is no “I” in “Team”.
They were wrong.
I am the team.
I became the team.
The team became me.
The team becomes an entity unto itself.
The team is strong, creative, compassionate, caring,
Authoritative, disciplined.
The team absorbs “I”, and then there is “I” in “Team”.
The “I” becomes part of something much more powerful.
They were right there is no “I” in “Team”,
But there is “Team” in me.

Movies/DVDs

New Zealand Quotes on Teamwork

“We are here because we want to win the America’s Cup.  We are here I hope, because we believe we can win the America’s Cup.  To be as good as the other guys would probably be reasonably simple.  To get that 1 or 2% better is going to take all of the effort, brains and enthusiasm that we can collectively muster.  It is going to take 90% of all of our effort to get that 1% better than the rest of the world. …but we can do it. You must believe that we can win the America's cup or I would rather you left now.”
Sire Peter Blake

“Very importantly we must enjoy it at the same time. We are going to win “it” by being a harmonious Team where we are working for and with each other, trying to improve each other’s game, rather than, as we have seen in the past, against each other…that way does not work."
Sir Peter Blake

 
“It is important that the sailors listen to the designers.  It is just as important that the designers listen to the sailors. Into the mix come the boatbuilders, PR team, sailmakers, etc.  Sometimes a rather “off the wall” idea might be useful.  Please keep very open minds and we must all be prepared to listen to each other and to outsiders” Sir Peter Blake

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini
My valour is not that of an individual but that of a multitude
(NZ Maori Proverb)

Explores the history and culture of the
All Blacks. to uncover the secret behind their legendary status