Teams & Culture
Building teams, trust, and the culture that holds an organization together.
You can’t change the world alone — you will need some help — and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.
Verified source2014 Commencement Address at the University of Texas at Austin · Watch at 6:57 · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin
6:57 of 19:29All quotes from this speech →
As delivered You can't change the world alone—you will need some help. And to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide you. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
SourceThe House Divided speech (1858) · via Wikiquote
We can succeed only by concert. It is not, 'Can any of us imagine better,' but, 'Can we all do better?'
SourceSecond State of the Union address (1862) · via Wikiquote
We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn't a matter of political correctness. It's a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.
SourceState of the Union address (January 2016) · via Wikiquote
That is America. That is America. Those bonds of affection; that common creed. We don't fear the future; we shape it. We embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own.
SourceDNC Address (July 2016) · via Wikiquote
I shall make it the most agreeable part of my duty to study merit, and reward the brave and deserving.
SourceAddress to the Officers of the Virginia Regiment · National Archives on Founders Online
I have diligently sought the public welfare; and have endeavoured to inculcate the same principles in all that are under me. These reflections will be a cordial to my mind as long as I am able to distinguish between Good & Evil.
SourceLetter to the Speaker of the House of Burgesses, John Robinson · National Archives on Founders Online
While we are contending for our own liberty, we should be very cautious not to violate the rights of conscience in others, ever considering that God alone is the judge of the hearts of men, and to him only in this case they are answerable.
SourceLetter to Benedict Arnold · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association on George Washington's Mount Vernon
Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.
SourceGeneral Orders · National Archives on Founders Online
...something is due to the Man who puts his life in his hand?hazards his health?& forsakes the Sweets of domestic enjoyments...
SourceFrom George Washing to John Hancock · Mount Vernon Ladies' Association on George Washington's Mount Vernon
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence—true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo & withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
SourceFrom George Washington to Bushrod Washington · National Archives on Founders Online
I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.
SourceCircular to the States · National Archives on Founders Online
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
SourceJordan, Michael. I Can't Accept Not Trying · via Wikiquote
But innovation comes from people meeting up in the hallways or calling each other at 10:30 at night with a new idea, or because they realized something that shoots holes in how we've been thinking about a problem.
SourceAs quoted in "The Seed of Apple's Innovation" in BusinessWeek (12 October 2004) · via Wikiquote
We allow no geniuses around our Studio.
SourceAs quoted in Animated Architecture (1982) by Derek Walker, p. 10 · via Wikiquote
I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.
Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold.
We want everybody to act like adults, quit playing games, realize that it's not just my way or the highway.
Every single player matters. Every single player can change the course of the game.
Things happen so quickly. We don't have time for one person to tell everybody what to do. Everybody needs to know what to do in those situations.
Ultimately, the team has to come first even though we all have individual goals and preferences.
I think it's important for us, as a team, to know each other. Know our teammates and our coaches. To interact with them is more important than to be 'liked' by whoever on Chatrun.
I think your team evolves every year. The more you know about it, the better you can coach it.
I think that's part of building your team is trying to anticipate where your team is going and to a certain extent where, especially defensively because you have to react to what they put on the field. Defensively you have to be able to defend those things.
The more you and the organization can help take care of personal situations, the smoother the ship runs on the football end.
If your culture doesn't like geeks, you are in real trouble.
One thing I've always loved about the culture at Microsoft is there is nobody who is tougher on us, in terms of what we need to learn and do better, than the people in the company itself. You can walk down these halls, and they'll tell you, 'We need to do usability better, push this or that frontier.'
The outside perception and inside perception of Microsoft are so different. The view of Microsoft inside Microsoft is always kind of an underdog thing.
A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.
I don't think culture is something you can describe.
At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.
Life is too short for long-term grudges.
It's very important to like the people you work with. Otherwise, your job is going to be quite miserable.
The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You're encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren't that smart, who aren't that creative.
I care very deeply about the people at Tesla. I feel like I have a great debt to the people of Tesla who are making the company successful.
A company is a group organized to create a product or service, and it is only as good as its people and how excited they are about creating. I do want to recognize a ton of super-talented people. I just happen to be the face of the companies.
I'm trying to construct a world that maximises the probability that SpaceX continues its mission without me.
If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.
My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.
You will find men who want to be carried on the shoulders of others, who think that the world owes them a living. They don't seem to see that we must all lift together and pull together.
The world needs new leadership, but the new leadership is about working together.
I don't think I'm a workaholic. Every weekend, I invite my colleagues and friends to my home to play cards. And people, my neighbors, are always surprised because I live on the second floor apartment, and there are usually 40 pairs of shoes in front of my gate, and people play cards inside and play chess. We have a lot of fun.
There are big problems that change the world. If we are working together, that will make us understand each other, appreciate each other, help each other.
As a company, we have to be very transparent. We are in a business very related to finance, and I want this company to last long, and I want this company to be audited by everyone.
If you want to invest in us, we believe customer number one, employee number two, shareholder number three. If they don't want to buy that, that's fine. If they regret, they can sell us.
Alibaba spends money on improving the products and services, not on kickbacks. That's a good thing. It's called a value system, and because of that, we get more and more small- to medium-sized companies to support us in China.
Part of company culture is path-dependent - it's the lessons you learn along the way.
Cultures, for better or worse, are very stable.
I think, team first. It allows me to succeed, it allows my team to succeed.
When you work out or you're doing anything active, it's more fun as a group. You may lose track of the time, and the next thing you know, you're working out for two hours because you're having fun.
Once you get on the playing field it's not about whether you're liked or not liked. All that matters is to play at a high level and do whatever it takes to help your team win. That's what it's about.
I've always been an unselfish guy, and that's the only way I know how to play on the court and I try to play to the maximum of my ability - not only for myself but for my teammates.
When you have that respect from your teammates, it makes it a lot more comfortable.
I hate letting my teammates down. I know I'm not going to make every shot. Sometimes I try to make the right play, and if it results in a loss, I feel awful. I don't feel awful because I have to answer questions about it. I feel awful in that locker room because I could have done something more to help my teammates win.
To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win. Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates. When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.
There are always people always asking you for something. But I feel like I have a foundation. I have a supporting cast where it doesn't bother me too much.
Your teammates give you the confidence. They give me the confidence all year, all postseason.
Nice goes much further than mean.
There are a lot of things I suck at. I'm not organized. I have to have partners and people around me who dot my i's and cross my t's. I'm sloppy. I'm a ready-fire-aim guy. I need to have people around me who aren't.
If there was a template for success in sports, everyone would follow it. You do the best you can and trust the people you trust.
When I got to the Mavericks people were all giving me advice - change this, change that - and one thing that I didn't do was fire anybody.
The key is having great players. But there are a lot of teams that have All-Stars and haven't been able to put it together.
When you turn your team upside down and try to figure out what the culture of the team is, you take the greatest risk a team can take.
The people I don't like to work with are people like me. I need people who can complement my skill set, people who can do the nitty gritty with me.
Culture is very important to the Mavs. Your best player has to be a fit for what you want the culture of the team to be. He has to be someone who leads by example. Someone who sets the tone in the locker room and on the court. It isn't about who talks the most or the loudest. It is about the demeanor and attitude he brings.
Hackathons are these things where just all of the Facebook engineers get together and stay up all night building things. And, I mean, usually at these hackathons, I code too, just alongside everyone.
We have a very open culture at the company, where we foster a lot of interaction between not just me and people but between everyone else. It's an open floor plan. People have these desks where no one really has an office. I mean, I have a room where I meet with people. But it has all glass, so everyone can see into it and see what's going on.
What really motivates people at Facebook is building something that's worthwhile, that they're going to be proud to show to friends and family.
I look at Google and think they have a strong academic culture. Elegant solutions to complex problems.
The amount of trust and bandwidth that you build up working with someone for five, seven, 10 years? It's just awesome. I care about openness and connectedness in a global sense.
What really motivates people at Facebook is building stuff that they're proud of.
There is no 'i' in team but there is in win.
I think the players win the championship, and the organization has something to do with it, don't get me wrong. But don't try to put the organization above the players.
Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.
Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.
No matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe, it is both possible and, more importantly, it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort.
Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds teams together.
If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball.
As much as we pump iron and we run to build our strength up, we need to build our mental strength up... so we can focus... so we can be in concert with one another.
The NBA has made a real issue about really making these superstars the premium that everybody wants to go to. That's their calling card and their marketing tool. But the coaches at the other end of the sphere are trying to make everybody on the team, even nine, 10, 11, 12, just as important, and have a real role that's meaningful.
There's a lot of chatter in basketball and, rightfully, you want players to be talking to each other... But sometimes in practice, it gets too verbose... so I tried to take things out of the ordinary and make them special so they'd understand the difference.
I think the most rewarding part of the job, and I think most coaches would say it, is practice. If you have it, a very good practice in which you have 12 guys participate, and they can really get something out of it, lose themselves in practice.
I think there's something about wanting to stand in the spotlight. I think the ball is a spotlight, for example, and I think they want to stand in that. I a lot of times see - LeBron is a guy that vacillates between wanting to do that and then wanting to get somebody else involved.
Fun is one of the most important - and underrated - ingredients in any successful venture. If you're not having fun, then it's probably time to call it quits and try something else.
By putting the employee first, the customer effectively comes first by default, and in the end, the shareholder comes first by default as well.
An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right. And the people out on the front line, they know when things are not going right, and they know when things need to be improved. And if you listen to them, you can soon improve all those niggly things which turns an average company into an exceptional company.
Especially when you're at a high level in an organization, criticism can be devastating to an employee. I prefer to praise employees for what they're doing right, and it tends to lead to them doing more of the same. Not always, but it's the way I choose to bet.
The energy you create around you is perhaps going to be the most important attribute - in the long run, EQ trumps IQ. Without being a source of energy for others, very little can be accomplished.
There is something only a CEO uniquely can do, which is set that tone, which can then capture the soul of the collective.
At Microsoft, we're aspiring to have a living, learning culture with a growth mindset that allows us to learn from ourselves and our customers. These are the key attributes of the new culture at Microsoft, and I feel great about how it seems to be resonating and how it's seen as empowering.
I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work.
Without a doubt, I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap.
I want everyone inside of Microsoft to take that responsibility. This is not about top-line growth. This is not about bottom-line growth. This is about us individually having a growth mindset.
There are always going to be people who are experts in security or end-user devices or collaboration or databases. That's not going to go away. But what's the reason all of these professions come together? To help the business transform itself.
It's not about asking for the raise but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along.
Culture change means we will do things differently.
Most people have a very strong sense of organizational ownership, but I think what people have to own is an innovation agenda, and everything is shared in terms of the implementation.
I want people on the front line to be proud of what they're doing and give themselves permission to finish things in ways that they can be proud of.
We are really excited about being stewards to the community that is Minecraft.
I do believe that at Microsoft in general good work is rewarded, and I have seen it many times here.
We must ensure not only that everyone receives equal pay for equal work, but that they have the opportunity to do equal work.
Ultimately, what any company does when it is successful is merely a lagging indicator of its existing culture.
The notion of having work-life harmony in a highly competitive economy is a first-class topic.
I know what I do for my team and what my teammates expect of me on both ends of the floor.
We have a great group of guys that really sacrifice every night, care about each other, and try to play the right away.
The vibe in our locker room is real energetic and fun and real personable, I think from Day 1. That gets you through a lot of tough times, where in hard times, it might be common nature for guys to do their own thing and split up and become silent.
Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people.
It's not a faith in technology. It's faith in people.
It's not the tools that you have faith in - tools are just tools. They work, or they don't work. It's people you have faith in or not. Yeah, sure, I'm still optimistic I mean, I get pessimistic sometimes but not for long.
Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them.
My model for business is The Beatles: They were four guys that kept each others' negative tendencies in check; they balanced each other. And the total was greater than the sum of the parts.
I don't think I've ever worked so hard on something, but working on Macintosh was the neatest experience of my life. Almost everyone who worked on it will say that. None of us wanted to release it at the end. It was as though we knew that once it was out of our hands, it wouldn't be ours anymore.
When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.
I love creating partnerships; I love not having to bear the entire burden of the creative storytelling, and when I have unions like with George Lucas and Peter Jackson, it's really great; not only do I benefit, but the project is better for it.
If the world ran the way a crew runs a set, we'd have a better, more progressive world.
Everybody who works for Amblin Television has to do five jobs.
Google teams have lots of autonomy, including from people like me.
I think the most diverse group will produce the best product; I firmly believe that.
If you believe, as we believe, that diversity leads to better products, and we're all about making products that enrich people's lives, then you obviously put a ton of energy behind diversity the same way you would put a ton of energy behind anything else that is truly important.
We collectively, to get things done, work together as a team. Because the work really happens horizontally in our company, not vertically. Products are horizontal. It takes hardware plus software plus services to make a killer product.
Apple has a culture of excellence that is, I think, so unique and so special. I'm not going to witness or permit the change of it.
I think two people with strong points of view can appreciate each other even more.
When you care about people's happiness and productivity, you give them what brings out the best in them and their creativity. And if you give them a choice, they'll say, 'I want an iPhone,' or 'I want a Mac.' We think we can win a lot of corporate decisions at that level.
This is Steve's company. This is still Steve's company. It was born that way; it's still that way. And so his spirit, I think, will always be the DNA of this company.
My job is to play quarterback, and I'm going to do that the best way I know how, because I owe that to my teammates regardless of who is out there on the field with me.
I just love working hard. I love being part of a team; I love working toward a common goal.
To me, football is so much about mental toughness, it's digging deep, it's doing whatever you need to do to help a team win and that comes in a lot of shapes and forms.
WIth football you can have up to 28 guys you consider starters, and if they can pick up the slack when some aren't playing so well, you don't have to turn those two game losing streaks into six-game losing streaks.
I play a complicated position in an intensely team-oriented game.
It's amazing, the culture Coach Belichick has been able to create in our system.
I've been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I've played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.
When I work, I work very hard. So I look to work with people who have that level of dedication. And I depend on that from everyone. From the director to my crews that I work with.
I like to work with people that I like hanging out with, that I admire, that are really smart and talented, and we can problem solve together.
Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.
Battles are won in the hearts of men.
People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.
Teamwork is what the Green Bay Packers were all about. They didn't do it for individual glory. They did it because they loved one another.
You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.
The only way to get love is to be lovable. It's very irritating if you have a lot of money. You'd like to think you could write a check: 'I'll buy a million dollars' worth of love.' But it doesn't work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.
It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction.
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