35 Team Building Quotes to Inspire Teamwork & Collaboration

Leaders have long been using quotes in sports and business as an effective way to build strong teams. Enthusiastic team building quotes have one central purpose – to educate and inspire teamwork and collaboration.

It is getting more challenging to get a team synchronized and working on the same page these days, especially remote teams.

In fact, 61% of workers agree that their company culture has drastically changed due to the transition to remote work. In the same way that 47% report that it's now more challenging to connect with their organization's company values – and ultimately work as a cohesive team to achieve them.

This is why Effy.ai has come up with a list of team building quotes to help inspire teamwork and collaboration among staff. Even when team members may not be in the same place at the same time, they can carry these united messages with them and achieve extraordinary results.

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Our 35 favorite team building quotes to inspire your team

Motivating a team is necessary to improve productivity, create a happy work culture, and decrease employee turnover. The best teamwork comes from highly motivated and inspired teams. Inspiring a team also keeps people interested in their jobs, even after performing the same repetitive tasks year after year.

Knowing where to start can be challenging.

Seeing an inspirational message written at your desk, or saved as your screensaver, can turn the day around and give you the push needed to conquer the day!

The following list is an accumulation of quotes that we at Effy.ai determined to be effective for collaboration, motivation, or when the team needs a quick pick-me-up to put a smile on their face.

After all, "You're never more of an individual than when you're a happy team player."

– Suzanne Farrell

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Collaboration & teamwork quotes

• "Teamwork gives you the best opportunity to turn vision into reality."
  – John C Maxwell
  
  
• "Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare."
  – Patrick Lencioni
  
  
• “Teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”
  – Patrick Lencioni
  
  
• "Synergy – the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously."
  – Mark Twain
  
  
• "No man or woman is an island. To exist just for yourself is meaningless. You can achieve the most satisfaction when you feel related to some greater purpose in life, something greater than yourself."
  – Denis Waitley
  
  
• "It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) that those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
  – Charles Darwin
  
  
• “A hundred thousand men, coming one after another, cannot move a Ton weight; but the united strength of 50 would transport it with ease.”
  – George Washington
  
  
• “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
  – Phil Jackson
  
  
• "The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime."
  – Babe Ruth
  
  
• "Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life."
  – Amy Poehler
  
  
• "A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself and his contribution to praise the skills of others.”
  – Norman Shidle
  
  
• “Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.”
  – Steve Jobs
  
  
•  "Individually, we are one drop. Together we are an ocean."
  – Ryunosuke Satoro
  
  
• “Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results.”
  – Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
  
  

Funny team building quotes

• “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
  – Benjamin Franklin
  
  
• "Teamwork means never having to take all the blame yourself."
  – Stephen Hawking
  
  
• “On this team, we’re all united in a common goal: to keep my job.”
  – Lou Holtz
  
  
• "Teamwork. A few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction."
  – Justin Sewel
  
  
• “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.”
  – Halford Luccock
  
  
• “If you take out the team in teamwork, it’s just work. Now who wants that?”
  – Matthew Woodring Stover
  
  
• "Gettin good players is easy. Gettin' 'em to play together is the hard part."
  – Casey Stengel
  
  
• “None of us is as smart as all of us.”
  – Ken Blanchard
  
  
• “Tough times don’t last, tough teams do.”
  – Robert Schuller
  
  

Team motivational quotes

• “If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
  – Henry Ford
  
  
• "If you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships."
  – Michael Jordan
  
  
• “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
  – Helen Keller
  
  
• “One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up, add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends; needless to say that individuality counts but teamwork dynamites.”
  – Jin Kwon
  
  
• "The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first."
  – Iyanla Vanzant
  
  
• “A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.”
  – Rosalynn Carter
  
  
• "None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful."
  – Mother Teresa
  
  
• "Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."
  – Henry Ford
  
  
• "Strategy is not a solo sport, even if you're the CEO."
  – Max McKeown
  
  
• “Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”
  – Andrew Carnegie
  
  
• "Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people."
  – John D. Rockefeller
  
  
• "Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."
  – Vince Lombardi

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Conclusion

Team building quotes have proven to be a timeless tool for uniting individuals and encouraging them to work together toward a shared vision or goal.

The difference between a good and a great team is the willingness to gather and mobilize as one instead of focusing only on the individual. 

Good teams incorporate teamwork into their daily tasks to make all the difference. This is where a successful team is built – as a collaboration.

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FAQs

What is a good quote for teamwork?

Henry Ford – founder of Ford Motor Company – once said, "If everyone is moving forward together then success takes care of itself." This quotation emphasizes the impact that teamwork has on achievement.

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What are some team captions?

Some catchy team captions include:

1. "Teamwork makes the dream work."
2. "Together we are stronger."
3. "Bringing out the best in each other."
4. "WE is better than ME."

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How do you inspire teamwork?

The best way to inspire teamwork is to have a good, enthusiastic attitude. Use a positive outlook to build people up and communicate openly. Make sure your vision for the team is simple, direct, and clearly expressed among all members. Quotes can strengthen team collaboration and motivate members of an organization.  

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