Success onstage in Houston Texas! Team building 2025
- Greg Bennick
- Apr 1
- 2 min read
I spoke in Houston Texas today at the 2025 Design Leadership Conference and had an incredible time sharing ideas on team building, bringing people together, and finding meaning in our work.
The audience was national, from all levels of leadership in infrastructure project management.
The goal: to remind people that what they do is meaningful, that they impact people beyond the room, and to inspire them to come together with shared expertise and values. This was a huge win for a keynote on team building and focus.
All this and we had a great time amidst it. When audiences are amazed and laughing and learning at the same time, everyone wins. Here is why team building and focus actually matter to groups: I want people to feel valued. Distractions are all around us and in addition to increasing, they are impacting our neural health. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported as far back as 2016 that "Distractions can induce powerful alterations" in our neural processes...and 2016 was basically the time of dinosaurs in terms of the distractions that we are facing today and the corresponding stress levels that accompany them.
In 2016 we didn't even have AI, self driving cars going in circles with screaming passengers, or lab-grown meat. If we want team cohesion and to sharpen our focus we need to prioritize them as goals as these ambitions have never been more important. Building strong teams isn't something that just happens organically. Stronger teams are built intentionally.
When we have engaging experiences and share in connection and trust through a sense of purpose that gets reinforced through, say, laughter or ideas, that's where that intentionality is actualized.
Dare I say that this is where a fun and engaging team-building keynote comes into play like the one I did today in Texas.
Bringing an audience together with an interactive and engaging team-building keynote can transform the way they think about one another and collaborate. This was the goal. When my client contacted me for a pre-event meeting, it was important to them to remind people that they belong, that they are driven by shared values, and that the work they do matters. When team mates feel like their contributions matter, they not only are more inspired but they are more committed to an organization's success.
There have been numerous studies that substantiate these ideas. Gallup, in 2013, completed research on employee engagement and revealed that people who were part of cohesive teams saw increased productivity. This isn't rocket science but it is just as important. Employees who feel like they matter and who recognize their contributions are significant are more likely to take initiative on their own, solve problems creatively with confidence, and support one another along the way.
My keynote explores these ideas and it gets people laughing at the same time. I am always excited say that the keynote is like high octane fuel for teamwork.