‘Greatness is the act of being courageous—courageous enough to be yourself—, of surrendering to an ambition you share with others, and go change the world.’

Here is how Keith Yamashita finished the speach he gave at a 99U conference in December 2012 on ‘The 3 Habits of Great Creative Teams’. An inspiring speach to say the least.

If you need to know, Keith Yamashita is chairman and founder of SYPartners. For the past two decades, he has worked alongside CEOs and their leadership teams to define—and then attain—greatness for their institutions. Keith is also an author and essayist on leadership and design.

Here is the video of the speach:

And here is what you should keep in mind:

We tend to think of creativity as the work of a soloist. Interestingly, virtually all acts of greatness are the work of an ensemble.

Brilliant people who are soloist get stuck all the time. If this is your case, you have to develop your own unique method of getting unstuck. You have to find your rythm, your pattern.

As part of a team, to achieve greatness, you have to have an understanding of each member ‘superpower’, to have a habit of purpose building, to be resilient, to base the team’s work on trust, to build belief in others so that they will take action, to focus on decision-making.

- Habits of Great Creative Teams: Forces

To do so you need the ability to see (not only look), to switch lenses.


- Habits of Great Creative Teams: Superpower

It is amazing how much people allow and settle for time in teams where they are not using their superpower. Once you know your superpower, your job is to stay in that zone as long as you can and in every team interaction you can. You will be happier because your contribution will be based on something you love to be, and your team will be better off cause it is your true talent that you are bringing to the table.


- Habits of Great Creative Teams: Duos

Duos is the smallest atomic unit of trust you can have in a team. Think of the top 10 duos in your life. Writte them down. Go through that list regularly, and see how you can build strength in that relationship. It all come down to how you react in that duo at any moment; you have two choices always: do you respond with a sens of love, or fear? We find the best way to build duos is to extend that love and trust, before it is safe for you to do so. In that act of generosity lays greatness.