“Celebrate past successes and accelerate future potential.”
Sometimes, I am asked to deliver a keynote for organizations with a dual focus: celebrate past successes and accelerate future potential. Recently, I was booked to do exactly that for a leading healthcare private equity firm celebrating a significant milestone—their 30th anniversary of following their North Star: “Improving Patient Outcomes.”
The Theme: Celebrate and Accelerate
The firm’s founders, who are still at the helm, wanted this event to be more than just a celebration of three decades of success. They envisioned using this offsite as a catalyst for transitioning the next generation of leaders. Their goal was to honor their past achievements while simultaneously building momentum for the future. Given the rapid evolution of the healthcare sector over the past 30 years, they’ve had to continuously adapt, and they wanted their next leaders to carry that same agility forward.
They brought me in as the closing keynote because several of their leaders had seen me weave key conference messages into a cohesive call-to-action during a previous keynote. My task? Use the firm’s rich history to fuel their leaders’ enthusiasm for what lies ahead.
Expanding the Definition of Team Building
The central message I shared aligned perfectly with the firm’s philosophy: for them to continue thriving, they must expand their definition of team building. It’s not just about building high-performing internal teams; it’s about embracing a broader vision. I emphasize this in my book, Unstoppable Teams: The Four Essential Actions of High Performance Leadership.
Real success comes when organizations scale the concept of team dynamics beyond just internal colleagues to include customers, contributors (like key vendors and partners), and the communities they operate within.
These leaders understood that to remain competitive in a healthcare landscape driven by reputation and trust, they needed to nurture relationships that extended beyond their office walls. Word-of-mouth is their lifeblood, and expanding their team-building focus was the fuel they needed to accelerate into the next chapter of their journey.
Step 1: Recognize that All Teams Are Temporary
The challenge? Success can be a double-edged sword. It’s easy for high-performing teams to fall into the trap of complacency—where “good enough” becomes the standard. I’ve seen this happen countless times: organizations that hit their targets year after year suddenly lose their edge because they’ve become too comfortable.
The first step in avoiding this trap is recognizing that all teams are temporary. The team you have today will not be the same team you have next year, and that’s a good thing. Whether you’re striving for back-to-back championships or tackling complex business challenges, no two successful teams are ever the same. Once a mission is accomplished, great teams disband and reform, constantly evolving to meet new goals.
This mindset shift—moving from team defending (“once on the team, always on the team”) to dynamic team building—frees people to focus on continuous improvement.
It’s not about being “safe” because you’re part of today’s team; it’s about constantly striving for excellence with the best people for the job.
Step 2: Redefine What It Means to Be a Team
The second step is redefining the concept of a team. Many people’s ideas of team dynamics are rooted in experiences from high school sports or past projects, but the business world is far more complex. After two decades of leading companies, I can confidently say that high-performance team building is not insular.
To thrive in today’s rapidly changing environment, your team-building protocols must evolve at the same pace as the market.
This means opening your doors to team members who might not appear on your org chart but are vital to your success. When organizations extend their definition of “team” to include cross-departmental colleagues, key customers, strategic vendors, and community stakeholders, they unlock a multiplier effect.
Take, for example, the sales and production teams. One can’t hit their targets without the other. When you view your customers as partners in innovation and your vendors as experts who can exponentially increase your capabilities, you begin to transform a good team into an Unstoppable Team.
Step 3: Create an Environment of Team Ownership
The final step is fostering a culture of team ownership. While leadership lays the foundation, true sustainability comes when every team member takes ownership. Great teams are built when everyone—regardless of their role—feels accountable for the collective success.
The north star of any high-performing team is the question, “What is best for the team?”
This selfless mindset starts at the top; the culture of a team is a direct reflection of its leaders. When leaders consistently prioritize the team’s needs over individual wants, they set the tone for a dynamic culture of ownership. I emphasize “dynamic” because great teams develop a shared consciousness, a level of dedication where individual recognition becomes secondary to achieving the mission.
You might think, “Easy for you to say, Alden. You were in SEAL Team—selflessness like that would never happen in my organization.” But I’m here to tell you I’ve seen Unstoppable Teams form in every industry, across countless business verticals, from sports teams to government agencies to charities. It’s entirely possible!
What makes it achievable is following my C.A.R.E. framework, which lies at the heart of the Unstoppable Teams book. This framework focuses on four key actions: building trust, setting and achieving shared goals, creating contributors, and developing owners. By teaching organizations how to apply these principles, I help them create teams that don’t just succeed but become truly unstoppable.
Building Unstoppable Teams: The Power of Community
When your customers, contributors, and the communities you serve feel like they are part of your team, something powerful happens—they won’t let you fail. The founders of this private equity firm experienced this firsthand over the past 30 years, and they were determined to continue this legacy by cultivating an even broader definition of teamwork.
During my keynote, I connected their past triumphs with proven team-building tools to accelerate the development of Unstoppable Teams for the next three decades. It’s not just about internal success metrics like ROI or sales; it’s about expanding the impact outward to create a force that drives exponential growth.
Unstoppable Teams Create Unstoppable Momentum
At the end of my keynote, I emphasized that "Unstoppable is a choice." It’s not just about celebrating the past but using that momentum to fuel future achievements. By embracing an inclusive, evolving definition of teamwork, this firm is set up to not just meet the challenges of the future but to shape them. It was my pleasure to help them celebrate 30 years of success while providing the tools to accelerate their journey forward.
Unstoppable Teams are built with intention, and when you expand your team to include everyone critical to your mission, you’ll create an unstoppable force. I would be honored to discuss how I can help your organization build Unstoppable Teams.
P.S. Here’s what the client had to say about my closing keynote for their 30th Anniversary offsite:
"Having Alden as the keynote speaker at our Annual Operator Summit helped us put the exclamation point on an important event for our firm. With so much focus and energy required to build leaders and teams in today’s healthcare environment, Alden was able to make a significant impact with his message because of his unique combination of learned experience and one-of-a-kind story-telling ability. Our executives came away energized and ready to tackle any obstacle as they build healthcare organizations and help advance patient outcomes."
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Remember, We Are All Born to Be Unstoppable
It is our Choice to Be Unstoppable. Check out my Books and our Resources and Courses to develop the mindset and actions required to thrive and accomplish more than you originally thought possible. And if you have any questions about motivational speaking, just drop me a line!
