Inspirational Teamwork Examples

Apollo 11 Moon Landing

One of the most historic examples of teamwork is the Apollo 11 1969 mission. While
the world focused on the three astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael
Collins, the former two who walked on the moon, most remember only Armstrong and
his famous line upon being the first human being to set foot on the satellite: “This is one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

However, behind that momentous moment are years of research and teams of people
working diligently to do what no one had done before. Mission planners worked for two
years prior to launch, studying the moon’s surface using satellite photographs in order
to discern the best site for a lunar landing.

According to NASA, there were an estimated 400,000 people involved in making the moon
landing possible. This included teams of scientists, engineers and technicians, many who had
not worked in aerospace before. To make for a more cohesive team, the astronauts worked with
many of these groups, making the human connection that is the blood of any team.

D-Day

D-Day, or the invasion of Normandy, retaking Nazi-occupied France, was the turning
point of World War II in Europe. Many things went into the success of D-Day. There’s
the logistics management of aligning so many troops and equipment while keeping
the whole operation a secret. Naturally, it was also a strategic win for the Allies. But all
these parts worked together only because of teamwork.

The beaches of Normandy, which was the spearhead of the invasion, were
boobytrapped and obscured by wooden stakes, metal tripods and barbed wire.
Casualties were high on that day June 6, but if it wasn’t for beach-cleaning teams they
would be higher, according to D-Day: The Battle for Normandy by Antony Beevor.
From the generals on down to the grunts, everyone who sacrificed their lives for the
greater good did so because they worked together as a team for ideals that are more
important than individuals. It’s almost impossible to understand how people could place
themselves in harm’s way like that, but teamwork makes us bigger in more ways that
we can count.

Red cross

A clear and motivating purpose is essential to attracting the right talent.

During the devastating Haiti earthquake of January 2010, the British Red Cross
immediately went into action. They gathered thousands of workers, from volunteers to
frontline disaster specialists, who would be mobilized into a community of purpose. The
common factor among those people: they did great work, and they did it together. It
didn’t matter whether they were on the ground in Haiti or at charity shops across the
high streets of the UK.

For most teams, there won’t be such an innate crisis to respond to, but there should still
always be a sense of meaning in their work. For a team’s purpose to be potent, it needs
to be compelling to its members. You need to inspire your team, connect the team’s
work to an exciting, meaningful outcome, with a result that everyone finds personally
worthwhile.

The Constitution of the United States

The Constitution of the United States is a foundational document of our democracy. It

is also a prime example of teamwork. The then 13 states, all of which would have to
ratify the constitution to make it the law of the land, were not united. There was no
central government and the risk of the new nation falling apart was even more of a
concern than it is today!

Debates raged over such things that we today take for granted like how long a
president’s term should last. For four months delegates debated, until on September 17,
1787, the 39 delegates signed the historic document. Of course, that wasn’t the end of
it. Now voters in each state had to approve. But the delegates did their job and the
people ratified the Constitution in 1789.

Teamwork is a way of life at VouchForMe. We work together to modernize

insurance, and our team insurance encourages safer driving and cuts the cost of
premiums for groups of responsible drivers.

We can never overstate the importance of teamwork. Throughout history and even in
the natural world, teams work together to motivate and support each other. Through
collaboration, individuals achieve great heights. Today we’re taking a look at five
examples of teamwork.

The Roman Army

Examples of teamwork went back to ancient times and were applied to ancient
architecture, inventions, and war. An early application of military cooperation was the
Roman’s testudo formation, commonly known as the tortoise. Standing On their own,
each soldier was vulnerable, but by locking their shields together, they could cover
their front, sides, and head, and the unit became almost invincible. Should a soldier
testudo shirk their responsibilities and allow a weak spot, the whole unit would be at
risk. For the Romans who used this tactic, good teamwork could be the difference
between life and death.

We”ll never know how Stonehenge was built, but we can tell it was a team
effort.