Who Are the Best Teamwork Keynote Speakers?

Some of the leading keynote speakers on teamwork include Erica Dhawan, Liz Wiseman, Patrick Lencioni, David Burkus, Mike Robbins, Carey Lohrenz, and Ryan Jenkins.

Explore leading teamwork keynote speakers who help organizations strengthen collaboration, trust, communication, connection, leadership, and team performance.

Each approaches teamwork from a different perspective. Some focus on collaboration and communication. Others emphasize trust, leadership, team dynamics, high performance, or human connection.

The right teamwork speaker depends on what your team needs most.

Why Is Teamwork So Important Right Now?

Work has always required teamwork. But working as a team has arguably become harder.

Technology makes it easier to communicate, but not necessarily easier to connect. Calendars are crowded. Deadlines are constant. Teams are spread across locations and generations. AI is changing how work gets done and which skills people need.

Amid all that change, organizations still need people to trust each other, communicate effectively, collaborate, solve problems, support one another, and perform together.

That's why a great teamwork keynote shouldn't simply motivate people to "work better together." It should help audiences understand why teamwork breaks down and what they can actually do to strengthen it.

Here are several teamwork keynote speakers to consider.

Erica Dhawan

Erica Dhawan focuses on collaboration, communication, and teamwork in a digitally connected workplace.

She is the author of Digital Body Language and Get Big Things Done and is known for her Connectional Intelligence framework. Her work explores how people can collaborate more effectively across teams and silos, particularly as technology changes how people communicate and work together.

Consider Erica if: your organization wants to improve cross-functional collaboration, digital communication, or teamwork in an increasingly AI-enabled workplace.

Liz Wiseman

Liz Wiseman is known for her work on Multipliers, exploring why some leaders amplify the intelligence and capabilities of the people around them while others diminish them.

Her perspective on teamwork is particularly relevant for leaders who want to create environments where people contribute more of their ideas, intelligence, and capabilities.

Consider Liz if: your primary objective is helping leaders bring out the best thinking and performance in the people around them.

Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni is one of the most recognized voices on teamwork and organizational health.

His book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team introduced a widely used framework centered on trust, productive conflict, commitment, accountability, and collective results. His work helps teams identify the behaviors that prevent talented groups of people from becoming cohesive teams.

Consider Patrick if: your organization wants to address team dysfunction, trust, accountability, conflict, or organizational health.

David Burkus

David Burkus takes a research-driven approach to high-performing teams.

His Best Team Ever model draws on decades of research into teamwork and focuses on three characteristics of high-performing teams: common understanding, psychological safety, and prosocial purpose. His work examines the team environment and habits that allow individual talent to perform at its best.

Consider David if: your audience wants an evidence-based exploration of the science and behaviors behind high-performing teams.

Mike Robbins

Mike Robbins focuses on creating team cultures built around trust, authenticity, appreciation, connection, and collaboration.

A former professional baseball player, Robbins draws from his experience on teams as well as decades of organizational work. His programs address issues such as silos, disconnection, psychological safety, communication, accountability, and supporting one another through change.

Consider Mike if: your team wants to strengthen trust, authenticity, appreciation, and the culture of how people work together.

Carey Lohrenz

Carey Lohrenz brings a very different teamwork perspective from her experience as one of the first female F-14 Tomcat fighter pilots in the U.S. Navy.

Her work connects teamwork with leadership, communication, trust, accountability, resilience, disciplined execution, and performing under pressure. Her experience in carrier aviation gives her a distinctive lens on what happens when successful performance requires every member of a team to execute effectively.

Consider Carey if: your audience would benefit from a high-stakes perspective on teamwork, leadership, accountability, resilience, and performance under pressure.

Ryan Jenkins

Ryan Jenkins approaches teamwork through the lens of team connection.

A Wall Street Journal bestselling leadership author, Ryan's work explores why teams gradually drift apart and how individuals and leaders can intentionally strengthen the relationships that allow people to do their best work together.

His Team Connection Model gives audiences a practical framework for strengthening trust, teamwork, engagement, and performance. Rather than treating team building as an occasional activity, Ryan focuses on the small, repeatable behaviors that help teams create and sustain connection over time.

Ryan also extends the experience beyond the keynote with practical tools and Rivet, an AI-powered Team Relationship Management platform designed to help people create and maintain stronger workplace relationships. Depending on the event, Rivet can also be used during the keynote experience to create meaningful connections among attendees.

His work is especially relevant as AI, technology, busyness, changing work environments, and five generations in the workforce create new opportunities for teams to drift apart.

The premise is simple: a collection of talented individuals doesn't automatically create a strong team. Connection is what helps turn "me" into "we."

Consider Ryan if: your organization wants to strengthen team connection, reverse disconnection or team erosion, improve collaboration across generations, and equip people with a framework and practical tools to keep the team strong after the keynote ends.

What Should You Look for in a Teamwork Keynote Speaker?

Before choosing a teamwork speaker, get clear about the challenge you're trying to solve.

Is your team struggling with trust? Silos? Communication? Accountability? Collaboration? Leadership? Disconnection? Psychological safety? Change? Generational differences?

Then look for a speaker whose expertise directly addresses that challenge.

A strong teamwork keynote should ideally provide more than entertaining stories about working together. Look for credible expertise, a clear framework, practical strategies, relevant examples, and tools attendees can use when they return to work.

Most importantly, choose a speaker whose definition of stronger teamwork aligns with what your organization actually needs.

Looking for a Keynote Speaker to Strengthen Your Team?

Ryan Jenkins helps organizations strengthen teamwork by strengthening the connections between the people doing the work.

His keynotes combine research, storytelling, practical frameworks, audience interaction, and tools such as Rivet to help teams build stronger relationships and stay connected in an increasingly disconnected world.

Click Here to Explore Ryan's Teamwork Keynotes

Or contact Ryan’s team directly:
ashley@ryanjenkins.com
770-695-7204 | Call or text