High Five! The Magic of Working Together!

Hi All,

After coming to Hyderabad from Chennai it took some time to settle here, i mean home, job, society, friends etc. After everything that is important to settle here i started reading this book. My best friend Deepak Lanka and my source to Art Of Living gifted this book to me. It is an amazing. I love Reading it again. This is a must read for the people who work In corporates.

High Five! The Magic of Working Together lists and explains four keys to a successful team and reasons that when all four keys are properly used, the team becomes a high-five team. Blanchard and Bowles use the thrill of a high-five coming together to describe the thrill of a team working together, which is where the term high-five team comes from. Blanchard and Bowles use a recreation league hockey team, the Warriors, to illustrate the keys to becoming a high-five team and how to incorporate those keys into a team that already exists.

The four keys of a high-five team are: providing a clear purpose and shared values, developing and unleashing skills, creating team power and keeping the accent on the positive. By integrating these four keys into a team of any kind, that team is more likely to succeed.

Providing a clear purpose and shared values means giving the team a common goal. This works best if the purpose is something that excites the team. When the team collectively decides on the goal, the team is more likely to get excited about working towards that goal. As a team, the Warriors decided to win the division cup and by coming up with this goal on their own, they were more excited to work towards it than if the coaches had told them what the goal was.

Developing and unleashing skills is illustrated in the book as developing hockey skills to help win the division cup. Once the Warriors had developed their skills, they were able to use them in games to help them win. At a company, once skills are developed they can be used to improve presentations and help the team facilitate closing deals. By developing and unleashing these skills, it is becoming easier for the team to meet their goal.

Creating team power is better described in High Five! as “none of us is as smart as all of us.” Having team power means that every member of the team recognizes that the individuals work better collectively rather than individually. The level individual commitment to the team is also likely to increase when each individual recognizes the importance of the team in achieved the goal. The Warriors realized that working together as a team would get them closer to their goal than all playing for individual benefit.

Keeping the accent on the positive is also described as “repeated reward and recognition.” By constant acknowledgement of the positive things that are taking place on the team rather than negative, the team is more likely to strive to repeat positive actions. It was noted that it is easier to avoid negative actions when they are not even a consideration. If team members focus on performing positively more than not performing negatively, it is easier for that team member to perform positively because the negative thoughts do not even affect his/her actions.

A team will be more successful is all its members and leader used these four keys. The effective combination of these four elements makes for a high-five team.

I think the approach to management that Blanchard and Bowles take is a very interesting and effective one. By illustrating that the basics of a team do not change from recreation league sports to Fortune 500 companies, they are stating that anyone can successfully be a team player. By compiling four keys to a successful team that can be expanded upon and adapted easily, Blanchard and Bowles essentially wrote a book that could apply to a majority of teams. What makes High Five! an effective book is that Blanchard and Bowles illustrate the four keys to a successful team in one of the most elementary examples of a team one could think of. By applying the high-five method to a simple team but also alluding to how it can be applied to companies, Blanchard and Bowles show that their methods are very versatile and easy to apply.

I would definitely recommend this book to other public relations students. While the writing style of the authors may not radiate expertise in management because the material entertains rather than bores you to tears, the lessons taught most definitely do. Blanchard and Bowles not only outline the four points needed in teamwork, but they also illustrate how the teamwork skills can be applied. I think that presenting the material in a way that can be applied to Fortune 500 companies as well as recreational league sports teams shows that teamwork is something that never changes. Blanchard and Bowles also show that the motivation a team needs from its manager never changes either. While at first glance, it may seem that the book is mostly about teamwork, the underlying message is how managers (or coaches) should structure and motivate their team to get the best response.

I believe that High Five! would be beneficial to any public relations practitioner because of the lessons it teaches. By using the High Five! method, public relations practitioners can inspire their team members to work together to produce the best results possible. By understanding what it means to be a team player, public relations practitioners will also have an easier time adapting to new teams that he/she may join throughout his/her professional career. It stands to reason that a public relations practitioner will be a part of more than one team throughout his/her career. By understanding the four things it takes to make a team successful, it becomes easier to motivate a team whether as a team member or leader. Learning how to effectively work as a team is something that will always be an asset in the public relations field. As reviewed by Reviewed by Jenny Moss.