High Five

Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, the authors of the High Five, use a short story to show people working together as a team and creating team skills, and these team skills are more effective than the sum of all individual skills. Form Blanchard and Bowles¡¦ view, team skills allow people to accomplish and achieve far more together than they ever could on their own.

In this book, the authors emphasize four key principles of developing a successful High Five Team, which are summarized by the acronym P.U.C.K. The first principle is ¡§Provide a clear purpose and shared values and goals.¡¨ The team needs a shared purpose, value and goals. The second principle is ¡§Unleash and develop skills.¡¨ Skills need to be developed individually, and that will enhance the team¡¦s effectiveness. The third principle is ¡§Create team power, developing the attitude that none of us is as smart as all of us.¡¨

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Enhance team effectiveness by integrating the individual skills properly. The forth principle is ¡§Keep the accent on the positive by using the three Rs: Repeated Reward and Recognition.¡¨ The team effectiveness can be enhanced by repeatedly rewarding and recognizing individuals for taking actions.

After reading High Five, I find this book to be totally delightful as a model for how to work as a team. My personal significant learning from the book is understanding the four keys (P.U.C.K), which the authors point out can help people develop a successful High Five Team. This book also provides one of the best exercises that I have ever seen for convincing people to work on team skills. The coach divides the players into the ¡§top¡¨ math students and the ¡§bottom¡¨ ones. Then he teaches the ¡§bottom¡¨ ones how to cooperate to win a game. He lets the ¡§top¡¨ math students struggle on their own. The ¡§bottom¡¨ ones wins almost every time. This makes quite an impression on the players about the importance of teamwork.

In conclusion, I recommend High Five be on the reading list of anyone who wants to be successful in the future and any manager who wants to run a winning organization. In the real world, too often, people in business or sports begin to believe their production is essential to the team, when in fact their production is breaking down the team. This book definitely encourages teamwork on any job. So I do think that the book will be effective in making those who focus on their individual work performance rather than the company performance think twice. Therefore, it is a five star book and is a must read book that I recommend for every one.

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