High Five! The Magic of Working Together (ISBN 0688170366)

Amazon.com Review:
Organizational guru Ken Blanchard has long had a knack for writing management books that are easy and fun to read (The One Minute Manager, plus 11 other bestsellers). Now, in his latest, he becomes (with the help of three coauthors) something of a novelist, relating the saga of the Riverbend Warriors, a come-from-behind boys' hockey team, to teach a broader lesson about the importance of, and the key dynamics behind, good teamwork in organizations of every sort. High Five! starts with otherwise exemplary exec Alan Foster losing his job because--you guessed it--he isn't a team player. Unemployed, bored, and demoralized, he decides to coach his fifth-grade son's failing hockey team into better shape. But it's not until he enlists the help of Miss Weatherby, an aging African-American retired teacher and champion girls' basketball coach that things really start to turn around. As we follow the struggle of the increasingly well-oiled Warriors machine as they drill, strategize, and bond their way through the season, we learn some of the fundamental lessons of what makes good teams--and good team-building by coaches and managers. Among them are "repeated reward and repetition," the guiding notion that "none of us is as smart as all of us," and four key traits that shall here remain undisclosed (hint: their acronym spells PUCK). As fiction goes, don't expect high literature here. But to its credit, the book's ending isn't 100 percent happy, either. If you worry that the aged but whip-smart Weatherby might die at the end, don't--instead, she becomes perhaps the world's first octogenarian, black female management consultant. As books on teamwork go, Blanchard's latest is on the lighter side, but it still packs a fair share of commonsense wisdom when it comes to putting together, motivating, and sustaining work teams worthy of the Stanley Cup. And it may even have inaugurated a new fiction genre: the organizational tearjerker. --Timothy Murphy

Wow, what a book!:
While I have read other Ken Blanchard books, this one truly got my attention and was wonderful. As a student collegiate athelte myself, Blanchard and Bowle's book was easy reading and very easy for me to connect with based on my own experiences. The book allows one to follow a main character that starts off by being fired from his job, then gets involved coaching a young hockey team and calls on a coach he remembers from his school days to assist and turn the team around. With the assistance of this "coach" the main character begins to understand what it takes to make a successful team. He realizes the importance of maintaining a positive attitude and building team pride. This is a book that you can't put down, it can be read quickly and easily and I do feel everyone would be able to associate with parts of the book. Blanchard and Bowles do a great job at using the hockey team to teach the readers about team building yet simultaneously showing how these same principles can be applied to a work site. One is taken through the steps of team building and given examples time and time again on how these steps can be applied. There are very interesting twist throughout the book that keeps one's attention. I recommend this book to everyone.

Guidance for managers, educators, and students alike!:
Book written to be easily read by adults and students. Love the context and the teamwork tips that have been incorporated. Read with your coworkers, or with your class of students when wanting to build teamwork skills.

Team work - A neccessity in any workplace:
Team Work - Everyone knows the importance but yet more often than not, our own individuality gets in the way. How much more can be achieved if everyone behaves for the collective good of the group rather than for himself? In this charming story, we follow the journey of Alan Foster, a top producer at work but very much a solo player. Because of this, he loses his job. Soon, he gets a job of coaching his son's ice hockey team, which interestingly, is bottom of the league due to it's lousy teamwork. Through a series of practice sessions and with the help of a former girl's basketball coach, Alan sees the problem with the hockey team and in the process realises his previously same problematic behaviour at work. As with all fairy tales, the team undergoes a transformation after they finally manage to get their act together. As an icing on the cake, Alan somehow also gets invited back to his former company to give a speech on teamwork! Did he finally return to his former company to work? Read the book to find out but of course, do not forget about the main lesons on teamwork! As the saying goes, "None of us is as smart as all of us." Recommendation: Read this and start working on your team immediately! No point paying so much money to consultants. Get the soft cover version or try to borrow from the library if you are really low on budget. :)

Quick & Fun Read for Any Coach or Team Builder:
As with all Blanchard books, he works with the other authors and does a great job sharing simple effective solutions within the framework of a story. High Five is a foundational read for all our team building clients and I have ordered the book for our football coaching team as well. It was a nice recognition of the need to adapt the basic learning points of the PUCK acronym Providing Purpose and Values, Unleashing and Developing Skills, Creating Team Power and Keeping the Accent on the Positive to one fit for business, POWER - Purpose/Values, Empowerment, Relationships & Communications, Flexibility, Optimal Performance, Recognition and Appreciation and Morale. While none of this is new, there is always something to learned from the story. And like anything else, if anyone can execute on these fundamentals, great teams can be the result.

High five is no jive:
High Five is a quick read. It is a good book for mentoring a team of supervisors.