High Five Book Summary

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