“Stick Together” is an illustrated fable co-authored by Jon Gordon and Kate Leavell. The book tells the story of Coach David, a high school basketball coach who wants to inspire his team for the upcoming season. To illustrate the power of teamwork, Coach David gives each player a stick and asks them to break it in half. Of course, each player is able to break the stick easily.
But when the team is asked to put all their sticks together and try to break them as a group, they find that the sticks are much stronger together and cannot be broken. Through this visual demonstration, the book teaches the importance of collaboration, belief, love, and ownership in building a successful team. The book has received positive reviews for its simple yet powerful message and engaging illustrations.
Stick #1 Belief
Teams ultimately accomplish what they collectively believe is possible, so it’s important for each person on the team to believe in great outcomes and in each other. A team’s collective belief must be greater than all the adversity and negativity they face.
It only takes one person who doesn’t believe to hurt a team.
When team members believe in each other, that helps them fill each other up with positive energy, encouragement, and belief. This makes each person better, and it makes the team better.
Ways we can put this into practice are to believe in great outcomes and in each other. We can also trust that our challenges are opportunities to learn and grow, making us stronger and better.
Stick #2 Ownership
Ownership is about taking responsibility for your words and actions. Like if you make a mistake or a bad choice, you can’t pass it onto someone else because you did it, not them. And even if someone else made a mistake or contributed to a loss or failure, you must see your part in it. Don’t blame them.
Look at yourself and realize your choices are your own. If you can see that, then you can make new choices that are better for yourself and also for your team.
Stick #6 Consistency and Hope
To build a great team, we must be consistent with our effort each and every day. Consistency is what creates excellence because we are what we repeatedly do. We must be consistent with our attitude, effort, leadership, teamwork, habits, and pursuit of greatness.
When we are consistent, we’ll see that our outcome is determined by our commitment to the process along the way. It means that our actions are based on our commitments rather than being controlled by emotion or events.
Stick #3 Connection
When a team is connected, they feel more committed to each other. It’s a team’s connection that leads to commitment.
We make connections by sharing who we are, talking about our struggles and challenges, making time to have hard or meaningful conversations, and listening to each other.
Stick Together
Any team can be a group of sticks. But team members need each other to be strong. Only a team that believes, loves, includes everyone, is consistent, takes ownership, connects, and has hope all bundled together can come out on top and reach their true potential. We can’t ever forget that.
That’s what team means: a group that sticks together through adversity to pursue a shared vision and purpose and seeks to accomplish something great together. We can’t ever be whole until we are bound together.
Stick #4 Love
Love creates trust; trust leads to commitment; and commitment leads to sacrifice. If you love your team, you will give your all to the team. Love also makes people more accountable. If you love your team, you will want to be your best for them, and you will want to help them be great too.
Love will drive a team to be great for each other. Love also helps with having more patience, understanding, and a desire to succeed together.
Stick #5 Inclusion
Inclusion is important for each player to feel like they are a part of the team. A big part of inclusion is the good feeling you get when you contribute to the team and are recognized and valued for who you are and the contribution you’ve made. When you feel like you are helping to build the future of the team, you feel more connected to the team and the team’s outcomes.
We need to include those who don’t feel like they’re included. We need to recognize and value everyone for their contributions to our community and society. Inclusion helps us build a stronger team at every level.
