March Read/2

Title: Fish! : A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results

Author: Lundin, Stephen C.

Subjects: Employee Motivation; Customer Services

Call Number: 658.314 L962F 2000

ISBN: 9780786866021

Number of Pages: 110

Book Description:

            Imagine a workplace where everyone chooses to bring energy, passion, and a positive attitude to the job every day. Imagine an environment in which people are truly connected to their work, to their colleagues, and to their customers. In this engrossing parable, a fictional manager is charged with the responsibility to turning a chronically unenthusiastic and unhelpful department into an effective team down the street from her office is Seattle’s very real Pike Place Fish, a world famous market that is wildly successful thanks to its fun, bustling, joyful atmosphere and great customer service. By applying ingeniously simple lessons learned from the actual Pike Place fishmongers, our manager discovers how to energize those who report to her and effect an astonishing transformation in her workplace.

            Addressing today’s most pressing work issues with an engaging metaphor and an appealing message that applies to anyone in any sector of any organization, Fish! Offers wisdom that is easy to grasp, instantly applicable, and profound-the hallmarks of a true business classic (from the inside of book cover).

My Read:

            “Life is too precious just to be passing through to retirement.” (p57) Upon reading this the word “through” kept on talking to me as if asking me to do something about it. The phrase reminds me of some people I have known over the years at work. How I wish I had had a magic wand to lead those people to read books like this to embrace life in a more joyful and passionate way. Everyone has influence, small as well as big, positive as well as negative, upon people we encounter on a daily basis. Do you ever ask yourself what kind of impact you have had on people around you, acquaintances as well as strangers? It’s a good question that helps a person to discover paths to happiness and fulfillment.

            “I don’t believe that companies are necessarily prisons, but sometimes we make prisons of them by the way we choose to work there. I have created a prison and the walls are my own lack of faith in myself” (p46). The keys I found in this are prison and choose. Mindset is about who you are and what you can become. Owning a positive attitude and supportive spirit at work allows a person to play at the playground whose name is workplace. You go to play at the playground you choose. Are you a sigher or a smiler at work, at home, anywhere you step in?

            “There is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself” (p37). Again, the key is “choice.” Choice is about who is the host or hostess; are you the one makes choices or do you allow anyone or situation to dominate your life? Sometimes, it’s the case that there is no one “home.” A person simply breathes and lives; there is nothing inside. No one is “home” to make connection to the outside world. Passing through and getting by are the defaults and autopilot is in charge. Knock! Knock! Anyone home?

            There are four steps listed and described in this fictional and informative book: choose your attitude, play, make their day, and be present.

--Choose your attitude: what’s on your attitude menu choices today? In the book there are two drawings: one was a smiling face and the other was a frowning face (p60). On my menu, I imagine there are “fun,” “playful,” “supportive,” “energetic,” “creative,” and “passionate.” Imagination is powerful for it creates a vision and a picture for me to aim, to aspire. I wonder what’s on your menu today.

--Play: the workplace could be a playground and we, the employees, are children adults. Of course we have to be serious about business for there are customers, internal as well as external, and works to be taken care of and to be accomplished. It’s our attitude toward how we proceed and do our jobs. To play or to work, you decide.

--Make their day: you make someone’s day by a job well done. Not only do you make someone’s day, the well-done job brings in joy and sense of achievement no monetary can buy or compensate.

-Be present: you have to be aware of the people and surrounded places to have a job well done. Keeping eye contact is a good way to make sure you have someone’s attention and let that someone knows it. Overall, you are home and the host/hostess in charge.

            I came across this book by checking it in the other day at work. It’s the title, Fish!, that caught my attention. My colleagues would know why.

            The imaginations this book provides are wonderland and aspiration I have been searching for. The library in which I am currently employed is a playground to me. Is your workplace also a playground to you? Yes, or no, it’s your choice.    

Reference:

Lundin, S. C., H. Paul, and J. Christensen. Fish!, a remarkable way to boost morale and improve results. 1. New York, NY: Hyperion Books, 2000. Print