Lundin, S.C., Paul, H., & Christensen, J. (2000). FISH.New York, Hyperion. Pp. 8-110. ISBN 0-7868-6602-0. $19.99 hard cover.
Reviewed by Tianda Gay
For Dr. Louis Warren, EastCarolinaUniversity
“Find a message that communicates the notion of choosing your attitude in a way that everyone will understand and personalize” (p. 54).
Fish is a brief and simple book written to address issues of employee retention and burnout. The authors used an appealing message with an engaging metaphor in order to get their point across to the readers. Their intent was to help companies boost morale and improve company results by showing us how to enjoy work, since seventy-five percent of an adults wake time is spent doing work related activities (p.9).
The authors, Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D., Harry Paul and John Christensen teamed up to bring what John Christensen and company had put on film, the world famous, Pike Place Fish market in Seattle (p. 9). They took the Pike Place philosophy of enjoying work and loving what you do and put it to print. Steven Lundin is currently a writer, motivational speaker and filmmaker. His business background includes: executive, national camp director, nationalsales manager, a hockey rink supervisor, an elementary school teacher, a business school dean, a fitness instructor, a dishwasher, a small business owner and a golf caddy. Harry Paul is currently a senior vice president with the Ken Blanchard Companies. He oversees special projects and manages the company’s internal speaker bureau. John Christensen is an award-winning filmmaker and CEO of ChartHouse Learning Corporation. ChartHouse is the producer of the video FISH, which is used by many businesses nationwide.
The organization of the book is easy to follow. First, the authors take the readers to a fish market where they put their four-step philosophy into play. Their philosophy: “choose your attitude,” “play,” “be there,” and “make someone’s day.” Then the story takes us to Mary Jane Raminez. Sheis a widow and mother of two, who was up for a promotion at First Guarantee Financial Bank. Raminez was reluctant to take the position due to the department she would be supervising, a large operational group on the third floor (p. 18). The group was referred to as “unresponsive,” “unpleasant,” “zombie,” “slow,” “wasteland,” and “negative” (p.18), in other words, “the toxic energy dump”
(p. 24). Raminez would be the third person to have this job in the last two years (p. 19).
Her task, a difficult one, was to take this unproductive, negative, unresponsive group and turn them into productive, happy, energetic employees. Obviously, traditional management techniques had failed.
While on her lunch break, Mary discovers a fish market. She finds the employees a pleasant, happy, comfortable group. They were totally involved with their customers, were having a lot of fun, and were selling a lot of fish. She asked one of the workers (Lonnie) how they were able to enjoy work. It was this that led Mary Raminez to discover the four key strategies of the FISH philosophy. These four key points are:
PLAY – have fun and create a positive energy at home and/or at work. Regardless of how old you get, don’t forget to play. Do something fun.
Do something that will make you laugh. The benefits: happy people treat others well. Fun leads to creativity. Having a good time is healthy. Work becomes the reward and time passes quickly (p. 88).
CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE – each day it is up to you to choose how you will act. It is the way you act that will affect others’ reactions to you. With choosing your attitude comes the need to change. This may be difficult for some, therefore the management team would need to provide motivation, speak from the heart, and persist in faith (p. 54).
BE PRESENT – Make sure you are available and aware of what people are communicating to you.
MAKE THEIR DAY – This involves engaging the participants, clients, customers and or your employees. This strategy calls for do “little” extras and “surprises,” that people will remember.
By using the Fish philosophy, Mary Raminez was able to turn the third floor toxic dump into a playful, attentive, energetic, productive, enthusiastic group.
While the book uses the basics of a parable, the authors do little by way of how to implement the four key strategies. Readers that are use to not having fun, seeing that profit is the only way to measure the success of the business and who take work seriously, will probably have a hard time with this book. Those readers may think the book is all about “your attitude,” and take offense.
The best thing about the book is that it is a quick read and makes for a good reference tool with some good advice. The intent of the book is to help people and groups of people, discover that work can be enjoyable and satisfying. However, a lot of the advice is easier said than done. The authors do provide several quick quotes and inspirational poems. By providing such, the authors are trying to tug on your heart, not a lot, but just enough to get the reader engaged. It is this that will give their advice personal meaning.
With this in mind, I would recommend this book to a colleague.
Reflection
I found the book to be enjoyable. The Fish philosophy is short and to the point. It gives simple pieces of advice, such as play, break away from the routine and choose to have a positive day. Within the story, the authors do mention the benefits of good communications within each of the four principles. For example, with “make their day,” the employer must be able to communicate in such a way as to engage the customers and employees. “Be present,” deals with being available not only physically but also mentally – to be present during the conversation and not daydreaming. How you plan to communicate throughout your day, is part of “choose your attitude.” Lastly, how you communicate during “play,” should promote enthusiasm, enjoyment and energy.
This book is appropriate for Teacher-Leaders. As mentioned above, it is a quick read, simple to the point, enjoyable little book. It can provide the teacher-leader with that boost needed to lead a productive classroom and an inviting school environment.
Bibliography
Lundin, S.C., Paul, H., & Christensen, J. (2000). FISH.New York, Hyperion. Pp. 8-110.
ISBN 0-7868-6602-0.
Fish: The official website for fish. 2008. Charthouse learning.