Living the Fish Philosophy
January 2, 2009 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
FISH! photo courtesy of Amazon.com
Has anyone ever told you about the wonderful little book called “FISH!” the book? Sure, you’re probably a little skeptical about anything that sounds this silly. Or you’re skeptical because the book is based on a group of guys who work at the Pikes Place Fish Market in Seattle, and your team doesn’t sling fish for a living, so you can’t possibly put anything in this book into action.
I was skeptical at first too, and then my team decided we’d “go FISH!ing” and put the philosophy into action in our IT department. And it changed a lot of the ways we talk to each other and even impacted our actions.
What is FISH! and how can you put it into action?
What is FISH!®?
FISH! is a skill that provides the process, tools and language to generate the skills necessary to design a workplace full of inspiration, creativity and innovation. FISH! creates a common language. A language that will help improve your culture by using four simple practices – Be There, Play, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude™. FISH! is a wisdom that everyone can embrace. It is an invitation that enables people to care about each other and their commitments. FISH! is an ongoing journey. It is not a fad. It is a practice and a skill that evolves over time creating a positive workplace and a vibrant culture each time it is embraced. – From the FISH! Philosophy website
How can these 4 simple principles be put into practice for your team, and, more importantly what difference can they make?
Stay tuned. Each Friday for the next few weeks, I’ll be tackling each of the philosophies and showing you how you can live the FISH! Philosophy.
If you’d like to read the book, as of this writing, there are used copies available on Amazon.com for just $.41.
Ah, I love this. I helped design and run a day-long leadership seminar for a telecoms company once. We spent ages creating most of the day, lots of people and energy running it, then hired the twenty minute Fish! DVD and showed them it at the end as a kind of ‘wind down’ exercise. On the feedback forms, when we asked them what was memorable and what they would put into action, almost every single person raved about the Fish! principles and how they were going to share them in their workplace as soon as they could. The rest of the day was forgotten. So, we could have saved a lot of time and money by just showing them the DVD. The DVD/video is much more inspiring than the book, by the way. The book works best as a follow-up, to cement the lessons from the DVD. It’s the DVD that, in my experience, lights people up; something about those Pike’s Place guys throwing fish around for real. It’s not cheap as a training tool, though. I think we hired ours from the Ken Blanchard Group, as they had the licence to distribute and hire it in Europe. But, that was a long time ago.
We tried “Fish!” where I work a few years ago. We also tried other “motivational” programs … they all flopped!
To add the quote “If you have to hire a modivational speaker you had already lost your employees.” – Carmine Gallo, Fire Them Up
The issue is that we have a cancer and would require starting from the top down! The people in charge are only interested in themselves and their own political gain.
“Politically able leaders fall into roles they are less quailied for. Quite naturally, the least gifted commanders are usually the most political.”
Phil, having Fish! every Friday seems so right.
Throwing fish is fun!
I guess some jobs are less fun. That’s the challenge though – how to play more at work. And if you can’t find a way to play at your work, something’s wrong.
The best at what they do, always make it a game and unleash their best in themselves and others. Passion is contagious.
The FISH! can be fun but there is nothing worse than telling another person to have fun. It must be invited.
I saw the FISH! program backfire when after taking it one company talked about the f…ing FISH. Play and humor need proper timing and the organization was not ripe for this.
I went to Seattle once and took my children to show them the FISH! market. The staff were having a bad day…not much fun. It was disappointing but valuable to realize everyone can have bad days and we should be careful about what other say and what they do.
Having said that, I am all for fun and playfulness when it is authentic, genuine, specific, and based on caring.
And that way the harp of the Carp,
David
With Fish! someone most likely stood by and watched their working and thrownig fish arouns and getting the customers involved. Then the $$$ $ign came on and the reast is history.
We tried Fish! and ended up smacking each other in the head with the “fish.”
Phil – I agree, the DVD is much better. I’m ordering one this year for my team.
The book is a good primer for a manager to review before trying to sell the much more expensive DVD to upper management.
CK – I know nothing is going to work at your company. Please find a new job or find us a positive lesson you can share with us in the comments. There’s got to be SOMETHING good, and I would love to hear about it.
Rick – I think this will be right for all of us. Thanks for the encouragement!
J.D. – Passion is indeed contagious, and it is up to us as managers to throw the fish and turn work into play.
David – You are absolutely right David! Forcing fun sucks for everyone!
I’m a big fan of Fish. I’ve read most of the books and I’ve talked about it on my website. I thought about going a series like you are doing, but now I don’t have to. I can just read yours.
I love the concept, “Be There, Play, Make Their Day and Choose Your Attitude.” I wish more companies bought into the idea.
Great to hear from you Karl! I hope you’ll share my series with your readers too.
And I’m with you: I also wish more companies bought into the idea.
What I really wish is more PEOPLE bought into the idea, for people make companies go. I’d rather it come from the bottom up than the top down. More fun, and more authentic, that way!
The ONLY thing good is right now is recieving a paycheck! I know several people I work with who are looking to leave! It not just my department but others as well.
Dispite the downturn of the economy we have had 3 people leave for better jobs in the past 6 months. I can just imagine the great exodus when the economy turns arouund!
I have been told by many to leave but there has to be a job to leave TO! I live in one of the worse areas for employment in the country and dispite even considering relocation – employers want to hire locals. I can understand that!
In the mean time I try to keep up my skills by reading and learning. Management still considers me a treat to their positions because of being more educated than they are.
A friend in HR is in the same position. She even told me that her boss flat out said that she WON’T be promoted into any new position that opens. She is more educated than him and does his job when he is out of the office. She too is looking but there are no positions that pay!
Phil,
This book scared me off because I’ve been through the whole revitalize our organization drill a few times.
Biggest problem with ‘organizations’ is the fact that something like FISH shouldn’t be this mandated fun thing, but organic. It sounds like your office has hit the nail on the head by not having the managers push it down but let it bubble up from the employees.
I’m having a hard time getting the folks to indulge their fun side, other than the sadly inappropriate jokes.
One thing I’ve found that helps is to engage others in a wee bit of whacked story telling about myself. Make some totally off the wall thing up when answering a question or getting ready to engage them.
It gets people out of their work headspace for a bit and maybe even makes them smile.
To me, I’d love to see FISH work at more organizations. They key though is winning over someone who can infect others with it, especially infecting the managers.
Best wishes on your work with this.
Todd
CK – This is a truly toxic workplace. I hope you get out of there alive.
Todd – Starting anything by making fun of yourself will make folks smile. I do that all the time.
And yes, if you can infect the front-line managers, and they can change their habits, this has a good chance of succeeding. If not, it’s going to fail and fail FAST!
From the perspective of an hourly worker, Fish! usually appears in workplaces run by typical MBA types (you know, gut human capital, strip assets, and hollow out long-term productive capability in order to massage the quarterly earnings figures and game their own bonuses) who want to manipulate a downsized workforce into doing more work for less money.
The whole message–”you can’t control what’s being done to you, but you can lay back and spread your legs and enjoy it”–is a message for slaves.
P.S. I first read the Fish! book a few months before it appeared in my workplace. My initial reaction was “I hated this when it was called Chicken Shit for the Soul and Who Moved My Cheese?”
Fish! was introduced in my workplace by a hired HR consultant. She was also the person who had been brought in, just coincidentally, to carry out a ruthless downsizing that resulted in record low morale and disgruntlement. A hospital management that writes smarmy Hallmark Cards mission statements about “extraordinary patient care” and “going above and beyond,” while downsizing all the patient care staff, and holding a big mgt. meeting to high-five each other at the end of the downsizing over how successfully they’ve screwed us over, shouldn’t be shoving this additional indignity down our throats.
I could take it if those filthy pigs were just honest about what they were. IF they just came out and said, “Hey, we’re screwing you over to feather our own nests, because we can get away with it, and it’s good to be king–f– you!” I could deal with that. What I can’t stand is having to keep a straight face listening to all the official happy talk about “Being there” and “Making their day,” and pretending to believe they mean it.
Fish! is an insult to the intelligence of your workforce.
Thanks for the interest in FISH! programs. The book is the tip of the iceberg and a great way to become acquainted with how to create a FISH! culture. Other programs (e.g. LeaderFISH! and FISH! Culture) are geared to create the culture and service (especially Organization Development) can make it happen. ChartHouse Learning, the company that created the original FISH! programs, is a 50 year old training and learning company that specializes in teaching skills to listen, become innovative and engaged, and create a workplace worth dedicating one’s life to.
Hey, I work for a large non-profit agency. We employ people from all walks of life with various abilities and disabilities. The Directors and Managers underwent FISH training last year. Then 6 of us went on to become the trainers for the rest of the company.
Sadly, the top brass doesn’t always buy into the FISH philosophy. It’s been discouraging to hear the negativity coming from THEM. But hey…part of the FISH philosophy is Choose Your Attitude. We do not force people to participate…but the activities and “fun” are there. People will always get out of something what they put into it. We try and encourage the employees to come up with their own ideas which is part of the whole idea of FISH.
Our retail sales have increased by nearly 8% since we began practicing FISH in our stores. Our turnover rate has decreased. Morale? Hard to measure, but I do hear a lot more laughing and joking on the docks and in our Processing department. Our customers and donors have noticed the difference. Our approval rate has skyrocketed.
FISH might not work in every setting. Overall, I believe ours is successful.