D W Stratton

I sat down last night and read “Fish!”, a tale about improving productivity through making our workplaces fun. The Pikes Place Fish Market is now quite famous for their having a fun time and selling plenty of fish in the process. The authors of the book, Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen , share the amazing story of how they do it and posit that it can be replicated everywhere. The book is a fable of how a manager transformed her “toxic waste dump” of a department to the most exciting place to work at her company. She did it by following the advice of the fish mongers:

1. Choose your attitude,
2. Play,
3. Make their day and
4. Be Present.

The advice is good. I don’t quite know how to apply it to my office, even after reading their story. There needs to be a few more ideas and perhaps even some setbacks to overcome. I have tried to adopt these axioms and have had some success. “Play” is important and has had some success in my teams. I haven’t ever got it to the point of the Fish Market guys, though.

A whole market of business management fables has sprung up over the past twenty years. These books use the story to tell their, er, story. Books like “Who Moved My Cheese?“, “The Present” and “Whale Done!” have graced the shelves and best seller lists. I suppose their attraction is the easy read that can be done in an hour or two. I find them to be sugar coated pablum. I dislike their contrived stories and easy to apply theories. Reality is different, much harder. I have never had as much success from these fables than the hardcore books like ‘Seven Habits” or “Getting Things Done“. I need more in depth analysis and experience to interest me. I will probably continue to read books like “Fish!”, but only for a quick hit, like a bowl of Sugar Smacks.