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FISH! A Manager's Guide to
Morale Boosting in the Workplace
BOOK REVIEW
Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen. Hyperion Press, 2000
"When we choose to love the work
we do, we can catch our limit of happiness, meaning, and fulfilment
every day."
This is the core message of Fish! - the tale of Mary Jane, an executive
with the fictitious First Guarantee Financial Company in Seattle.
Mary Jane really draws the short straw when she is given the job of
improving morale in the apathetic, emotionally burned-out Third Floor
Operations Group of her company. Nothing in her past experience has
equipped her for this, the most hopeless of dead-end assignments.
Lost for answers Mary Jane goes
out for a walk one day and enters Seattle’s world famous Pike Place Fish
Market. She sees that there’s an atmosphere of energy and
excitement created by the employees who entertain the crowds while at
the same time selling fish. A lot of fish!
Then Mary Jane meets Lonnie, one of the fish market’s employees, who
becomes her mentor as she learns the ways to cause a full-blown
attitudinal change that will resurrect the “toxic energy dump” that the
Third Floor Operations Group has become. Morale rises, energy increases
and a near-miraculous transformation takes place.
Lonnie teaches Mary Jane to:
1. Choose your attitude, even if you can't choose your work.
It might not be the job you’d choose but it’s the one you have. You can
choose to see it in a better light and in so doing you’ll enjoy it.
2. Play.
You can have fun at work and make it a better place to be. Enjoy what
you do and those with whom you do it.
3. Make their day.
Be determined to contribute something positive to everyone you
encounter.
4. Be present.
Pay attention to your customers and team members. Give your workplace
and the people in it your full attention. Be there when they need you.
Fish! is a short book and won’t take long to read or to convey its
message. The lessons it contains apply to almost any section of any
workplace. If where we work isn’t exciting, fun or energizing, let’s do
what we can to make it better.
If Lonnie and her coworkers can truly enjoy working in a smelly fish
market where the work is often hard and conditions aren’t exactly on a
par with a modern office building, surely we can enjoy working where we
do. It’s all a matter of having the right attitude.
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