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Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results (精装)
by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, John Christensen
| Category:
Organizational effectiveness, Management |
| Market price: ¥ 228.00
MSL price:
¥ 208.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An engrossing tale about a fictional manager is charged with the responsibility of turning a unenthusiastic and unhelpful group into an effective team. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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Marcia White (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
This is a thoroughly engrossing tale about improving morale in the work place. Where I work has decided that this would be a good tactic for us. We are currently working on implementing the changes that are so easily demonstrated in this parable. It is a delightful read that does not take a long time to read and understand. I recommend this as a good start for turning around the morale and enthusiasm that seems to be running rampant today.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
This is a great book to boost morale in the workplace. Although, it can apply not only to the workplace, but also to life. If anyone is going to be miserable at work, you would think it would be the people working at the Seattle fish market, where they are cold, wet and handling slimey fish all day long. But with a little attitude alteration, they actually enjoy their work, and are happy.
Some people may not like this book, as it is difficult to admit that you may be creating your own unhappiness. Some of the examples are a bit hooky, but they nail down the point. It is such a quick, light read, that I strongly recommend giving it a chance. |
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A reader (MSL quote), Australia
<2007-01-17 00:00>
The Fish! reminds us that we do have a choice in choosing the attitude we wish to display towards our workmates and our work, and that choice will have either positive or negative repercussions on our work environment. As the narrative suggests, we don't necessarily have to like the work we do to enjoy coming to work, and that can make our life that much more interesting and productive.
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Cenk Sumbas (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results is the subtitle of the book. So if you are getting bored at your job, this could be your book for next week. Book based on true story of Mary Jane Ramirez, who recently lost her husband and mother of two. She was assigned to the worst department of the firm called as "toxic energy dump". She was wondering herself about how to fix the problem during first few weeks. One day, she saw very happy people at the fish market. She started to ponder about situation, fish guys were doing a low wage and dead end job but they were very happy and performing great at the job. She impressed with what she saw at the fish market. Then she went in details about fish market. Owner of the fish store gave her the four magic things.
1) Play: Try to enjoy what you are doing at work like you are playing.
2) Choose your attitude: You can be happy or frustrated at work, it is your decision so get your happy face to work every day.
3) Make Their Day: Keep your customer or co-workers happy. Try to find small things that make the day their day.
4) Be present: Be at work every time. Seize the day and share with your friends.
When she applied these 4 magic rules to her department, things started to change in a positive way and everybody at the department felt better. Also, there is a very happy ending for her at the story.
In conclusion, it is a very easy to read book. You can finish it in 3 hours. There are many good and applicable information at the book. I suggest you read this book and try to apply your personnel life. Things will get better by the time. |
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Michael Davis (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
Fish! Is a fun book, sort of like Who Moved My Cheese.
My experience in several Fortune 500 companies, both as an employee and as a consultant testifies to the fact that Fish! is more fact than fiction.
One fundamental difference is the book's realism. The book draws lessons from an unlikely source of inspiration, the fun-loving fishmongers at Seattle's Pike Place Market.
In Fish! the heroine, Mary Jane Ramirez, having left sunny California to move to Seattle, and then suddenly widowed, is asked to engineer a turnaround of her company's troubled operations department, a group that the authors describe as a "toxic energy dump." Most reasonable heads would call it a day and move on. Why bother with this bunch of losers? Of course the authors don't make it so easy for Mary Jane. Instead, she's left to sort out this mess with the help of head fishmonger Lonnie. Fish! aims to help employees find their way to a fun and happy workplace.
While some may find the story line and prescriptions - such as "Choose Your Attitude," "Make Their Day," and "Be Present" - downright corny, others will find a good dose of worthwhile motivational management techniques. If you loved Who Moved My Cheese? then you'll find much to like here.
Shouldn't work be more than grudgingly toiling for 8, 9, 10 + hours a day? And, why shouldn't it be fun. It reminds me of a statement I once read about money myths - "it's not right to enjoy yourself and get paid for it." Who made up this garbage? While reading Fish! is not a magic solution to productivity, it is a step in the right direction. My personal recommendation is for senior managers to read this book first, then ask associates to read with the understanding that senior managers will be open to discuss how to build a better, more productive, and fun workplace. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
If you have never heard of the FISH! philosophy, I recommend that you start with this one first. It explains the history behind how the FISH! philosophy first got started. Mary Jane Ramirez who was a recent widow with two young children stumbled into the Pike Place Fish market to find out that the fish market held the secret to her sucess as a new manager. Mary Jane was just promoted to manage a difficult department nicknamed the toxic energy dump. She observed the high energy team building and positive attitudes that she saw at the fish market on her lunch breaks. As she got to know the fishmongers and heard their stories, she knew that she could apply the same principles to the business world. One day she brought her department to the fish market and soon transformed the toxic energy dump around! |
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Shenton (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
The book recognizes most of us don't work in a fish market. It does show us how the fish market attitudes were adjusted for a financial company. By examining the turnaround of an extremely toxic workplace, it also shows us how to make work fun and interesting again. It also doesn't lead you to instant expectations. Change takes time and effort. You have to want to change your attitude at work and alleviate the toxicity of your workplace before you can truly affect change.
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Karl Hamm (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
Any time you discuss workplace motivations techniques, you are talking about two things. The first-and-most important-is whether or not motivational programs in generalare effective. The second is whether this specific program in particular is effective.
As to the first, I do not believe that a company can motive or change a person. That is the business of missionaries, evangelist and philosophers. Business has no business in shaping the beliefs and ideas of the employees. These motivational programs all have silent value-statements, and to propagate these is a a form of intellectual evangelism. In short, you manager is a missionary for the gospel of corporate success. Unless you specially work for a church, or a philosophy-specific organization, such as the Freemasons or a political party, this smacks of violating conscience.
A few years ago, USA Today did a study of employee motivational programs, and they discovered that they do not work. People have free conscience and free will, which includes the freedom to be bad employees. I am not endorsing this attitude, but people must be freed to be devils as well as gods to be a just society.
As to the specific Fish! Program, I thing the first question answers the second. I do not thing programs in general are effective, and I do not think the specific FISH program will be effective. Like most people, I was exposed to this philosophy via work. So it wasn't my personal choice to take the initiative. I can only react, or choose to accept this.
I do believe the program is sound. In saying that all programs are equally ineffective, I am also saying programs are also equally effective. At my company right now, I have three different motivational programs (Destination Ten, Team Vitality, and Fish!), and the funny thing is that they are all pretty much the same thing.
This isn't surprising, since a motivational program is essentially an ethical value-statement, and all ethical systems are pretty much the same. C. S. Lewis said that "Really good moral teachers never do introduce new moralities: it is the crack and cranks who do that." (Mere Christianity). Lewis traces the similarities of ethical systems in "Abolition of Man," especially the appendix.
The FISH system is based on some ideas from the Pike Place Fish market. Essentially, it a group of guys horsing around at work. They chuck fish around, shout, and make fun of the gawkers. It sounds like fun, and it is. The authors distill the fish-chuckers attitude into a fourfold system:
* Play
* Make their day
* Choose your attitude
* Be There
This is a good system, if you actually believe it, and want to live it. My religion, which dominates everything I do, has room for these principles. I have no problem living these since I already am. The problem, however, is convincing people who do not believe these things to subscribe to them.
In other words, human free will and freedom of conscious get in the way of this program.
Another problem is that the fish-chuckers had an attitude PRIOR to the system. It was something that sprang out of who they were, and it was not something that was imposed top-down.
If you saw the video, then you remember that the shouting began with a joke on their boss. How many of your bosses would let that happen? Or would they see it as insubordination and a challenge to their authority?
Fun, and frivolity is an essential part of work, since fun an frivolity is an essential part of life. We need opposition and contrast in all things to have sense and life. However, fun is always in contradistinction to the serious work that must be going on for work to be done. If our serious work is to have fun, then you are in for trouble. You are trying to mix humor and seriousness in a way that violates this Law of Opposition. Aristotle (quoting Anaxagoras) said that if we combine two opposites, we would arrive at a metaphysical mlange where nothing really exists, and humans become vegetables (Metaphysics, Book IV)
Fun lubricates, but it cannot be a primary mission. Fun, as Covey points out, is a Quadrant IV activity, not a Quadrant II.. Besides, if your bosses were serious about fun, then they would let you stay at home an zone out in front of HALO 2 for seven or eight hours, which is far more fun than dealing is sourpuss customers.
I do not think that this book can be used a la B. F. Skinner and "Walden Two," or as a substitute for the really work. You cannot change a heart-only the individual can do that-you can only persuade.
(A negative review. MSL remarks.) |
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David Wilbur (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
This book was given to me as part of a Fish seminar conducted by my company. The book must be addressed on three different levels: as a story, as a philosophy, and as a business book. The story is about a woman who takes over a failing department in her company, finds the inmates are running the asylum, learns some pearls of wisdom from some local fishmongers, teaches the employees the philosophy, and ends up with a successful department. The preceding explanation is only slightly shorter than the book itself, which contains so much white-space that it could easily be halved, and repeats so often that it could easily be halved again. As bad as the story and writing are, the philosophy underlying the Fish idea is even worse. It is essentially a hedonistic philosophy - that what employees really need to perform well is enough fun at work. The problem is that all jobs and careers involve a certain amount of tedium. Everone must "pay their dues." Too often the people complaining the loudest are those that refuse to deal with tedium as a fact of life. As a business book it fails as so many business books do because the ultimate goal of the book is not to attract a reader, but to convince corporations to buy a whole suite of products and services: the books, videotapes, fun fish things, decorations. Avoid this book, read Drucker instead.
(A negative review. MSL remarks.)
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-17 00:00>
After reading the book Fish!, all I could think of was the fact that people would either love or hate this "engrossing parable" that stars Mary Jane as the manager who turned the toxic-energy dump of the 3rd floor into be a productive and pleasant place with the help of Lonnie, who works in the work-renowned Pike Place Fish market. And the latter group of people who will hate this book will be the hardened skeptics, the `been-there-done-that' workers who have been around for years. People who already have their minds set that nothing is that easy, thank you. In short, real world people.
I appreciated how the book was approached as a short and sweet parable, and how the four key principles were presented in a light, simplistic way. However, Mary Jane's world of suddenly complacent employees and suddenly helpful boss seemed light years away from the unyielding people we usually have in the workplace we call the real world. The skeptic in me refuses to believe that everything is just this easy and everyone is just as willing to change their views. In the child care center where I work, we could hardly get the owner to dole out money for an emergency substitute teacher. I could just imagine the heart attack he'd get if we asked for a budget of $200 to be spent at our own discretion to work on a group-motivating project, and sad to say, I could easily imagine most of today's bosses with that attitude as opposed to the SOB-turned-softy Bill that was Mary Jane's boss.
Another thought that entered my head is how the book left everything to vague. Choose your attitude. Play. Make your customers' day. Be present. Ok, now how do we do that (in a real world sense, that is)? And what if your definition of play conflicts with my definition of play, and has an adverse effect? The book was very helpful to me in a sense that it reinforced these self-help concepts in my head, but it may have helped better if it took that into consideration and told us how to deal with differences of opinions.
I'm not saying I didn't like the book. It gave me, at the least, something to read and ponder about while waiting for the 28 bus. At the most, it inspired me that turning an ordinary child care center around into a wonderful, thriving place for kids and parents takes nothing more than choosing to have a healthy attitude and playing. Then the bus pulls over with a squeal of brakes, and I remember my director's name is not Mary Jane and the only fish place close to us only offers whiting sandwiches, not inspiration. Sighing, I board the bus.
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1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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