Fish! by Stephen C. Lundin Phd, Harry Paul and John Christensen

Post date: Oct 3, 2013 7:17:00 PM

Book

Review

My personal interest is in discovering which strategies improve employee wellbeing whilst also improving productivity, and helping us to balance work and family life. I seek out approaches which are based on evidence from research, of which there is now a considerable amount. The Fish! philosophy is no such animal.

Fish! describes Lundin's well-known workplace management philosophy - originally presented as a film by Lundin and Christensen. Here, it is presented in the form of a heart-warming story with a heroine (Mary Jane Ramirez) and a hero (Lonnie, from the fish market) who helps her to see a new approach to her new and demanding role managing a dispirited and inefficient team. There are many fans of this approach – it is a well-known motivational tool, and has gained favour in the UK with many managers who want to spark energy creativity in their teams, but personally I prefer clearly structured, and evidence-based, approaches.

Academic interest:

This book contains no references and no direct connections to theory. However, wrapped inside all the glitz are some simple, useful truths for which established research findings could provide some justification.

Practitioners

Some managers may find the ideas in this book helpful, and it does contain limited guidance on its workplace approaches. Some of these ideas (such as being playful at work) are ideas you are probably familiar with from organisations like Google and Yahoo.

Self-helpers

Managers who wish to explore different approaches to developing creativity and flexibility in their times might like to read about the Fish! Philosophy. It is by no means a step-by-step guide, but rather a more general approach.

Best Bits

Summarising the importance of making deliberate choices about our attitude to work:

“ We can bring our best qualities to work – it is our choice. If we can accomplish this one thing, our work area will become an oasis of energy, flexibility, and creativity in a tough industry.' (p.99)

The key concepts of the approach are that 'toxic energy' can be driven out when team members:

• 'Choose your attitude' (p37) - the idea that we all have a choice about our attitude to our work and the way we do it.
• 'Play' (p62) – the idea that the workplace need not be serious all the time, it can be a place of fun and camaraderie.
• 'Make their day' (p64) – the idea that work can be a fun place and we can make a positive difference to others (customers)
• 'Be present' (67) – the idea of engagement and involvement in the moment, rather than being distant or distracted.

About the authors:

Stephen Lundin and John Christensen are filmmakers. It was as tourists that they visited the world famous Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle that was the inspiration John Christensen's film, and later the book, Fish! Lundin and Christensen tried to capture on film what the fishmongers did naturally and:

“Two best-selling films and two best-selling books (titled Fish! of course) later, we have come to realise how deeply the work world longed for an image of a place where fun, joy, energy, productivity and incredible teamwork drive out stress, boredom, toxic energy and burnout.” (ONLINE accessed 27-09-2013, at http://www.aim.com.au/resources/article_slundin.html ).

The third co-author of the book Fish! is Harry Paul, a management training consultant.