Free Book Summary – Fish! Catch the energy and release the potential by Stephen Lundin
There are 8,760 hours in a year. An average work year consists of 2,500 hours. You sleep an average of 2,950 hours a year. This is how you spend 62% of your time at work or sleeping. Unfortunately, work is a “have to” for most people. How do we make work fun and enjoyable? In this book, the authors approach the subject through a parable and a real-world example from “Pike Place Fish Market.”
Why is this important to me? I want to make sure that you guys watching this video get something out of it. I’m trying to put myself in their shoes, so I need to answer this question. Sometimes we need to ask additional questions. Hate your job? Does your team hate their job? This is a common theme in America right now. This is the summer of 2011 and unemployment is high and people are holding on to their jobs. If you’ve dealt with any customer service department in the last 6 months, you’ve probably personally experienced the answer to these questions. Based on the bad service you know people hate their job. This is bad news if you have to deal with that particular company or really good news if it is your competitor. This book cuts out the junk and helps you build a fun culture at work while building customer loyalty.
Before I dive into the four things that will help change a lackluster culture, let me define the problem. Most companies have to deal with negative attitudes. One negative employee can bring down an entire department. This spreads worse than cancer. Words like insensitive, entitled, zombie, nasty, slow, and negative. These words are poison to an organization and to yourself if you work in the environment.
1. Attitude – Choose your attitude. There is always a choice about how you do your job, even if there isn’t a choice about the job itself. If you are a team leader in your organization, then help your people grow. Yogi Berra said: “I am convinced that most people enjoy learning and growing, at any time in their lives.”
2. Play: as children we learn a lot simply through the art of playing. In business, you need to make a profit to stay in business. This doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Give some thought to how work can become play. In the software game, you see this all the time. Look at the Google campus and it looks like Romper Room. This is a good thing. Google allows your team members 20% of the time. This means 8 hours out of 40, they can work on any idea they want. Some really cool stuff came out of this. GMAIL was created from 20% of the time. Give some thought to how Play can be incorporated and good things will happen.
3. Make their day – Remember that attitudes spread faster than CLAPs. When you make the customer’s day through commitment and a pleasant attitude, it will rub off on your coworkers and they will do the same.
4. Being Present: This one eludes most people at some point. I have been guilty of this many times. Think about it. You are on the phone with someone while checking email. You think you’re being a good multitasker when really you’re just annoying the other person because you’re half listening. This is even worse with text messages. Look around you the next time you’re at a restaurant and see how many people are texting while they’re with your party. We have the attention span of ants these days because it’s so easy to connect through digital devices. Being present is a huge competitive advantage if you can ingrain it into your organization.
The Fish is a great parable and a must read for anyone who hates their job. This short book is packed with great lessons and I encourage you to read it.
I hope you found this short summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes a habit. Habits are formed in as little as 21 days.
One thing you can take away from this book is to be present. I chose this one because it is the easiest to correct. Do me a favor and focus on this for a week and make a mental note of the reactions you get using active listening. I think you will be surprised. If you want to see the excitement of the actual fish market, go to YouTube and search for “Pike Place Fish.”
