How the Catch of the Day Points the Way to the Catch of a Lifetime
Recently I was flying home to San Diego from Dallas when I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me. I found out that she is the CEO of a large service organization. I asked her how many people worked at her organization. She stared at me and said, "I think about half." Half the people work at her company? Why? My guess is that they don't enjoy coming to work. They don't have energy or passion for their jobs.
But we have an antidote to this situation that we call the FISH! Philosophy. We use an unlikely workplace to make our point, the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle. Not your ordinary fish market, this one really is world famous, featured on television shows and movies such as Frazier and Free Willy and in national magazines and major newspapers.
Let's face it, fish mongering is not a glam job. If you're like me, you never wanted to grow up to become a fishmonger. Yet the guys who work at the market love their jobs and are world famous, not only because of the way they throw the fish across the market or shout out and repeat everyone's order, but because they bring an attitude, passion and energy to their work that is infectious. They show us that no matter what you do, you can enjoy your work and be successful as well.
Fast, Flexible and Fresh
How does the Pike Place team do it? They accomplish it by doing things differently. Lou Platt, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, said, "Whatever made you successful in the past, won't in the future." The fishmongers know this well. Once a month they get together to talk about what is working and what needs to be done differently at the market. It's about being fast and flexible, fresh and different. They look at their culture and ask, "How can we make it better?" Because their culture is what made them world famous. Theirs is a culture that allows them to be who they are, with passion, energy and lightheartedness.
Creating this culture had it rewards beyond being world famous. Ten years ago, the market was striving so hard to be no better than its competition that it almost went out of business. That's when one of the younger fishmongers challenged the market to do things differently. They did, and what once was a good week in revenue is now a bad morning. What changed? The market is the same, ownership is the same and a lot of the employees are the same. The fish is the same. What changed was the culture, and as that culture evolved, it became a philosophy, one that allows the market to thrive, not just survive.
Now, the Pike Place Market has a strong team culture that:
grounds its people in something unchanging
becomes a basis for making decisions
is a virtual filter for hiring the right people
exports its values to the customers
With that strong culture came increased productivity, higher retention, teamwork and better morale, all the ingredients needed today for success.
FISH! Foundations
There are four parts to the FISH! Philosophy:
Choose Your Attitude
Play
Be There
Make Their Day
Choose Your Attitude
It all starts with attitude. Each day we have to ask ourselves the question, "Am I choosing the right attitude?" Are you going to be magnificent or ordinary today? Think about the work you do. Is it worthwhile? Are you making a difference? Is it making the world a better place? If you can answer yes to one or more of those questions, you have to choose to be magnificent. This means thinking about what we are doing in a different way, no matter what our work is. Am I washing windows or providing clear vision? Am I washing dishes or providing people with a clean surface from which to eat? Am I merely making a metal pin, or am I making a vital piece of the braking system for a passenger jet? When you look at work in this way, your choice of attitude is clear.
Play
Too many people walk around with grumpy looks on their faces. We were all told the same things growing up: that work and play are different and separate. When you finish your homework, you can go play. When you're done with your chores, you can go play. No wonder we think that work and play can't go hand in hand.
But work can be fun no matter what you do. Even Disney made the point that work can be enjoyable. Think about what the seven dwarfs in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs did while they worked in the mine. They whistled. Was their work glamorous? No, but they enjoyed it.
Be There
Being there being present is one of the foundations of the FISH! Philosophy. It means paying attention, looking people in the eye and listening. It's about understanding your culture, your values, your mission and how you live them. It involves being part of a team. Being there comes from the heart and making a difference in people's lives, and you need to look for moments that allow you do this.
Make Their Day
Making someone's day is all about making them say, "Wow! That felt good." It involves the experience people have when they do business with you. People think that the "e" in e-commerce stands for electronic, but successful companies know the "e" stands for "experience." What will they remember about doing business with you? Think about it. If you go to a restaurant and the food is great and the service is terrible, you've had a bad dining experience. And if you go out to eat and the food is OK, but the service is outstanding, it is a nice dining experience. Experience can make an OK product better just as easily as it can make a great product bad.
Landing Results
The FISH! Philosophy works. It starts with you and your attitude, a simple choice of whether you want to make a difference and feel good about what you are doing, no matter what you are doing. It's a choice to take your work seriously and yourself a little less seriously, to constantly look for vision moments and be part of a team and to export your culture out to people. It's taking the opportunity to make someone say, "Wow! That felt good."
Harry Paul is co-author of the international best-seller FISH! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results and REVVED! An Incredible Way to Rev Up Your Workplace and Achieve Amazing Results. He is available for keynotes and seminars; please contact idnani3@vsnl.com
By Harry Paul
Capital ME 2007
