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Management Science Search Management Science Management ScienceFish Tales: Real Stories to Help Transform Your Workplace and Your Life
Mobius by Stephen C. Lundin Harry Paul Stephen C Lundin Harry Paul & John Christensen Search Stephen C. Lundin Harry Paul Stephen C Lundin Harry Paul & John Christensen
Customer Reviews:
Gone fishing
If you want to improve the moral in your workplace, and hence your life, you would be hard pushed to find a better philosophy than the `FISH! Philosophy'. Here you are given examples of it has worked in the real world. I recommend it whole heartedly to anyone who thinks that there must be more to my working life than this, or even there must be more to my life than this, because generally if you are happy at work, then a happy home life will follow. More than any other I recommend that you read the section 'Choose your attitide' this is fundamental to your happiness, in or out of work. I also recommend Fish!: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results which lays out the principles discussed in 'Fish! Tales'.
Easy and effective lessons (but how usable?) 
The series of Fish books is clearly a well marketed concept (this being the first of the ongoing series I have read)with an accessible writing style and layout of contents so you can dip back in easily. The idea seems almost too easy to be effective based on 4 key actions "Play; Make their day; Be there and Choose your attitude" and in this book applied to four different case studies for each of the actions and at the end of each section, little other snippet examples.
I think many would find a lot of what is said pretty obvious, but it is implementation that is the key and starting with the Seattle Fish Market where the 4 concepts were discovered and working thorugh the four very different case studies and the end section on how to do a 12 week change project in your organisation, over 171 pages certinaly gives plenty of ideas.
My only concerns are firstly I found the book very American in approach(not only in examples of giving "fish awards" but attitudes) and a recent business trip to USA while reading the final pages of the book re-enforced that view. Secondly, the examples are about motivating a work force into teaming (often in jobs that by the mundane nature of their tasks have created the problems) so it was not clear it would be so effective for higher levels of office management problems where "office politics" may be more an issue in getting the tone right at the top.
While an interesting read in reminding one of key basic concepts I suspect I have learned more practically from say Jonathan Goleman's book on Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace in helping me team better at work.
Insightful! 
Things are going swimmingly in Fish! land. In the latest volume, Fish! Tales, authors Stephen C. Lundin, John Christensen, Harry Paul and Philip Strand build on the successful training program that evolved from their first Fish book. Tales shows how four companies - a long-distance call center; a hospital neural-renal unit, a car dealership and a roofing company - have applied Fish! theories effectively. They also provide short examples from other companies to show how well the Fish! function. The four main principles are familiar by now - keep the work fun, seek to serve others, stay focused on your customers and have an enthusiastic attitude - but the examples in the book bring them alive. Along the way, the authors heavily sell their Fish! courses and merchandise - that's just good salesmanship - but the real catch of the day is the final how-to section, showing ways to apply these principles in any organization. The lively writing style helps keep you hooked. We suggest that if you haven't yet caught any Fish!, start with this one. Its cheery, accessible methods should lure you in, hook, line and sinker.
Insightful!
Things are going swimmingly in Fish! land. In the latest volume, Fish! Tales, authors Stephen C. Lundin, John Christensen and Harry Paul build on the successful training program that evolved from their first Fish book. Tales shows how four companies — a long-distance call center; a hospital neural-renal unit, a car dealership and a roofing company — have applied Fish! theories effectively. They also provide short examples from other companies to show how well the Fish! function. The four main principles are familiar by now — keep the work fun, seek to serve others, stay focused on your customers and have an enthusiastic attitude — but the examples in the book bring them alive. Along the way, the authors heavily sell their Fish! courses and merchandise — that’s just good salesmanship — but the real catch of the day is the final how-to section, showing ways to apply these principles in any organization. The lively writing style helps keep you hooked. We from getAbstract suggest that if you haven’t yet caught any Fish!, start with this one. Its cheery, accessible methods should lure you in, hook, line and sinker.
Fish tells what you really need to
When I was introduced to the Fish philosophy it was through the book "Fish". I was at that time demotivated and lost belief in my abilities to do. I picked the book and struggled to allocate some time to read. I had this low self-esteem buzz that told me " what difference does it make to read one more book", "How would that book help?", "You have already read many other books, why this one would be the one". Many negative thoughts were ruling my mind telling me one thing this book will not do you even one step forward. The break through came when I just started reading the book. I started to read few pages every day. When I got more into the story, I started to cite situation and relate to my life. Relating needed not any effort, humans have to much similarities and hence their problems intersect in a way.
When you realize that you are not the only person who has self-esteem problems and you are not the only person who lost direction over years, you feel a little content. You are not in no where-land any more. You feel that you are passing through a hard time that many people have passed through before. The best part comes when you are dragged into the solution. The solution comes sneaking into your mind. Even your rejecting and negative brain cannot stop the solution from crawling in. All of a sudden, you will find lamp lighting up the dark negative parts. The rest of the house cleaning comes by continuing the story.
What is different about fish? I asked my self and simply the answer is that fish tells you exactly the How and Why, of having a happy day at work regardless of all the circumstances. Everybody tells you "You need to be a proactive person" no one told you how in a simple way! and above all no else before told why! And if they did, they tell you to much sophisticated issues that sometimes puts you down rather than push you up.
Fish is simply, a push forward, that tells simple issues that has a very high positive impact on your performance.
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