Fish! is a philosophy for work, life, etc. It’s not rocket science, but it’s four principles that you can apply to your life to make things a little better: 1) choose your attitude 2) play 3) be present and 4) make someone’s day.
**Edit: the name Fish! needs some explaining. The name comes from the workers at the world famous Pike Place Fish Market. Those guys do nothing but sell smelly fish all day. Yet, they find a way to make their work fun and they have a lasting effect on customers that pass by. The four Fish! principles were extracted from the way they do business. If you’re in the area, you should check it out. I’ve never been, but I’ve seen video. You can watch them for a few minutes and instantly see the four principles in action.**
You can read this to learn more about it. “Choose your attitude” basically means that while you can’t choose the things that happen to you, particularly the bad things, you can choose your attitude. You never *have* to be grumpy, right? And if you really try, you can choose to be happy or thankful no matter how bad things get.
“Play” means just what it says. Have fun doing your work. Find ways to make your work fun. Even though you may have a very serious profession, you don’t have to take yourself so seriously. It’s okay to have fun. At my old job, on March 14th every year, we would celebrate Pi-Day by taking a break at 3:14pm to eat all different kinds of pie. You get the idea.
“Be present” means to make sure that if you’re working with someone or helping someone, give them your full attention. How many times have you been on the phone with someone, and you can tell that the person is zoning out or bored out of his or her mind? Lots. Well, do you like talking to people like that? Nope. No one does. Therefore, if you want people to enjoy being in your company, whether it be over the phone or in person, you need to be there for them. Besides, you’ll probably get a lot more out of the conversation too.
“Make their day” sounds a little like “pay it forward” to me. But that’s okay, it’s still a good principle. The work place can be a boring and mundane place. For some people, work is a miserable place. I was in college, and on Valentine’s Day, I remember folks trading a bunch of the kiddie Valentine’s that have super heroes on them. It was silly, but it was kind of nice too. After that, I thought it was a good idea to do fun little things like that on holidays. Candy canes around Christmas, etc. It can be anything. And when you make someone’s day, you’ll feel better about it.
That’s a simple breakdown of the principles behind Fish! Go read the book or watch the film if you want to learn more!
paperdan