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Title: Fish! Tales: Real-Life Stories to Help You Transform Your Workplace and Your Life by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, John Christensen, Philip Strand ISBN: 0-7868-6868-6 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: April, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.65 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fish Tales-it works!!
Comment: I'm the General Manager Don Freeman that this book "Fish Tales" refers to in a full chapter who worked for Sprint. The great thing about this book Fish is that it outlines in detail what we were already trying to do before learning about FISH years earlier. It defined it in a way that assisted us in bringing a greater level of understanding and participation for all our employees. "Fish Tales" now brings it to a level showing it works and can be adapted in many different work groups. I implemented it in our call center but I was dressing as Elvis long before reading FISH. This book helped me legitimize my creative fun leadership style with my peers and show that work is fun. The great thing about this book is that you can see in Fish Tales that you have to find your own employee culture and way of making the FISH PHILOSOPHY work in your own Company or Department. It will depend on the type of work being done, product and location in the country. This book gives many ideas on possibilities and helps to open the creative juices!! You don't have to be Elvis! I found the creative "Board of Director meetings" (mentioned in the book) and acting those activities out a fun way to get participation and great fun for all employees too. Go Fish!!
While having fun, it is important to keep the vision and purpose of your business as part of the philosophy. Fish Tales is a great book with wonderful examples you can use. It works well with other work culture initiatives too.
Rating: 4
Summary: Better than the original - real world examples are great!
Comment: FISH! TALES is a follow up book to the bestseller FISH! For many who read the first book, you will find the fundamental philosophy repeated again but it is needed because the authors have designed this book to stand alone on its own merits. If you haven't read the original you can read this book and understand the principles.
I personally think that reading the original book first is best. Just my opinion.
If you choose to read the original book (only 130 pages or so) you understand the basic principles of the FISH! Philosophy and what the goals are. The goals of this book are the same as the first........As the authors put it in the first book "Enclosed are the keys to creating an innovative and accountable work environment where a playful, attentive, and engaging attitude leads to more energy, enthusiasm, productivity, and creativity."
Doesn't that line above ring of salesmanship? The authors are selling to senior managers the supposed benefits of their book...just something to think about...
While FISH! was written in a parable (short story using fictional characters) format FISH TALES is not. This book is much different than the first and I personally enjoyed this book much more than FISH!
In this book the four points to the philosophy are repeated.
The four key points of the philosophy are:
Play - have fun and create energy at home or at the office.
Make their day - how can you engage fellow employees, customers and make each other's day?
Be Present - How can you make sure you are fully available and aware during conversations with people? It is about create a greater sense of intimacy between individuals.
Choose Your Attitude - Each day you choose how you are going to act or which "side of the bed" you wake up on. The choice is yours and, the way you act, affects others.
Where this book differs is the following:
They provide REAL WORLD examples of how companies have implemented the FISH! Philosophy. I personally felt as though the first book was HIGHLY deficient in that sector.
They interview senior managers who convey that they must "practice what they preach" and be committed to the program.
They show real world examples of how employees began trusting managers and how critical it is in the whole process.
They give you a 12-week roadmap to success. I believe this is critical to the success of implementing such a philosophy
This book, like its predecessor, is a great read for the following reasons.
It is a quick read. I read it in about 2 - 3 hours and I am a fairly slow reader.
The book is able to illustrate one point extremely effectively. For example, in this book they show how workers attitudes can impact a setting and how many of us don't understand how our attitude impacts our work setting and quality of life.
These are the kinds of books that employees will read (great for training programs) as they are 100-200 pages in length and easy to read so a massive investment of time and energy isn't required by employees.
My concluding thoughts: I think this book does a better job than its predecessor in conveying key elements but it still never spells out the reason why most management programs fail. I really enjoyed reading the book. I think the book made some inroads from its predecessor through more illustrations and another 40 pages of writing. I still think they just need to convey a basic point to readers. That point is "If top managers don't cooperate or "practice what they preach" or understand why and how this philosophy works it goes nowhere, just like most management programs designed to attain all of the above mentioned goals of productivity, energy, etc.
If you want a great book on business principles I highly encourage everyone to read "The Essential Drucker" by Peter Drucker. Jack Welch is a big Drucker fan and this book is a compilation of his best work of over 60 years and 30 books on management principles.
Rating: 1
Summary: Disappointing
Comment: While the message is a good one, it nearly gets lost in this very poorly written book.
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