The book, Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results is a managerial book that outlined four concepts to help boost morale in the workplace. It is inspired by Seattle’s famous Pike Place Fish Market, where the authors believe that an organization that learns to have fun can be more productive, have fewer staff turnovers and be more customer focused.
The main character, Mary Jane Ramirez moved to Seattle with her husband and kids. She landed a supervisory position with one of Seattle’s largest financial institutions, First Guarantee Financial. Within a year, she was promoted to manager of the operations group located on the third floor—also known as the ‘toxic waste dump’. These employees hated their jobs and this was reflected in their bad attitudes and poor performance. To Mary, the challenge of bringing life back to her unenthusiastic and unmotivated team seems impossible until she discovers the Pike Place Fish Market. She noticed that the employees were alive and passionate that people stop just to watch them work. She befriended one of the employees named Lonnie, who begins to teach her how she can transform her department with the right concepts. Below are his recommendations for transforming her toxic waste dump organization into a fun, fulfilling workplace that everyone will enjoy.
1. Choose your attitude
2. Play
3. Make their day
4. Be present

Choose your Attitude
One of the main principles of the book is ‘Choose your attitude,’ the simplest yet most powerful of the ideas. The authors’ main concept is that workers choose the attitudes they bring to work: they will either be miserable or they are going to be motivated. If they make the choice to be a motivated employee, they will be happier and more productive throughout the day. Mary held a staff meeting to discuss this concept. She then decides to bring the staff to visit the Pike Place Fish market so they could experience it firsthand. By the end of the week, the employees made a poster outlining the concept of choosing ones attitude with a smiley face versus a frown face. This was powerful and captured everyone’s attention. This was the first sign that Mary was beginning to motivate her staff.

Play
This is the second ingredient and more celebrated element of an energy filled workplace. Mary decided to take her kids to the Pike Place Fish Market to visit. Lonnie gracefully welcomed them and involved them with packing out the fishes. Mary’s first impression was that she was at a playground with adult kids at recess. The notion of them throwing fish and kidding with each other, as well as the customers gave this market its energy. Because they enjoyed the work, it resulted in low staff turnover and this energy had made them world famous. At work, employees need to incorporate “play” into the workplace. The idea is that you can be serious and professional about business, but yet still have fun while doing it. It shows that you are not taking yourself so seriously, and that you understand the importance of good humor even under stressful situations. The benefits of play are as follows: happy people treat each other well, fun leads to creativity and the time passes quickly.

Make their day
Service is very important in any organization. At the Pike Place Fish Market, the workers look for ways to create great memories with the customers. They engage the customers and welcome them to join in their fun. Doing this directs attention towards the customer which makes their day. The idea is to always approach customer service with a goal that you’re making someone’s day. Workers should go out of way to give someone a memorable experience working with them.

Be present
The authors point out that normally people in service professions tend to ‘zone out’ in their work because they are not fully engaged. At the market, the fishmongers did the opposite as they were scanning the crowd and interacting with the customers. Lonnie recalls his experience at the grocery store where the employees were having fun with each other and not the customer, who he believes is the key ingredient. Clock-watching and waiting for their shift to end is the norm because they may be so unhappy in their workplace and because of this, they don’t really pay attention to their customers. If workers are ‘present’ at work, they can then enjoy what they do and have fun.

Summary
The main message of Fish is that poor performance often results from doing the dame mundane tasks day in and day out. Employees begin to develop a negative attitude about their role within the organization if they are unable to create an environment what makes those tasks more enjoyable to perform. The book, Fish incorporates four main principles to boost morale in the workplace: Choose you attitude, Play, Make their day and Be present. These are simple concepts to understand, yet they are often missing in most workplaces. Mary’s visit to the Pike Place Fish Market encourages her to enforce these principles as she was determined to change the mindset of her employees to bring about a more positive work environment. Reading this book will help any business manager to look for ways to involve their employees in making their jobs fun and enjoyable and thereby a place they want to be. Fish will help you decide whether to allow your people to languish or lead them to a better and happier life and job.
The lessons communicated in Fish are very simple and empowering. I believe many organizations can benefit from such message and use this story to empower and engage their workers.