101 ways to catch a FISH!
By Douglas Miller (March 2004 Issue)
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Even if you’ve been training in the most remote part of the world it would have been hard to miss the phenomenon that is the FISH! Philosophy®. The documentary film FISH!™ was launched by Charthouse International in 1998. It features the exploits of a wonderful bunch of guys in Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle and the ways in which they’ve completely turned around how they see their jobs. The film has been translated into 23 languages with two sequels also available. The eponymous first book, published in 1999,1 has sold approaching three million copies, making it one of the most successful business books ever written. Three further books have followed.2
The FISH! Philosophy comes wrapped around four simple messages:
* ‘play’
* ‘be there’
* ‘make their day’, and
* ‘choose your attitude’.
Charthouse probably won’t claim any originality prizes for this and in a sense that’s what makes the film truly compelling. We know these messages, but to be able to see a bunch of guys working in cold, dirty, smelly conditions for 12 hours a day and bringing a sense of what it means to be tuned into yourself and your job has given the trainer a powerful, aspirational role model. At the outset we have to recognise that one size does not always fit all. The loud brash style can antagonise those who prefer their role models to be more on the cerebral side – notwithstanding it’s clear that there is a connection here for many of us and it is hard to ignore a group of people who love their jobs but who wouldn’t have chosen to do what they now do if they’d had a choice at the beginning of their working lives.
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