Product Description

In this third installment in the popular Fish! series, the authors examine change as a necessary, ongoing process that should never stop--at least not if one wants to keep the workplace vital and fully alive. Using a fictitious sushi restaurant as an example, this fable examines the three principles that Lundin, Christensen, and Paul believe are necessary for continuing success: Find It ("it" being each employee's personal vision of the business), Live It, and Coach It. Readers of the authors' previous books--Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results and Fish! Tales--should find its familiarity comforting. For those new to the series, this standalone volume is easy to read and highly valuable. --David Bombeck

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11501 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01
• Released on: 2003-01-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Amazon.com
In this third installment in the popular Fish! series, the authors examine change as a necessary, ongoing process that should never stop--at least not if one wants to keep the workplace vital and fully alive. Using a fictitious sushi restaurant as an example, this fable examines the three principles that Lundin, Christensen, and Paul believe are necessary for continuing success: Find It ("it" being each employee's personal vision of the business), Live It, and Coach It. Readers of the authors' previous books--Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results and Fish! Tales--should find its familiarity comforting. For those new to the series, this standalone volume is easy to read and highly valuable. --David Bombeck

From Publishers Weekly
This audio version of the third book in the Fish series uses as its example the work at one ward of a large suburban hospital. Rhonda, the supervisor, had been promoted, and her mentor, whom she succeeded, had been an ardent follower of the Fish program. Rhonda believed her staff was paying attention to the patients and were providing a level of service far beyond that at other facilities. However, after some time, she began to notice staffers were sloughing off and seemed not to be providing the absolute best care to the patients. The problem? Keeping the Fish principles fresh and new was difficult. After a visit to a successful sushi restaurant, Rhonda regained her enthusiasm for the program and, with the help of the sushi chef, was able to inspire her staff. In fact, her work was so effective, her staff was able to take over for Rhonda after she suffered a family tragedy. There's something charming about the Fish program, which counsels, "Find it, live it and coach it" ("it" is each employee's vision). The notion that individual workers can have a vision for their workplace and their place within a large organization is indeed empowering. And Rhonda's story offers insights into both personal and professional worlds. However, the simple message is rendered even more unsophisticated by the artificial voices on this audio. There's a kind of squeaky, schoolmarm voice for the older nurse who comes onto the ward, and the intonations used for the various nurses are similar and somewhat grating. Still, in spite of these flaws, the story and the business lessons within it are worth hearing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
An allegory about a thriving Japanese restaurant is used to show how organizational change can be sustained only when individual members connect with the organization's vision. The restaurant's owner is the teacher here, while a nearby hospital--suffering every kind of institutional malaise one can imagine--is the student as it struggles through familiar bureaucratic and human problems. People impatient with narratives might glaze over at this one; it's drawn out and overacted. But the lessons have value for managers trying to motivate their troops to pull in the same direction. In spite of its excesses and length, the story does support the principles it teaches and offers a good organizational lesson. T.W. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

IT means: Find Purpose, Live Identity, Coach Accountability
An easy read and good use of the fable to emphasis an often overlooked part of performance management; the importance of each individual finding a piece of their Me Inc. vision within the Business Inc. vision. Although authors Lundin, Christensen, and Paul never use the term Me Inc. in this fable about sustaining a performance transformation within the 6th-floor neurological care ward of Good Samaritan Hospital (Business Inc. in the fable), referring to the connection as IT; they clearly convey the message that sustainable performance is only possible when individuals find their IT within the wards vision of customer care.

Recognizing that sustainable motivation/energy can only be created when individuals connect their purpose, identity, and accountability with their business's performance vision, the authors show how the employee's must Find IT thru individual conversations, Live IT by putting their unique identity into action, and hold each other accountable thru a Coach IT process unencumbered by hierarchy. While fables can only go so far in conveying the complexity of organizational effectiveness, this fable brings a critical piece of the puzzle to the front. It is recommended for use with teams as the next step after the initial visioning and performance goal setting processes of performance management. Dennis DeWilde, author of "The Performance Connection"

Decent but not as good as the original
After reading about this book I was excited by the opportunity to get some more insight into the "Fish!" world, and I was especially interested in learning about `how to make change stick'. I liked how the book was another "fable" type story, and thought that this might make another good Book Club selection for our company book club.

Well, I read the book, and although I thought it had some merit, it was not nearly as easily accessible and distillable to the same audiences as the first "Fish!" book was. I was still glad I bought the book, and I did get something out of it, but I had real trouble imagining trying to pass this message on to others in our company.

I will say this, though. One message that came out of this book and that hit me loud and clear was that for "change" to stick, the meaning of the change has to be personalized to each individual, and it has to mean something to them, because once all the bells and whistles of the program are gone, and the initial excitement dies down, it will be impossible to keep a culture change program going unless others can relate to it personally and continue to buy into it on a day to day basis.

So, I thought THAT message was valuable and worth buying the book for, but I don't think I will be passing this out at our next book club. It was just not a book that was otherwise easily understandable to a much wider audience.

However, if you haven't read the original "Fish!" book yet, I HIGHLY recommend it...

Disneylayne
YOU MUST READ FISH. F I R S T.

THIS IS FOR ANYONE WHO JUST WANTS TO ENJOY LIFE AND NOT ALLOW THE EVERY DAY FOOLISHNESS AT WORK OR LIFE GET TO YOU....

YOU WILL PROBABLY BUY MORE THAN ONE COPY AND GIVE THE TWO BOOKS AS PRESENTS.

WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO LIGHTEN OUR HEARTS, ESPECIALLY WITH ALL THE BAD THINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING IN THE WORLD TODAY. OR JUST IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOODS.