Catching a Different Sort of Fish
Have you heard of the FISH philosophy? This is a philosophy which is to help people in business, or in the classroom.
It started out with some people who worked in a fish market. They had to get up very early in the morning. All day, they worked with cold, slimy fish. This made them very sad and unhappy. Their faces were long, and their minds were frozen. They didn't want to go to work.
Their boss didn't like this, and he looked for different ways to help make his workers happier.
He came up with the FISH philosophy.
The main ideas in the FISH philosophy are: Be There, Make Their Day, Choose Your Attitude and Play.
These ideas apply both to business, and to learning or teaching in the classroom.
‘Be there' means that you are engaged in the task you are carrying out. You are thinking about it and how to improve it, rather than thinking about the nice dinner you are going to have, or how pretty the flowers in your garden are.
‘Make Their Day' means that you are thinking about other people and how you can make their day better. This might be your employees, or employers, or other students, or your family. It means that if you see they are sad or thoughtful, that you take the time to talk to them and find out what the problem is. Maybe you do something very kind for them, that they would not expect.
‘ Choose Your Attitude,' means that you decide for yourself how you are going to approach your work, or your study. You can choose to be miserable about it, but you would be much better to choose to be enthusiastic and happy about it.
‘Play' means that you find ways to make things fun. Whether you are in business or learning, you will be happier and more successful if you find a way to play with it. It may be that you think of a fun idea for your business, or if you are learning, perhaps you can make up a game to play with your vocabulary.
The man in the fish market made his employees happier by letting them put up photos of their families above their stalls. He taught them to really be interested in their customers and try to help them. He helped one lady who was sad, and he ended up marrying her! He made sure that they were very polite to every single customer and that they cared about them. This made the customers want to come back, and it made the workers happier too, because they formed better relationships with the customers.
He encouraged people to choose a different attitude if they came to work feeling sad, and the ideas he had to cheer them up made them all feel better. One thing they did, if they got a big order, was to throw a big fish to another worker, shouting out the order. This created a lot of fun, and lots of people started going to the fish market, in order to see the fish flying around! Sometimes they even threw the fish to the customers.
In the end, the workers were happy to be at work, because it was meaningful to them, and fun, and the customers were happy to be there too, and it made the business good for everybody.
You might like to try out the FISH philosophy yourself!
