Rating: 
Summary: If it were only this simple...
Review: I thought the book had a couple things going for it. I loved the four principles: choose your attitude, have fun, make their day, and be present. These are all idealistic and special when they can be implemented. I also enjoyed the parable format and found the book to be a quick read.On the other hand, the book has some serious flaws. For example, one of the principles is "Choose your Attitude." It would be wonderful if every person could be magically transformed into having a good attitude. But that's not the way it works in the real world. Though I deeply believe that a lot of people can develop a great attitude if they are managed correctly, the truth is that there are some people out there who have terrible attitudes (i.e. they are lazy, don't work well with others, don't take pride in their work, etc.) and will never change regardless of how they are managed. It's a shame this has to be done, but the best way to deal with this problem is to fire these types of employees (after giving them a fair chance to get better) and replace them with people who have a good attitude. Also, the authors virtually said nothing about the importance of how employees are managed. If you want an employee to have a good attitude, I personally feel that genuinely listening to their ideas or giving them a sincere compliment on their work will often do the trick. But good management techniques such as this aren't touched on in the book. In summary, the book is worth reading since it'll only take an hour or two of your time. But remember that this Fish! is swimming in shallow water. Greg Blencoe
Author, The Ten Commandments for Managers
Rating: 
Summary: JUMP RIGHT IN to the wisdom of this book and GO FISH!
Review: FISH! should be required reading for anyone who has a business, works in a business, wants to start a business -- or anyone at all who wants fun, practical, easy-to-implement ways to make joy a part of their day to day life. It's a short, sweet yet meaningful tale that reads as smooth as banana pudding! You'll most certainly want to pick it up again and re-read it every few months or so just to be reminded that any workplace or living space can be transformed into a happy and fulfilling haven that inspires everyone to be their most creative, productive and vital. The tale of FISH! illustrates how making the choice to bring genuine joy to our work and day-to-day life can bring about the freedom which enables us to face each day head-on with a sense of humor (instead of choosing to spend each precious family dinnertime boring and burdening those at the table with the same office horror stories night after night, month after month-- year after year! ...) Any business that wants success, longevity, and truly happy, productive employees should without a doubt jump right into the wisdom of this book and Go FISH!
Rating: 
Summary: I like the ideas, but not in a business book
Review: I like having fun and being entertained, and I really liked the ideas in this book. But marketed as a business book? Let me set some boudries, first of all, to show you how important I think the material is. If this was Doctor Suess- like book, marketed and written with my kids in mind, I would be cool: five stars easlily. If it was marketed as a self-help book for reframing your attitude, it would get four, maybe five stars. If it were a hippy/ new-age book about just being and enjoying life, five stars plus. However, as a business book, it is pure fluff. I was forced to watch this in a corporate setting. Instead of fostering honest, human fun amongst our workforce, it seemed like an invitation for many on the management staff to work on trivial activities. Using Covey's "Seven Habits" and "First Things First" language, they were spending their time in Quadrant 4 of the time management matrix (unimportant, not urgent), instead of the stewardship that comes from Quadrant 2 (important,not urgent). And employees were ignored while these managers "played," bringing in megaphones and making silly videos. If you want to find out about how to create good customer service, try "Customers for Life," "Raving Fans," or "Hug Your Customers." If you want to motivate your workforce, "The Streetwise Guide to Motivating and Rewarding Your Employees," or a reprint of the HBR article by Herzberg, "Once Again, How do You Motivate Your Employees?" is an excellent place to start. This book, from my experience, will likely lead to the denial of serious issues, which are actually a blast to tackle in my experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Motivation ?
Review: FISH! is he story of a woman searching for a way to revitalize her workgroup and in the process save her job. The solution she finds comes from the unlikely place of the local fish market. By listening to the stories of one of the market's clerks our heroine is able to take back to her own problem four basic tenets for success. She meets her staff at the corporate "toxic waste dump" and is able to convert them to a person from a group of dispirited losers into the best team in the company. The 112 pages of this book read very quickly and the ideas in the book are quicker still. They are basic and they certainly are sound ideas for motivating people. However, I think that the parable of Mary-Jane and her dysfunctional team was far too simplistic to stand up to real world application and that is a serious detriment to the book. Once the lead is converted she meets with her team who, after one negative comment, begin to embrace the ideas wholeheartedly. Where are the perpetual whiners ? Where are the "We have always done it this way" complaints. How about that perennial favorite "It isn't our fault" ? And best of all - The sullen non-complainers who will agree to anything to get the meeting over with but resist any real change ? I am not trying to be a spoil-sport here but these are serious obstacles to the kinds of change that this book tries to implement. I think that this book is either much too long to explain what the four ideas are (and they are good), or it is much too short to actually serve as any kind of an implementation tool. It is also a poorly written story. Rather than as a parable of one woman's self discovery, I would much rather have seen it as a non-fiction management book with the story of Mary-Jane interjected as an example. As written it is not a good manual nor is it a helpful example.
Rating: 
Summary: Be Present
Review: Fish! is a deceptively thin but surprisingly inspiring book. I found it easy to relate to and engaging because the main characters, Lonnie and Mary Jane, were down-to-earth people in realistic circumstances. There weren't any business buzzwords or corporate strategies to make it feel contrived. While claiming that there are 4 things necessary to change the way we look at our work, I found one major theme prevailed for me: bring 100% involvement to our jobs - no matter what we do. The book talks about "choosing your attitude" and "playing" at work, but it was clear to me that these seem to happen naturally when you don't resist your work and become totally involved in it "being present" as Lonnie describes it. I believe these philosophies go far beyond work and apply to every area of one's life. If we are totally engaged in any activity, especially the one we spend most of our lives doing, learning to be present is easy when you simply do what you have to do. The best book I have ever read on the subject of being present is Working on Yourself Doesn't Work by Ariel and Shya Kane. While Fish! is a fun way to learn how to enjoy even mundane tasks, it only scratches the surface compared to what Working On Yourself Doesn't Work will teach you about truly being present and satisfied in all aspects of your life. Both books are simple, fun reads and can help you discover magic in your life.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING
Review: A fanstatic book with great Ideas! This paired with Maynard Rolston's "Time Management is an Oxymoron" can do so much for a business. "Fish" can help you develop a huge sense of urgency for you and your co-workers, and "Time Management is an Oxymoron" takes hours out of busy work. By Incorporating ideas from both, your business will be at 110% in a very short time.
Rating:
Summary: Pointing The Way To Happier Staff And Happier Clients !!
Review: The title sounds "FISHY" but the contents do deliver concrete information on making everyone's work day more pleasant, while gaining happier customers. There are only 112 fast-reading pages in this new book, but they provide a wealth of knowledge and things to think about. Seattle's Pike Place Fish Market provided the fundamentals for this book which can be used in any work environment and situation- office work as well as front-line work. You'll learn eye-opening fundamentals and common sense approaches to dealing with customers and staff actions and accountability, that produce not only happier customers, but happier staff members as well. Did I find any magic formula in this book to accomplish all of this? Not really. But there's a wealth of stuff to think about. The fundamentals presented are: Choose Your Attitude, Make Their Day, and Be There. The principles taught by this book are currently being used by organizations all over the world with great success being reported. The FISH pilosophy is relevant to nearly every issue facing business today: productivity, teamwork, quality improvement, customer service, creativity and innovation, employee turnover and job satisfaction. What else is there ? Simple lessons are presented, teaching managers how to energize staff and how to result in a completely improved workplace. The information is easy to learn and apply. The principles presented are a win-win for everyone from management, to staff, to customers. Well worth reading !!
Rating:
Summary: What can you learn from a smelly fishmonger!
Review: Can creativity and enthusiasm be learned from a smelly, fishmonger? You bet! One of the most important values I learned from this book is that it's possible to gain wisdom from some of the most unsuspecting places. Never judge a book by its cover... you could be missing out on a lot! One thing that I will never understand about society is how easily we get trapped into ruts in our professional and personal lives. Yet, we do nothing to rectify the situation. Complaining doesn't count, my friends! With thousands of business "How-to" books flooding the market, Fish! is a welcome change as it tackles some very important issues in a fun and easily understood manner. In this engrossing parable, a single mom/corporate manager is given a seemingly impossible task. She is responsible for turning an office that has been described as a toxic-energy dump into an enthusiastic and productive environment. Overcome with fear of losing her job, the book's main character, Mary Jane, loses hope and retreats to her own private world every lunch hour as she walks the downtown Seattle streets. One afternoon she walks to the world-famous Pike Street Fish Market for the first time. Little did she know that when she met a smelly fishmonger named Lonnie, it would be the beginning of a wonderful new life! If you are content to live with whatever life throws your way, this book is not for you. If you feel that you hold within your hands the power to change your destiny, this book is an effective tool that will help you on your path to success. Endorsed by some of the world's most successful businessmen, Fish! is a surprisingly important book you can't afford to miss.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING
Review: A fanstatic book with great Ideas! This paired with Maynard Rolston's "Time Management is an Oxymoron" can do so much for a business. "Fish" can help you develop a huge sense of urgency for you and your co-workers, and "Time Management is an Oxymoron" takes hours out of busy work. By Incorporating ideas from both, your business will be at 110% in a very short time.
Rating:
Summary: Cute and dangerous at the same time
Review: I certainly can't argue about its basic premise. Reminding yourself that you have a choice in how you feel is important. My concern is not with the book's premise. I'm concerned about managers who misuse this book as a panacea for their lack of leadership. It's one thing to work under difficult conditions, but it's another to have thoughtless and weak "leaders" who exacerbate the situation. I've seen it happen where these types of managers have the nerve to hold this type of book up in front of a group of people and imply the problem is the workforce for not choosing to be happy about poor leadership. If you're a manager, think about what this book is actually telling you.
| 
