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Larry Paul, co-author of the business book "Fish: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results" held a "Fish Camp" earlier this month at the Stardust. The three-hour session aimed to teach about 100 local workers the value of workplace fun. Photo by Amy Beth Bennett.

Friday, October 12, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Author angles for workplace fun

Seminar uses fish philosophy to preach importance of happiness in business

Harry Paul has a philosophy: Teach a manager to fish and he'll build a better office.

Paul, co-author of the business book "Fish: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results" was at the Stardust last week to conduct a "fish camp," a three-hour session to teach about 100 local workers the value of workplace fun.

Work is serious, Paul acknowledged, but smiles are sometimes the grease that smooth customer relations and let workaday life glide.

If book sales mean anything, many people like Paul's ideas. "Fish," co-authored by Stephen Lundin and John Christensen, ranked 51st Thursday on Amazon.com's best-seller list and fifth on the September best-seller list complied by Milwaukee-based book supplier 800-CEO-READ.

The "fish philosophy" comes from the business culture created by the fish-tossing fishmongers at Seattle's Pike Place Market. The fun-loving folks who fling the salmon, and other seafood, give the market an infectious energy that has made it famous.

The fish tossing has paid off in other ways, too.

The workers are happier, and happy workers produce more and look for new work less often, Paul said. The market's bottom line improved. What once was a good week of sales for the fish sellers now rates as a bad day.

"It all started because they said to themselves, `What would happen if we acted world-famous,' " Paul said. `They thought maybe by acting world-famous, maybe they'd become world-famous. They were thinking outside the box."

Smiling at work has been hard since Sept. 11. Chris Shearer, who helped arrange the seminar for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Professional Development Center, said the center considered calling it off.

But Paul's school of fish went on.

"September 11 changed things only from the perspective that it felt a little awkward at first saying you could enjoy work and life," said Paul, who's spent 20 years in organizational development. "But then came the realization that we had to get back to some level of normalcy. The only way to defeat the terrorists was to go on with our lives."

Attitude, Paul said, can transform even offices where monotonous work would seem to preclude playfulness.

He showed a video of a Sprint call center in Kansas City, Mo., where fun reigned. Roller-skated couriers cruised through cubicles tossing goodies and mail.

Seminargoers learned as they laughed.

Bristol Ellington, the assistant director of community development for the city of Henderson's Community Development Department, said his table discussed ways to make office waiting rooms more fun.

Visitors could, for instance, get numbered Nerf balls to hold while they waited and throw to receptionists when their appointments came up.

Mona Joseph, business development director for Community One Federal Credit Union in Las Vegas, said the seminar reinforced lessons about the power of the positive.

Every day, she said she applies fish-style strategies to make customers feel cared for and comfortable.

After last month's attacks, Joseph said she keenly understands the need to comfort others.

"If we can tap into a person's wish for happiness, it will make the world a better place," she said. "What happened Sept. 11 made me realize there really are no strangers.

"There are just people who we have the chance to connect with and reflect back the best qualities in ourselves."

Joseph's colleague, Vern Barkdull, an accounting and finance manager for Community One, said the seminar made him think of the impressions work behavior leaves on others, particularly children.

These days, he said, kids see the tireless heroism of New York City firefighters and start dreaming of careers with hooks and ladders. Maybe, he reckoned, a positive attitude could help his office create its own heroes.

"Sometimes the work we do doesn't seem fun, but we can work to make it that way," Barkdull said. "If we do, and kids come and see the workplace is fun, they'll say, `I wish I could be there.' "