Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Fish

We do a lot of group activities like icebreakers, motivators, welcoming lunches, etc. Last week our group watched a video called "Fish!" about the guys that work at a fish stall at the Pike Place Market in Seattle.

The video is about how they have fun at work. They throw the fish around (hard), shout out funny things, get people to do goofy things with the fish, and presumably sell enough fish to stay in business.

I can't remember what the main points of the video were but it was similar to a yoga/meditation/mystical book I have called "Be Here Now." That book is about being all in the present and living life fully and completely. The lessons I remembered were something like

- Have fun!
- Make your day great by believing it will be great!
- Bring the customer into the fun (that one wasn't in the book)!

They really did look like they were having fun. While I watched the video I wondered how much those guys got paid, if anyone starting work at 6 a.m. and being covered with fish guts all day could really be that happy, and how much fish (big whole fish) they actually sold.

At the end of the video the person that suggested we watch it asked the group how we could apply this to our jobs. There was a thoughtful silence-a long thoughtful silence. Luckily our time in the room was over at that point and we could leave without discussing how testing legal software was like selling fish.

Not that we don't all try to have fun at work. It just seemed like it was a long way from the fish market in Seattle to my cube. I guess I could throw things...

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

It occurs to me this comparison (with fish vendors) was weird and not really all that appropriate to your job. I mean, yeah, in a customer service situation it's best not to look grumpy, but you're not customer service. And fish vendors?

5:02 PM  

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