Business mentor: Learn to avoid taking yourself too seriously

Q: Our business has been growing and with staff retention so important now, can you offer any insights into what we should be doing to develop the culture of the business?

* Film-maker and author Stephen Lundin, who helped to create the award-winning film FISH! and wrote the best-selling book FISH! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results, replies:

A: I used to ask myself the question that faces nearly all organisations today: "How can you keep employees excited to serve their customers and each other, committed to a vision larger than themselves and fulfilled enough to stay with the company?"

Then, one day my colleague and fellow film-maker John Christensen and I spent a day sightseeing in Seattle, where we came across the Pike Place fishmarket.

Two films and a book later, we realise how deeply employees long for a workplace where fun, energy and productivity drive out stress, boredom and burnout.

These are the guiding principles of the FISH! philosophy.

Our prescription for a life that balances joy, productivity and passion was created by observing a group of fishmongers committed not only to selling fish, but to making a difference in people's lives.

* Play: The fishmongers of Pike Place Fish are world-famous for throwing and catching fish, to the delight of their customers.

You and I might do serious work but we can choose not to take ourselves too seriously. The now-famous quote from Southwest Airlines is an example of a lighthearted approach: There may be 50 ways to leave your lover but there are only four ways out of this plane.

In the liveable workplace, you find people doing serious work in a lighthearted way. At Sprint Global Connection Services, agents take hundreds of calls a day. Director Lori Lockhart said: "In a high-volume operation where customer agents take call after call, work can be fast-paced and demanding.

"When you're coming off a bad call, it can stay with you. But when you can look up and see someone doing something silly, it helps you change your attitude so you're prepared to give your full attention to the next person who needs your help."

* Make Their Day: On entering the fishmarket you might think you are just being entertained, but if you stick around you will be engaged. The fishmongers are dedicated to making your visit memorable and they do that by finding ways to make the customer's day.

You may find yourself catching a flying fish or involved in a harmless practical joke but, given enough time, they will find a way to lighten your heart.

Our workdays are full of opportunities to make the day of our customers and of one another. When you make someone's day, you are focused on serving others, and the act of serving others quickly returns a feeling of satisfaction.

* Be There: The antidote to burnout is not necessarily rest. The antidote to burnout is wholeheartedness. It is those half-hearted things you do while juggling other things that wear you out.

* Choose Your Attitude: We should use the phone to remind us of our choices.

When it rings, do an attitude check and ask yourself what attitude you want to convey on the phone when you answer it. If you need a different one, change it.

* Commit: To what are you committed? The men and women of Pike Place Fish express their commitment to one another.

The satisfaction of taking part in something larger than one's self starts with the scary but rewarding act of being committed.

* Stephen Lundin speaks to organisations round the world about the FISH! philosophy. He has been a professor and dean of business, teaching MBA students since 1982.

Lundin will conduct a series of full-day seminars called FISH! Extravaganza, put on by the Knowledge Gym, in Christchurch on April 26, Auckland on April 27 and Wellington on April 28.