KEY POINTS:
If you're not thoroughly enjoying your time at work or your customers don't rave about their experience with you, maybe you need to spend time at a certain Seattle fish market.
The world famous Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, Washington has such a vibe and energy to it that it inspired a University of Maryland MBA professor to write a book about the venue.
Dr Stephen Lundin visited Auckland recently and shared the secrets of how this fish market does 15 times the business of its competitors with the same retail space and the same fish.
"They create an experience that's unlike anything that a lot of people have ever encountered and it really is remarkable that 1200 square feet of retail space draws an international crowd," says Lundin. "But they've earned that reputation over the past 15-20 years."
Lundin is also a documentary film maker and the author of The Fish Philosophy.
"It's our terminology for what happens naturally at the market that isn't called anything. It's just the way they are. They're making people smile."
The workers at the fish market have so much fun at their jobs that it's contagious.
But creating a fun working environment isn't something you can easily wrap up in newspaper and take home with you. The fishmongers are not scripted and there aren't a lot of unnecessary rules in the workplace.
"The only thing they really rely on is that these guys pay attention to how they do what they do each day. They try to engage people."
Customers appreciate the genuine happiness that's exuded in this environment where it's not uncommon to spot a fish flying through the air.
"We've since come to think of them as street performers, although they don't think of themselves as street performers. But they're very interactive and do wild and kind of woolly things. They learn how to engage people in appropriate ways. They draw quite a crowd and the word has spread."
As a businesses professor, Lundin saw applications for this type of environment to be useful in other industries. But the importance of enjoying yourself at work was brought home when his daughter was killed by a drunk driver five years ago.
"My focus is to help people see that the life they spend at work is also life. It's just as precious as the life they spend outside of work. It's all precious. If your work isn't serving your human creative spirit, it's too big a price to pay."
Lundin advises organisations on how to make their workplaces more human. He says there is a great demand for his services in workplaces that are under the greatest stress, such as call centres or healthcare institutions.
"I think of a call centre that had some silly work rules about what you could do while you were in your booth. Then they created a space where people could work on their scrapbooks or do artistic work. It changed the whole atmosphere of the place."
Lundin says that it is important to allow people sufficient freedom at work so they don't feel dehumanised.
"We're so caught up in our desire to control everything that we forget that freedom is the strongest value in the world."
A business environment can be a very sterile place and Lundin says some old-school managers are reluctant to change.
"It's so simple that most people don't get it. Most of what I do is to try and help people to turn their head 15 degrees and see what's right there in front of their eyes."
Much of our attention at work is spent on what we do and who we are but Lundin says there is more to it.
"Most of my students had never even thought about the fact that the way they carry themselves, the way they show up, the way they fill a space, has just as much to say about the kind of impact they're going to have as the skills that they carry with them."
Lundin is not about debunking strategy or sales processes, but says there is another part of the equation that should be considered, especially where there is a severe skill shortage.
Businesses are trying to create an environment that encourages and nourishes their people and creates a positive impact on their customers.
The Fish Philosophy is based on principles that have been around since the dawn of time.
For instance; serve others, carry a light heart and choose your attitude. But it needs to be invited into an organisation and not simply directed or administered from the top.
"I've got thousands of examples of organisations that tried to shove The Fish Philosophy down people's throats as a strategy and it backfired on them. I'm not pretending that it's some sort of magic cure-all that you just kind of roll it out."
It requires a leader who is not ego driven, has a willingness to give up a certain amount of control and allow people to seek out their own means to make things happen.
"It's not like it's something that you do to somebody else. It's something that you show them and inspire them with."
There should be a natural energy within an organisation for customers to have an authentic experience like that of the fish market.
"Those are things you can't do by telling people, 'Give us 20 per cent more creativity tomorrow or you're out of here.' They don't work that way. It has to be freely given."
But working according to The Fish Philosophy also gives a lot in return, Lundin says.
"People who have a sense of playfulness, who create a natural human environment in the workplace, go home with more energy because they don't have a knot in their stomach. They haven't given up their energy to toxic matters during the day. They've been allowed to live."
A workplace that's not fun to work in can even be even more of a turnoff for the Y generation.
"The folks that are coming along now are just not willing to give up their life in order to put a few more dollars in the bank."
A manager solely intent on improving the bottom line can do some serious damage to the workforce.
"When you get focussed entirely on the strategic part of it and you forget about the fact that these are human beings with a heartbeat, it's real easy to create a toxic workplace."
If you have to ask what the financial returns are of creating a better workplace, you've probably missed the point.
"If you need a reason to make your workplace a more happy and healthy for your people other than just making it healthier for your people then you shouldn't be in business."
Particularly after his daughter's accident, Lundin believes we should make the most of our time at work and enjoy what we're doing.
"Work is life as well. It counts, he says. "You have to work to create a kind of place that people want to live in. When you take the time to do that, it has a power that's bigger that the dollar per hour."
