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2011
Fish! Paper
By: Gabriel A. Acosta
Gabe Acosta
AT 2101 Practicum
10/27/2011
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The book FISH!(1) is a great read for anyone trying to boost productivity or get more
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from their employees in the workplace. The book goes on to describe the life of one Mary Jane
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Ramirez, who has gone through some major life changes and somehow manages to be
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somewhat optimistic about her whole situation. She has that “can do” attitude and has turned
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a horrible situation into a positive one. When her husband received a job offer for a great
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company and things were looking up for everyone in the family, even herself, things had to
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make a change for the worst and Ramirez loses her husband to a freak accident and is left to
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fend for herself and her two children. She stays at the same job for almost 3 years when she
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takes a promotion to be the manager of operations on the 3rd floor. The 3rd floor members have
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the reputation of being “zombies” and being lethargic in their ways of working with others,
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Ramirez is brought in to “shake” things up. She is somewhat in a different element than what
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she is accustomed to but she is determined to turn things around and produce results. When
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faced with adversity she had the ultimatum of either fixing the problem or possibly losing her
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job. As she is contemplating things in her head she gets a call from her boss who basically tells
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her she needs to get things straight or face the consequences, feeling down and out she then
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goes to lunch to get away from things and clear her mind, but little does she know the answers
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to her problems lie in the words and action of a man named Lonnie. Lonnie see’s a
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downtrodden woman in Ramirez and goes to ask her what is wrong and she goes on to inform
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him of the situation. Lonnie tells her to come back to the fish market for some more in depth
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advice, what follows was the resolution to her big time problem in an unconventional place.
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Lonnie was a fish monger in a world renowned place named “Pike Place fish market” his first bit
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of advice was, “Choose your attitude”, Lonnie goes on to say that when her employees show up
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to work, instead of going with the flow and keeping the 3rd floor a “toxic waste dump” that they
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should be able to change their way of thinking and instead make the 3rd floor a better
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environment and change the norm. The 3rd floor employees could make this change if they just
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thought about what mood they would bring to work. If they were going to be at work then they
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might as well keep the work environment a positive one, Ramirez then goes back to her
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colleagues at work to convey the message. During her meeting the following day most of the
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employees seem to be reserved and stuck in their ways and are somewhat opposed to the
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change, but reluctantly they go along with the idea and eventually embrace it fully and prove it
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to Ramirez by making a poster that consisted of a happy face and a sad face saying “Menu
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choices for the day”. The second piece of advice that Lonnie, or better yet Brad, gives to
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Ramirez is to “Play”. Lonnie invited Mary Jane and her kids to the fish market, while making the
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daily chores of stocking the selves with fish and prices seem so fun. Ramirez sees her son having
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fun and sees that having “fun” in the workplace is seemingly easy to do yet very effective in
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keeping morale high. The 3rd piece of advice is to “make their day”, the main part of this piece
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of advice was to make their customers, and anyone they deal with, feel as if they were an equal
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and being involved in on the fun. The 4th and last piece of the puzzle was to “Be present” the
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men working in the fish market were living in the moment, never daydreaming or thinking
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about the past, but all the men working at the market were fully engaged in their work, keeping
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a high morale among all of them. The idea appealed to Ramirez, because with the last two
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puzzle pieces, she could have her employees fired up about coming to work and actually
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wanting to work. When Ramirez goes back to work, she then calls another meeting, in which
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most of the employees are fired up with the ideas of being productive and being more
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enthusiastic about their respective jobs. During the meeting Ramirez was surprised at the high
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amount of enthusiasm that had come over her employees, over the weekend some of the
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employees had gone to the fish market and talked to one of the other fish mongers, Wolf, who
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had a professional career as a race car driver cut short due to a tragic accident, when faced with
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many hard time decisions Wolf stated he could keep on heading down his current path, or he
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could get up and make the best of his situation. The employees took it to heart and made the
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same type of change and decided that they would change their work ethics and make a change
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for the better. During the meeting the employees broke up into teams of the 4 pieces of advice,
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after some time the 4 teams came together and made a presentation for their boss and took
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some simple information from a fish monger, and converted it into the perfect advice for
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anyone to use. Not only did they save their jobs, but they saved themselves, from themselves.
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In the book Fish!, most of the main plot points are about taking an unmotivated group
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of individuals and turning their loathing into a positive motivation. I find that this aspect is very
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crucial in our occupation. Due to the nature of our discipline it’s only natural that when an
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athlete comes to see us that usually means that they will be back to do rehab on their specific
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body part that they have injured. As athletic trainers, we are required to get our athletes back
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in shape, and prevent them from getting hurt, but in this day and age it is inevitable that they
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will come to see us at least once, and when they do they will probably be feeling down and out
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just like the employees from the 3rd floor. It is our job to keep them motivated and to keep
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them going. In the article MANAGEMENT AND MOTIVATION: AN ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTIVITY IN
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EDUCATION AND THE WORKPLACE(2), it goes on to talk about how motivation can be turned into
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productivity. Now obviously it cannot be literally turned into productivity but we can take this concept
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and turn it in our favor, by taking the motivational aspect and exacerbating it to become our friend, we
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can take any situation and make it a positive one. I mean think about it, if I myself as an athletic trainer,
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am truly motivated to see my athlete’s everyday and to take care of their needs and rehab them, then
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that motivation can be turned into positive results, such as my injured athletes actually wanting to come
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in and do their rehab instead of them dreading coming to see me. I believe if given the right conditions
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and right circumstances then the atmosphere of the ATR will become very positive, possibly even spilling
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over to others to help motivate each other and keep them on the right track.
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The Second article that I stumbled upon was entitled The differential effect of team
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members’ trust on team performance: The mediation role of team cohesion(3), it explains how
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team performance is by various trusting relationships. This relates heavily to our profession due
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to the fact that when we have an injured athlete, our “know how” must come into play to help
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us diagnose the problem. When we perform special tests and all of our evaluations on the
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athlete we have to be able to work as a team so that we can have more opinions on the matter.
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For instance if we have a football player come in and describe pain on the plantar aspect of his
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foot and just one if us does a couple tests and just rules it as overuse or just a sore spot, then
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tells the athlete to just ice and they will be ok, then it would very good to have another team
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member come over and check your findings and compare and contrast both of your findings to
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deduct a probable cause for his pain. In the Fish! Book, I can see that this teamwork and
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cohesion play roles together in the big plan. When all 4 teams that were formed at the end of
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the book finally come together to form 1 big group we finally see this teamwork start to come
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together in the way that Ramirez wanted her teams to do. The teams each had small roles
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when they were all divided, but when they all came together and collaborated they formed a
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relationship with each other that would either drown them or make them float. The article also
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goes on to talk about how the athlete must have a special kind of trust in their coach, but I also
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think that the athlete must have a special trust in their athletic trainer. For example if we have
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an athlete who needs to come in but wont because he or she does not have that trust built up
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for us, then they are more likely continue playing and seriously hurt themselves even worse
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than what they were originally. Also the teamwork aspect goes hand in hand with the
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motivational aspect. If I am not fully motivated to come in and get my athletes better and get
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them rehabbed to get back on the field, then what makes me believe that they would want to
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even step foot in the ATR? So therefore we must always think of Lonnie. “Choose your
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attitude”, we hold more power within our attitude than anyone really cares to believe.
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Overall the book was very insightful on how to keep morale up and how to keep
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motivated even when times seem bleak and dull. It gave me a different way to look at things in
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that the way I approach my job, if I project a bad mood then I should expect a bad return from
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my athletes, but if I come into work projecting a great mood and being highly motivated then I
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can only hope that my athletes with catch that emotion also and be motivated to do their rehab
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and be happy.
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Reference Page
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1. Lundin S, Paul H, Christensen J, Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve
Results, 2007
2. Reiger C, Stang J, MANAGEMENT AND MOTIVATION: AN ANALYSIS OF PRODUCTIVITY IN
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EDUCATION AND THE WORKPLACE., 2000, Vol. 121 Issue 1, p62. Date accessed
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September 27, 2011
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3. Mach M, Dolan S, Tzafrir S, The differential effect of team members' trust on team
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performance: The mediation role of team cohesion., 2010, Vol. 83 Issue 3, Pg. 771-794,
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Date accessed September 27, 2011
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