Keeping Your Cultural Changes
Alive and Well: Did your FISH
Stick to the Can Do Attitude?
Prepared by Jim Messina, Ph.D.
What is your Vision for Cultural
Change in your Organization?
Does Having A Can DO Attitude mean for you:
1.
Choose your attitude
2.
Be there
3.
Make their day
4.
Play
5.
Provide Legendary Service
6.
Develop Raving Fans
Keeping your efforts alive!
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The challenge in changing your organizational
culture to increase your productivity and
profitability is to move from External
Energy to Internal Energy
Reality is that novelty brings excitement but
once a “new” way of working is underwaygravity pull of the “old” way begins and you
can fall off
External vs. Internal Energy
to Sustain Change!
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Initially “novelty” is an adequate source
of energy but it is external
But over time a deeper more sustainable
source of energy must be found which
must be internal to the people and the
organization!
What does it take to sustain your vision
for your organization’s cultural change?
Vision Moments
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A vision comes alive by identifying and bringing to life
possibilities that are always present but never acted
upon until now!
These become “vision moments” once they take action
Your own vision must be
 Focused
 Specific
 Personal
You find your own vision through conversations by
identifying the philosophy and your place within the
vision
Have conversation about the
Vision with your staff!
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What are we creating here with our precious
life energy?
To what are we committed?
What is our personal role inside the vision?
What is at stake for us?
What does success look like?
How will we support each other in keeping from
backsliding
Ask deep questions about work that get people
to pause and think about what they do and the
way they do it!
You must have real and
fierce conversations
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Real: they must be authentic and not
just pretense or posturing
Fierce: the amount of time you spend
at work makes these conversations vital
to a satisfying life for you and your staff
and coworkers
COMMIT to IT
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You must FIND IT! By personalizing the Vision!
You must personalize the vision for the renewed
culture in your organization or it just remains
external to you and it is not internalized
By personalizing the vision as your own, you
have given the vision sustaining energy which
will ground you as you have conversations with
your workers about the vision
You must commit to the vision as if it is your
own vision
What is FINDING IT?
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Finding it is having conversations with your
team as to what it takes to personally commit
to the vision and how to personalize it for
themselves
It requires weekly face to face meetings in
which these vision conversations are
conducted
These conversations help you and your team
discover and rediscover the unique vision
which your organization is pursuing for itself
BE IT!
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LIVE IT! Grab Opportunities to BE IT!
Once you are clear about the vision for your
organizational culture, opportunities to live it will
become more obvious
These opportunities to live the vision are called:
vision moments
Vision-sustaining energy builds as you live as
many vision moments as you can!
You must LIVE THE VISION in your life in the
organization and don’t wait for others to make it
happen! BE THE VISION FOR OTHERS!
What is BE IT?
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Living it is spontaneous creativity fueled by a
strong commitment to the vision
In committing to something big, you see
opportunities you might have otherwise missed
You become open to opportunities to live the
vision whenever and wherever you can and
recreate it every day by the way you live at
work
It is you “being” the vision when you do the
work of your organization which makes the
vision live!
COACH IT!
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Coaching is feedback you give to each other on
your team
By “calling each other” on when you or your
coworkers are not being true to your vision,
keeps your vision alive!
You coach to keep the vision alive and not to go
on some “power trip” which is ego satisfying
You coach about
 How you do your work
 The way the team works together
 What is in the best interest of the customers
and team
What is Coaching?
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Evidence that you have taken your responsibility seriouslybecause it is hard to coach
It is done by those who are deeply committed to making
your organization great-not just good!
You demonstrate your commitment to the vision by
coaching
You also demonstrate your commitment to the vision by
allowing others to coach you
It is the glue that holds your team together
It is the fuel for little corrections that keeps the light of
the vision burning bright
It can be the stimulus for little innovations that reinvent
you and your organization
You must become the
PATHFINDER for your Vision
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Your organization’s vision is unique to your organization so
you cannot borrow steps that other organizations have
taken to make them work for you
You must “STEP OUT” and find your own path to make
your vision become real!
You must chose methodology that you and your team feel
comfortable with as being uniquely your own
It takes courage to take the risk to create your own vision
path
It takes courage to go down a path filled with uncertainty
and unknowns
Challenge each other to
Acquire the Can Do Attitude
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Challenge your organizational staff members to
begin to have regular conversations on such
topics as:
When in your workday do you know you are
living the vision?
What is the experience we are trying to create
for one another and our customers?
How do you personalize this vision?
How can we support each other in keeping our
new vision and way of working alive and well?
Taking Action is Living the
Commitment to Your Vision
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To keep the vision alive each member of the
team must commit to living the vision every day
on the job
Each member must be it by personalizing the
vision as his or her own vision when at work
Members much coach one another in the vision
and how to live the vision
You must COMMIT-BE IT-COACH IT
References
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5.
FISH! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results (2000) by
Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D., Harry Paul and John Christensen. Hyperion Books,
New York
FISH! Tales Bite-sized Stories. Unlimited possibilities (2002) by Stephen C.
Lundin, Ph.D., Harry Paul and John Christensen. Hyperion Books, New York
FISH! Sticks Make Change Stick (2003) by Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D., Harry
Paul and John Christensen. Hyperion Books, New York
FISH for Life (2004) by Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D., John Christensen and
Harry Paul, Hyperion Books, New York
When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating Vital and Energized Workplace from the
World Famous Pike Place Fish Market (2004) by John Yokoyama and Joseph
Michelli, Hyperion Books, New York
6.
Catch! A Fishmonger’s Guide to Greatness: Stop Floundering and Become
More Effective in Your Life and Work (2004) by Cyndi Crother and the Crew
of World Famous Pike Place Fish, Berrett-Koehler Publisher, San Francisco,
CA
Where can you get the Fish books? http://www.fishphilosophy.com
Graphics come from http://www.charthouse.com/ecards.asp?whoenter=