It turns out my situation wasn't unique. This is a good thing for lots of reasons and mainly because it's an indication I'm not special. This ex-banker (yep, ex-banker, shared the story of a local collectibles dealer who'd been in business for five years in the same retail space, had become nationally known in the field of sports memoribilia, often had nationally known sports figures in their store for signings and promotions; the whole lot. They closed their doors last year because they couldn't get an expansion loan from their bank. Go figure.
Anyway, on with The Banker's Tale...
The craze a few years ago was the Fish experience. The phenomenon was based on the experiences at a Seattle's Pike Place Fish Market. The owners at the market began to notice that the employees were just going about their jobs. They weren’t happy. As a result the customers were going through the motions of business as well.
The owners began to change things. What they did became known as the “Fish Philosophy” and the ideas caught on in other businesses. The owners of the fish market incorporated certain ideas into their daily work. They made sure that the employees “played” at their jobs, that they had “fun”. This resulted in fish being thrown about in play. The customers laughed so much that they wanted to go behind the counters and join in the fun. They also had a reward system set up. If an employee “caught” another employee “going out of the way” for a customer then that employee was rewarded. Nothing big, just small things. They had 5 Fish Philosophies in all and they all were geared to make the employees happier at work.
(more to follow...)
Links for this post:
- Fish links:
- Reading My Emails
- Thoughts on Building a Business arc
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