Ordinary to Great
It's All over Here
People from all over the world visit World Famous Pike Place Fish to be jazzed up and to see the fishmongers throw fish. People will watch for hours in all weather, frigid or sunny (yes, it does get sunny in Seattle!). The fish market is a dynamic and exciting environment to visit, and while it is easy to see the fun, it is not as easy to see the philosophies behind the fun—the set of beliefs that the fishmongers live by to make it happen.
The intention of Catch! is to show you the workings of an organization that is different than most. The best part is that the fishmongers are ordinary people living extraordinary lives. The fishmongers offer you examples of how to put their beliefs into action in your own life—to unleash your own potential for greatness. There is a path to greatness; however, each person experiences it differently. The catch is that ordinary happens, but greatness is generated.
Many people go through life reacting to circumstances and events rather than creating what happens. The vision of Pike Place Fish is to make a positive difference in people's lives. By sharing their stories and insights, we hope to help you come one step closer to achieving greatness in your life. It is not so much that you follow the fishmongers' process; rather, we want you to see that there is a place making a difference in the world, and that place is the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market.
There is an unspoken pattern within most of the stories— the underlying belief that "It's all over here." At Pike Place Fish, this simple statement refers to the principle that I am responsible for what I experience and how I react to what occurs in my life. The fishmongers' sense of responsibility for themselves and for others within their organization is demonstrated through their actions and language. Their stories reflect an underlying set of guiding questions, including:
What is my intention?
Are my behaviors aligned with my intention?
Does what I am doing reflect my intention?
What is the outcome that I am going to make happen?
The first story, told by Chris, not only reflects the pattern noted above but also depicts how ordinary happens and greatness is generated. Before working at Pike Place Fish, Chris worked at a customer service call center for a well-known phone company. At the time, he was unaware of the choices that could make his work and his life much more fulfilling. He had goals about what he wanted in life but he wasn't doing anything proactive to achieve them. He didn't feel like an integral part of a team at work, and more importantly, he didn't know that there was a possibility that it could be any different.
Before working at Pike Place Fish, I was going through the motions of work, just letting life happen. Things would come up and I'd deal with them. I had a vision of being financially successful but I wasn't doing any of the footwork to make it happen, nor was I really committed to making it happen.
Chris did not think of his job at the call center as a career. He never felt ownership of what occurred at work. He worked on the phone with a caller, fixed the caller's problem, and away they went. In his mind, anyone could replace him at his computer, doing his duties.
Since I've been working at Pike Place Fish, I've dedicated myself to the visions of "world famous" and making a difference in the world. I re-dedicate myself every day. Things still come up, but I've learned that I can choose to do a world famous job or just do it half-ass. I now know it's my choice. It feels like if I am not here, my contribution isn't either. While I could have had the same experience at the call center, I just didn't know at the time that it was a possibility.
If I went back to the call center now, work would be a world of difference. Every customer would feel they just experienced the best customer service they'd ever had and would feel I took care of them effectively. They would know I genuinely cared about how they felt about my service. And I wouldn't just keep it to myself. I'd show other people on my team how to create relationships and treat people like people, rather than somebody at the other end of the phone.
My customer service ratings at the call center were high, and I felt like I did a good job. But knowing what I know now, I wouldn't just do a good job—I'd be doing a world-class job and getting everyone around me to be doing it, too.
Chris
From Human Doers to Human Beings
While selling fish is the primary focus of Pike Place Fish, it is only part of the equation. One guiding principle that makes Pike Place Fish so unique is the fishmongers' awareness of doing and being. It is ironic that we call ourselves human beings, because we tend to be far more concerned with what we are doing. As human doers go, we can do some pretty amazing things; however, the fishmongers realize that awareness of who they are being is just as important, if not more important, than an awareness of what they are doing.
Being is not exactly a new concept, but there seems to be a shift in thinking taking place; people are increasingly concerned with the quality of their life experience. It is important to realize that your experience and your achievements are the result of what you do, of your actions and behaviors. What you do results from your being, your essence, or what makes you uniquely you. The process is depicted in the following diagram:
Being → Doing → Having
Being includes your core beliefs or underlying assumptions. Your essence and underlying assumptions drive what you do. Doing refers to the act of performing your actions and your observable behaviors. Ultimately, who you are being and what you are doing leads to outcomes. Having reflects a natural occurrence, a result or consequence of one's attitudes, understanding, and behaviors.
So, what does this mean to the fishmongers?
The fishmongers have fun at Pike Place Fish, but the fun is not simply a result of throwing fish. They have fun at work because each fishmonger takes personal responsibility for the fulfillment of the Pike Place Fish vision of "world famous" and for making a positive difference in people's lives.
In the following story, Dicky recollects Pike Place Fish's process of transformation. Dicky has worked with many different fishmongers over twenty years, and he believes that the current crew's greatness is a result of an awareness of who they are being. He believes the first step to understanding being is to recognize one's intention.
There was a lot more to our transformation to greatness than what we were doing. We used to be like most fish markets, but then we started having meetings in the back room. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time. We'd have beer, sit there for hours, and create financial goals for the month—after working all day. It was a start.
Pike Place Fish has always been good to customers, and quality has always been very important. There was a time when they made one thousand dollars a day and thought it was big bucks. Dicky really started noticing the changes at the fish market after they began having their meetings. Once their consultant joined them, the meetings became a powerful force for transformation to occur. Now Pike Place Fish makes twenty times that in a day, with fewer employees.
We started with discussing ideas of intention, commitment, and integrity, and new possibilities came into the picture. Recognizing our intention changed who we were being as individuals and who we were as a group. It was all here, and with my brother Johnny's lead, everything started to transform. We started having meetings every other week, and the whole company started to transform.
Dicky
The crew of Pike Place Fish believes transformation from ordinary to great comes from being great in all that you do. It involves knowing your intention and exploring the beliefs by which you live. It might be easy to perform one act of greatness (similar to an act of kindness), but it is another story to be great in all that you do. To truly be great is a way of life—it becomes you.
At Pike Place Fish, the fishmongers are aware of and take responsibility for who they are being and what they are doing, which is demonstrated in their thinking, their language, and their actions with one another and with customers. The fishmongers believe that the mental aspects of their work are as critical to their success as the physical aspects of their work because the mental aspects help them to maximize every opportunity to be great. Their work involves a lot more than throwing fish!
The following story, told by Darren, reveals some of the mental aspects of being great. He believes part of being great is being aware of his intention as well as of what he says and does. He also believes that this has carried over to his personal life. Since he has been working at World Famous Pike Place Fish, Darren has found a much greater awareness of his thoughts, words, emotions, and intentions, which has truly changed the way he relates with people.
When I started working at Pike Place Fish, I expected a normal fish market. I expected to be cutting up fish and all of the physical mechanics of the job. What I found was there is much more behind the scenes that people are not aware of. Pike Place Fish is a way of life. Being great affects everything from the quality of our product and the operations of our fish market to the way I am with customers and my coworkers.
As a result of his awareness of being and doing, Darren cannot ignore how his words affect others. It is a constant process because the fishmongers talk to people all day. His awareness of his thoughts and how he interacts with other people has made Darren see that he is part of a bigger vision at Pike Place Fish. He is a contributing member of a great team, and his contribution changes every day.
Another thing I've learned about greatness is how to have integrity in my life. We talk about it at our meetings, and it made me really think about the word integrity and what it means to me. Integrity means different things to different people, but to me it means keeping my word and being honest. Being aware and having integrity mean being a powerful, positive, great human being.
Darren
There is a choice involved in committing to the fishmongers' set of beliefs. The commitment to Pike Place Fish is viewed as an invitation. When a new fishmonger is hired, inviting them to learn the mental as well as physical aspects is a much more powerful approach than imposing, or forcing them to commit to, something they may not believe. At Pike Place Fish, each fishmonger is committed to being world famous, each is committed to assisting their fellow crewmembers to be the greatest they can be, and each is committed to making a positive difference in people's lives.
Each fishmonger came to Pike Place Fish to meet people, to enjoy a great work environment and, of course, to throw fish. No one knew, until work started, that they would get a whole lot more than they bargained for. The following story from Sammy offers a peek at life in the midst of transformation. As one of the managers, he believes that in order for greatness to occur, everyone has to be in it together. Even when Sammy himself began to transform, he did not notice he was changing, but he certainly noticed the change in everyone around him.
As Pike Place Fish transformed, I didn't even notice things changing. I just noticed everyone around me changing. That's what personal and organizational transformation looks like.
One thing that makes our crew great is the mental part of our work. I tell them that the mechanical operations are easy—an eight-year-old could learn it pretty quickly. The mental part is a little more difficult. When a new hire has got the mental part understood, they come out of their shell. Eventually, they all do, but the secret is finding a way as their manager or coach to get them out of their shell faster, and in such a way as to not drive him into himself, drive him away, or make him defensive. That's my ongoing challenge here. When I'm at ease and don't have to worry, it is because the crew is really on.
My role is to coach them to be managers. They do the mechanical and the mental work on their own. If any of them sees something wrong, he or she isn't going to stand there or turn away without saying something. Because they feel like they each own this place, they act accordingly. Regardless of what the problem is, each will correct what they encounter, either physically in the shop or mentally within themselves and with each other.
Sammy
Path to Greatness
You may be wondering how one goes about starting the process of transforming from ordinary to great. The power of the fishmongers' transformation comes from their ability to recognize their intentions, and from the underlying realization that they create every choice in their lives. Remember the crew's adage: It's all over here. Their reactions, their thoughts, and the outcomes they experience are theirs to own. They are all of it—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Darren's story demonstrates his transformation at Pike Place Fish. His experiences have given him tools to make choices in his life that he previously did not know he could make. The principles of Pike Place Fish have taught him how to deal more effectively with everyday issues and challenges. His biggest realization is that he has a choice in every matter.
Doing things differently can be a form of transformation, but what we are about at Pike Place Fish is a transformation of being. I can choose who I want to be in my life at any moment. I can choose to be happy or angry, fearful or loving.
Before Darren figured out that he always has a choice in the matter, it seemed that negative things would come up out of the blue, and he would get upset. He needed tools to deal with these unexpected events, and one tool that he got from Pike Place Fish was the ability to look at his initial reaction when something happened. He would ask himself, "What happened, and how am I going to choose to react?" He learned that he has a choice: to be upset about something or to choose to create a possibility out of what had happened.
One of the great things about Pike Place Fish is that we have an agreement to help each other when any of us is having a problem with something or is upset about something. Having them listen to me, or whatever is bothering me, helps me get back on track quickly. After I talk about what upset me, I can move forward. If I pretend that I'm not upset, it just takes that much longer. Knowing I have a choice in how I react to things has made all the difference in the world.
Darren
When you are able to see you have a choice in how you live your life, you will find the ability to change your experience at any given moment. The fishmongers actually choose how they will experience a situation or an event; in effect, they choose how they want to experience their reality. Though it is true that our perceptions determine our reality, one might define reality as "who we are being in relation to what we see, what we do, how we think, and how we feel." No two human beings experience the same reality, nor do they relate in the same way to what they see or do.
What you experience in your life is a result of what you call forth from the choices that you make. The fishmongers have found that they can add value to their life experiences through their thoughts and language. Language is a formal system to qualify and quantify our experiences. The fishmongers use language to invent or change their reality. You, also, can choose to invent or to reinvent yourself, your reality, and your life experience at any given moment.
Doug's story is a great example of how he chooses the meaning of his work. Doug's work could be described in a number of different ways, and each description would call forth a different experience for him, but he chooses to call it fun!
For me, it's easy to be upset about having to get up in the morning. I have to be at the Market at 6:30, chopping ice with cut-up hands from the day before—6:30 in the morning in Seattle, Washington! Not too many jobs begin then, and I end the day at 6:30 at night. I bust my buns the whole time. And have fun? Yep. There are people that make at least twice as much as I do, not doing as much physical and mental work as I do, and they choose to not have fun. People come down to the Market, sharing their problems at home and at work. They don't see that they have a choice to make it what it is.
If people could see the choices I make and what I do at the fish market day after day— there is no way that people couldn't experience the same transformation to greatness at a barber shop, a corporate office, an accounting office, a bank, or a grocery store. It's not about throwing fish—we all know that. It's what you choose to have happen. Aside from the fun, I have an underlying commitment, something to hold on to, because when the fun and the throwing is gone, and when the hype is gone, then what? When it is freezing at 6:30 in the morning, there's my choice and my commitment.
Doug
World Famous Pike Place Fish creates and chooses experiences collectively. For example, the notion of "world famous" was created out of not being known by the world. At one particular meeting, Jim was coaching the fishmongers on creating a more inspiring future. One of the fishmongers decided that a more inspiring future could include becoming world famous. So, though they were unknown by the world at that time, they added "World Famous" to their logo and on the shipping boxes. Because they chose to be world famous, opportunities for recognition and fame started to present themselves.
Each fishmonger's personal transformation grew out of a willingness to be open to something new and different from what he or she currently knew, and this willingness resulted in something quite amazing: The universe listened. Things started happening, and it appeared as if Pike Place Fish realized opportunities—appearing seemingly out of nowhere—that otherwise may have not shown up.
The next story, told by Bear, demonstrates the meaning of this openness to the new and different. Bear's willingness means finding ideas that fit into his life, and being okay with coaching or being coached by other fishmongers in a way that leaves everyone feeling powerful.
I used to drive the truck, and there are lessons that all of the people that drive the truck to pick up fish need to learn but hesitate to, because it means that they have to come out of their shell and create a relationship with someone. If I create relationships at all of the places I go, I will get great service. If I order something from a salesperson without creating a relationship, I am going to get what everybody else gets. The relationship causes people to go that little extra step to make sure I get what I really want. They start looking out for me.
When Johnny offered Bear a job at Pike Place Fish, Bear recognized that his job included the idea that no matter what he was doing, he needed to build the same type of relationship with others that Johnny built with him. The difference between Pike Place Fish and ordinary organizations is that Bear (like the other fishmongers) chooses to take ownership and responsibility for what he is doing, rather than just doing what he is supposed to do. Instead of getting a piece of paper and filling an order on it, Bear treats the paper as if someone is standing in front of him.
The beauty is that there isn't a list of things you have to do to be like Pike Place Fish, which can be frustrating for people looking for a quick fix or recipe. It is an individual commitment, and if everyone is committed to moving the same direction, your team can do anything. That is one of the reasons that we have our meetings every other week. The meetings give us an opportunity to share our individual commitments. It's extraordinary that an employer would allow me the opportunity to participate in the business as more than just an employee.
Bear
The path to greatness is a journey. It involves many different insights and underlying beliefs. It involves a willingness to be open to something new and different, and to be responsible for one's own thoughts, words, and actions. It also involves having a purposeful intention. The last story in this chapter is told by Chris. It is powerful because it brings to light how simple these concepts are, yet how profound the collective effect can be.
"World peace is an idea whose time has come" is a powerful statement. I remember hearing Johnny say that a couple of days after I started working at Pike Place Fish. At the time, I thought, "What the hell is this guy talking about? I am here to drive a truck, throw some fish, and play. Is he out of his mind?" It took a while, but I realize it is the most sane thing I've heard.
At Pike Place Fish, I've learned that I have more power than I ever realized. Before working here I wasn't necessarily a victim, but I tended to react to what was happening in my life rather than being proactive and living the life I wanted. I know obstacles will still show up. But now I can choose what I need to do to always be in line with my intention.
At the Market, I notice people have a tendency to take themselves too seriously. Even reading this story, people may miss things if they analyze every detail, wondering what to do next. When it comes down to it, it's pretty simple: Recognize who it is that you want to be and just be that. Each person has to choose for him or herself. It's really that simple.
As a result of working at Pike Place Fish, Chris has learned to live his life more powerfully. He has realized that everything that occurs in his life relates directly to his intention. While he used to live his life as if everything that happened was happening to him, he now realizes whatever happens in his life was created by him—either knowingly or because he wasn't being aware. He has learned that when he chooses to make someone's day, he gets as much out of it as they do, if not more.
To see someone being negative isn't acceptable to me anymore. If I let them continue on, they are going to spread negativity to everyone they come into contact with. That is not in line with my commitment to a world full of possibilities and positive energy. At my fish market, I give them a reason to smile.
Imagine the possibilities in a world where people got upset, dealt with it, and grew from it. Imagine a world where people knew that they could be perfect just the way they were. Imagine a world where nations saw each other as caring societies, where other cultures were equally valued. I think it is possible, by being aware of the impact that one person has on another human being and choosing to make a positive impact.
Chris
Review of Chapter 2
It's all over here.
The catch is that ordinary happens and greatness is generated.
Being → Doing → Having:
Your core beliefs and underlying assumptions (being) will determine your actions and behaviors (doing), which results in outcomes (having).
Be great in all that you do.
Nothing happens to you. Things happen, and you choose how to respond.
