Prepared by Jim Messina, Ph.D. 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: Choose your attitude Be there Make their day Play Provide Legendary Service Develop Raving Fans

Keeping your efforts alive! 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 underway-gravity pull of the “old” way begins and you can fall off

External vs. Internal Energy to Sustain Change! 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 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! 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 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 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? 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! 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? 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! 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? Evidence that you have taken your responsibility seriously-because 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 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 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 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 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 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=