An innovative training programme called Fish is a wonderful, interactive way to learn more about four basic principles that can apply to work or everyday living and make your day shine.

Living by these principles can only enrich and reinforce who you are. Embracing the Fish philosophy can be truly inspirational. To understand more about this training programme, one needs to see how it all began. In 1998, at the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, USA, a group of fish vendors were very bored and unhappy with their job. They did not enjoy selling fish. They were demotivated, the job was gruelling, and they worked 12-hour shifts on a regular basis.

One day, they all decided to change the way they looked at their job. They approached the job by enjoying every day and having fun. They talked to the clients who bought their fish and took time to be present when clients spoke to them.

A man by the name of John Christensen experienced this passion during a visit to Seattle. He watched as they tossed fish, listened to the laughter and watched as customers were included in the fun.

Christensen realised that not only were the workers at the Pike Place Fish Market making a routine errand fun but were also selling a lot of fish. He broke down the fishmongers' approach into four key concepts that eventually became the Fish philosophy. The training programme is about the generation of skills necessary for a job full of inspiration, creativity and innovation. It creates a common language that will help improve your culture through four simple principles - be there, play, make your day and choose your attitude.

If you're wondering why people aren't following you, or why staff aren't performing at the level you expect them to, look at yourself first, then look at them.

The training programme is three-and-a-half hours long. Through interactive exercises participants get to discuss how to bring a sense of play and fun into their work life; how to ensure that they are present and truly listening when speaking with a colleague or a friend; how to take responsibility for their attitude, and how to interact effectively with colleagues.

The Fish methodology shows us ways to develop high energy and high morale at the workplace and it is a great antidote to daily stress. It also helps make companies more attractive to the talented workers that they work to retain as well as recruit.

This type of training is not a replacement for strategy, tactics, education, hard work or daily routine. It is the developing of a new behaviour which is highly contagious and just makes things brighter all round. It creates a common ground for understanding and gets people heading in the same direction.

After training, people are highly motivated and excited. They go away wanting to implement the four principles into their workplace. Of course, every organisation and every person is different and therefore each one looks for and finds different ways of implementing the principles into their daily routine.

As for the Pike Place Fish Market employees, embracing the principles of the Fish programme is a choice and this initiative made a huge difference to their lives. It is a long-term commitment to a new way of life.

Ms Scerri is HR and training consultant with Serendipity Learning Solutions.

Companies interested in running this training programme should call 9942 7918 or e-mail sscerri@serendipitylearningsolutions.com.