Flying Fish

As told in the best-selling business parable Fish!, the owner and employees of Seattle's Pike Place Fish Market took the business from small to world famous with just a change in attitude. Now John Yokoyama, a onetime believer in the "my way or the highway" approach to management, is capitalizing on a wave of interest in his new, more enlightened philosophy with When Fish Fly: Lessons for Creating a Vital and Energized Workplace (Hyperion), written with consultant Joseph Michelli.

According to Yokoyama and Michelli, floundering businesses can find the path to excellence by acknowledging that those participating in a corporate culture choose their attitudes and must be responsible for their actions. The ingredients for this vital workplace are a blend of psychology, spiritual philosophy and management training.

In the book, Yokoyama's truths are presented as (what else?) fishing and sailing metaphors: "rowing as one" is about the importance of forming teams, "hush or the fish won't bite" about the art of listening.

While his concepts aren't original and may seem like they came from a California hot tub retreat, Yokoyama's profits say differently. "Pike Place Fish is a strange place," writes Yokoyama. "It is odd to see a corporate culture where feedback is so readily given and so graciously received. Defensiveness and resistance have melted away."

In buying this book, you must know you're purchasing another novel attention-grabber with a marketing hook. But it just might be the key to helping you and your workplace summon the kind of magic that will help you discover your own flying fish, and reel in success.

-Lois Bolin