Play: FISH Philosophy Friday
January 9, 2009 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Fish Philosophy
One of the most important parts of the FISH! Philosophy is play. There are lots of ways you can PLAY at work without spending much money, and without hurting anything at your job (or anyone’s feelings).
At my company, we PLAY once a month, often on a Friday afternoon, sometimes on a random weekday morning, for about 20 minutes. Winners can win anything from an afternoon off work (with manager approval of course) to nothing but the satisfaction of a job well done.
Some folks think IT folks are boring and stuffy; nothing could be further from the truth for the geeks I work with. Most of the folks I work with LOVE to PLAY, though oddly, some of the most fun folks hate to play. Exactly why we would NEVER make anyone who didn’t want to PLAY with us.
Frequently Asked Questions about FISH! Play
Who “plays FISH!”
Anyone who wants to play can.
It’s never mandatory.
And as long as you don’t do the same thing every time, different people can play every time.
What do you call FISH! Play?
We call our PLAY FISH! Office Olympics. You can call it whatever you want to.
When do you PLAY Office Olympics?
Just once a month, and it only takes about 20 minutes.
Why do you PLAY?
It builds teamwork
It relieves stress
It’s fun
How do we PLAY, and what does it cost?
First, it costs us nothing to PLAY Office Olympics. No cost, big benefit.
Second, the HOW is the best part! The only limitation is your imagination. You can do something simple, like have team paper airplane races, where the furthest distance wins.
You can do a telephone spelling out of different people’s names in the office.
You can do a word search, movie trivia, or office golf.
What’s the key to a great Office Olympics?
Have fun!
Don’t have too much structure.
Don’t do the same game too many times in a row.
Be open to suggestions from anyone.
Have fun!
A few additional resources
- 10 great paper airplanes you can make yourself.
- Find out what your phone number spells
- Office Olympics videos
Paper airplane world record holders photo by gocarts
What are your recommendations for fun Office Olympics games?
I so wanna bring in a big red ball. Somebody has to be up for a game of dodge ball or kickball.
Then again, your paper airplane races sounds logistically simpler, and safer.
Energy makes the workplace great.
I toss a peanut over the wall of the next cube and tell “In coming!” And I have a BUCKET full of peanuts (that I share with everyone).
I actually met the fish guys when I was in Victoria, BC. They did a big presentation tossing fish over everyone’s heads. Good fun!
We just did some trivia this week…Country Capitals - it was GREAT fun.
Great idea for livening things up at work. Also a great way to break tension.
It might seem distracting but the one time our whole IS staff took off to do a play event it worked out quite well that day and for weeks after.
Thanks for sharing.
J.D. - Energy does make a workplace great. It’s a very powerful elixir.
CK - We have folks that do this with pennies. Or shoot folks with rubber bands. If it works, go for it!
Data Loss Horror Stories - Thanks for sharing about the fish guys. They are fun. I met them when I went out to Seattle.
Please leave a comment with your real name next time so we can connect with you on a more authentic level.
Jason - Country Capitals does sound like fun. What was the hardest one that nobody got?
Todd - A full day away? VERY cool! What did you guys do and how did you get buy in for that?
Well the guy that emigrated from Germany 20 years ago…got Germany wrong!!! That had us laughing for a long time! Other ones that tripped people up were Costa Rica, Turkey and Hungary.
That’s perfect Jason! That would make us laugh together too. Gotta enjoy a good chuckle now and then, especially if you can laugh together!
Just don’t go out to play paintball … I heard of one company did that to grow team-work. Instead it became a brawl … not exactly what the execs had planned. And the company moral ended up even lower and more hostile! Just be careful what is planned and what possible outcomes would be the result!
I was just searching the internet for materials on the Fish! philosophy for the department I’m supervising. I read the book about a month ago and it’s really inspired me to start making alot of changes both in my life and in the way I do things here, and I figured it was the time to get my team on board. We are a small department consisting of only about 4 people right now. and we work the night shifts from 3pm till 2am so people seem to be down alot. being the small department that is the middle man in our company we tend to get overlooked alot. So I’m trying to come up with ideas to get us in a better state for ourselves and visably to the company. Any and all suggestions and comments would be much help! Thank you… I’ll try to check back in when I have time