The FISH Philosophy and Situational Leadership

Throughout the world today money is the talk of the town. The most prominent industry driving this craze is the business industry. The one essential facet which drives people to achieve wealth in this industry is the fact the industry is based on outcomes. People of the world understand in order to accumulate wealth you have to produce positive outcomes. Today's education industry is slowly moving towards this concept. With the implementation of high stakes testing and outcome based incentives for teachers, it is no wonder why teachers who are committed to education focused on learning instead of outcomes, tend to leave the classroom when confronted with these high expectations and no knowledge of how to accomplish such tasks. So the question left to ponder is: How do teachers setup their classrooms to create a learning-centered environment which concurrently accomplishes the outcomes set forth by local, state, and federal educational agencies? I answer this question by fusing two schools of business thought: The FISH Philosophy and Situational Leadership, and then taking each facet of these two schools of thought and demonstrating how teachers can implement them in the modern day classroom.

The FISH Philosophy

The FISH Philosophy stems from the book entitled FISH by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen. These three authors bring together a management philosophy which helps managers create the type of work place which their employees brag about and the employees' friends envy. It is the key to creating an innovative and accountable work environment where a playful, attentive, and engaging attitude leads to more energy, enthusiasm, productivity, and creativity (Lundin, Paul, & Christensen, 2000). The FISH Philosophy consists of four concepts which when lived by management can spawn a whole new way of thinking about those tasks which we prefer not to complete. The four concepts are:

Choose Your Attitude

Play

Be Present

Make Their Day