Inspired by a Yokoyama seminar, employees at a Sprint call center in Lenexa, Kansas turned their office maze of cubicles into an in-line skating obstacle course. It did a lot for call-center morale, according to Sprint employees and managers.
Creating a workplace in which the staff is valued and respected is what it takes to win in the war for talent. Just ask Doug Strauss, who started working at Pike Place when he was 18. After having put in more than 7 years of 12-hour days at the market, today Strauss has a master's degree and four children, and he just started teaching eighth-grade math in September. He still works at the fish market one day a week during the school year and three days a week during the summer. "I'll never leave, because I have a commitment to John," Strauss says. "He's helped me create these opportunities."
And because employees are so invested in Pike Place, Yokoyama says, he doesn't have to worry about business going astray while he's on his consulting adventure. In fact, he visits the market only an hour a day. "Now the employees coach me and tell me how things work," he says. "It's great."
Contact John Yokoyama by email (dyoko@aol.com) or visit the Pike Place Fish market on the Web (www.pikeplacefish.com). For information on the "Fish!" videos, visit the Web (www.fishphilosophy.com).
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