We must never underestimate the ability of zany management consultants to come up with improbable themes for employee training.
The St James' Settlement Corporate Training Centre is offering a $350 seminar entitled 'Towards a fish market work culture', with breakfast, on Monday. It will teach, among other things, 'the relationship between a fish market philosophy and management style' and why you should adopt the philosophy in your workplace.
I must confess it had never dawned on me that my neighbourhood fish-sellers were management gurus Peter Drucker and Stephen Covey in disguise. Perhaps the calm and efficient manner with which they go about gutting live fish offers some lessons in office politics.
It turns out the Cantonese-speaking seminar is based on Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results, a bestseller on motivational training. It's about how the working habits of a bunch of fishmongers in Seattle's Pike Place Fish Market has management lessons for everyone from top bosses to lowly wage slaves.
What's that smell in your office?