Sociology

1. What are the four Essential Creative Principles, and how does each one contribute to the success of the Pike Place Fish Market

There is a set of four principles that are known as the Essential Creative Principles that contribute to the success of the Pike Place Fish Market. At Pike Place Fish Market, every employee is recognized as an individual and all his contributions are valued. Out of the four principles, the first one is called the Power of Personal Responsibility and according to this principle, it is believed that every employee has his own role in making the business a success. It is the commitment of the employees towards work that makes the enterprise successful and with this principle the employees can make their own choices. Another belief is that every employee is creative and they should be appreciated. For a person to play in a team, it is essential to use his creativity skills as this makes him extraordinary from the others. Teamwork is the key for a job to be done and at Pike Place Fish Market this principle is known as the Power of Co-Creation. Every person involved in the business takes his own responsibility and they have a common goal to achieve instead of just doing their job.

In the team, there are coaches and there is a score board that serves as the sales record of every employee. When the new employees are hired, they are asked whether they will be able to play in the team and only those who manage to stay committed in a three month trial period is whom the team decides to make them a team mate. A team is made of individuals who work by coordinating with each other to achieve the goals. According to the third principle i.e. Principle of Creating, it is stated that everyone must be involved foreseeing the future of the company and this means that only when the employees will be involved with the future of the business, only then will they remain committed towards the business. Mostly, people create future on the basis of the past but at Pike Place Fish Market, the employees create future from the future, however they do not always get the results that they expect and this is known as the Principle of Discontinuous Outcomes.

2. How has John Yokohamas approach to management evolved since the early days of the Fish Market

In the early days, John Yokohama opted for a different approach than the way he is doing his business today. It was in the late 1980s when Pike Place Fish Market decided to become world famous and for this, theses words were added to the logo immediately after which they noticed change. According to this decision, the employees had to be different and committed because it is only when the business gains success when the employees are committed and this makes the business grow. A different thing about Pike Place Fish Market was that instead of a person taking the fish to the counter to be weighed and to be packed, he used to throw the fish to the counter and the person at the counter caught it within 30secs so this speeded up the entire process and people from far away used to come to the market only to see the guy who throws. When John bought the store, he was only 25 years old and at this time, he tried his best to manage the business but he was not as successful as he is today. Twenty years back when he used to run the store, he was a tyrant and his employees did not like him at all. He had a staff of six employees but they were unhappy with their job. Although John wanted to build the business and he was trying hard but he did not know how to do it and this business was facing financial problems. At this time, John met Bergquist who convinced him to empower his employees and to coach them, listen to their ideas and bring fundamental changes in managing the business.

3. How does Pike Place use coaching to train employees
 Coaching plays a major role in keeping the team strong and at Pike Place everyone has a coach and is a coach. Based on the strengths every employee has, he contributes to the success of the business and a strong management team ensures that the business excels. The managers also have special skills that they use in managing the business. The general manager of Pike Place is Dickey, Johns brother and he looks after the paperwork and some general things while Sammy Samson does the fish cutting part very well, Justin Hall is excellent in maintaining relationship with the customers and workers and Keith Bear knows every single thing about fish. The staff at Pike Place has their own goals and meetings are held on a daily basis as well as biweekly. There are no formal employee evaluations at Pike Place but the managers provide continuous feedback to the employees for further improvement. Everyday a brief meeting called a huddle is held and in this meeting, the employees discuss about the fish that needs to be sold, the fish that needs to be ordered and other matters related to the business such as the sales goals. The sales persons set their own personal goals and this makes them make a difference. Moreover, the management makes sure that they listen to the team and come up with solutions for all the problems that may arise. A meeting is also held at the end of the day in which the things that went well and those that did not go well and discussed and the way improvements can be made in future are suggested. Thus, Pike Place uses coaching to train the employees in a way that it makes them motivated to achieve the goals they have set and encourages the employees to come up with suggestions for improvement. (Northhouse, 2006).

4. What are creation meetings and what makes them unique
At Pike Place, a creation meeting is held in every two weeks and in this meeting the whole staff gather together for dinner and discussions related to their personal goals and the future of the company are held. The words World Famous that are written on their logo were suggested by an employee in a creation meeting. At Pike Place, it is all about personal growth and development and people are responsible for their own development. In the meetings, the employee talk about what they want to master in and the way they will master in that task either by asking for a coach or some other person who will make them successful. Even when an employee masters his goal, there are many other things that he can master and this makes everyone learn everything. Although it takes some years for an employee to get fully trained, the will power of the person plays an important role in his success. Pike Place is not just about making money but they do business as if they are playing a game and their goal is to sell the fish and to make a difference. (Pike Place Fish Market, n.d.).5. Would you like to work at the Pike Place Fish Market Why or why not

I would love to work at Pike Place Fish Market and this is because of various reasons that are sure to pull me towards this company and to work for it. Firstly, the four principles that Pike Place follows are sure to attract not just me but every individual. The management at Pike Place strongly believes in creativity and they empower the employees. Empowering the employees for me is something really important because it would give me the freedom to work in my own way, to set my own personal goals and to define my own ways to achieve those goals and this would make it easier for me to work. (Leat, 2001). Empowerment not just increases the level of motivation of an individual to work but it makes a person more committed not just towards his personal goals but towards the organization as well. This is because when one knows that the management places trust on an individual, he is inclined to put his best efforts towards work. Nobody feels good when he knows that he is being watched and one works in a better way when he or she is assigned a task and is given freedom to do it their way. This not just gives way to efficiency but it also makes the company successful and this is the primary reason why Pike Place has become very famous today.