Fish Ears

Kevin Byron is an active member and creative leadership practitioner within the international Creative Skills Training Council.

He has sent us the story below that provides an interesting insight into creative thought, conversations, success and other attributes that can be learnt. Education through the power of words is a very important tool used in executive coaching.

It is interesting that many of our planets most successful leaders are also fantastic storytellers...

Fish Ears

There was once a chef who owned quite a successful fish restaurant in a busy city. He didn't make a fortune from his business, but earned a decent living by making a few popular dishes of the time. He was always asking his customers what they thought about his food. He was somewhat obsessed with fish and had fishy thoughts most of the time. From time to time he would come up with a new fish recipe that attracted those extra few customers that made his livelihood worthwhile, and when word got around his business would enjoy a temporary boost.

But because in the city there are so many choices for diners and so much competition, eventually the numbers attending his restaurant would fall back to the average level again as the diners sought novelty elsewhere. At other times it seemed like the business would fail when the number of people eating out for some unexplained reason would drop to a low level. At these times he used to philosophise about what it was that made a recipe special - "What is the magic formula, the perfect dish that would fill my restaurant ?" he would ask himself at these quieter times and with the spare time available he would experiment until he found his next good idea. But he never seemed to find that one really great recipe that would enable him to change direction completely and seek out his other unfulfilled ambitions in life.

One day he was idly sitting in a nearby café where he took his daily break. He was day-dreaming about fish and about his future and wondering if they were inextricably linked. He was also feeling concerned that he hadn't had a really good fishy idea in months, when his introspection was halted by a conversation on the far side of the café that drifted over to his table. He couldn't hear much but listening, he distinctly heard someone - a rather distinguished looking business-woman saying to the group of younger people that were hanging on her every word - "....the secret to success is the right combination of Thyme and Plaice and..." He had heard all he needed to hear through his fish ears because being an expert in this business this was a big 'Eureka' moment to him. He hurriedly jumped up, paid his bill and rushed out to buy the magic ingredients.

He came back to his restaurant with a big bunch of fresh Thyme and some quality Plaice that had been freshly caught that day and he feverishly began to experiment with a new recipe. He worked for hours creating wonderful sauces with the thyme and testing different ways of cooking the plaice and then pouring the sauces over the fish and tasting them. But nothing seemed to work - nothing that is that made him believe this was the magic recipe that could change his life.

Eventually he looked at all the different sauces and the huge amount of cooked plaice and wondered what on earth he could do with them. It was soon going to be time to open up the restaurant. He certainly couldn't offer one plaice dish because he had cooked all the fish and had a range of sauces but not enough sauce to offer a consistent dish on the menu. He decided the only thing left to do was combine them all into one dish and that would have to be a soup - "Soup of the day maybe !" - he thought to himself . So he added a little extra water and let the mixture simmer very slowly over a low heat whilst he got busy preparing all his other standard dishes.

Very soon people started to drift into the restaurant but as he wandered outside the kitchen to see who was there he noticed a very delicate scent in the air and his customers noticed it too "Mmm ! - they said that smells delicious ! - I'll order that please !" they said to the waiters. Soon the scent had drifted outside and along the street. People who were on the point of going into a neighbouring restaurant suddenly turned and followed the scent. Before you could whisper "Lobster Thermidor !" the restaurant was full to capacity with people eagerly chatting and sharing their unique descriptions of the wonderful aroma of delicious cooking.

The chef meanwhile had gone back to the kitchen to locate the source of all this interest and lo and behold he discovered it was the large saucepan of his newly invented 'Thyme and Plaice' soup. "Thank goodness !" he thought to himself that he had done so many experiments with the vast quantity of fish and huge amount of thyme that he had purchased. He had made enough soup to serve everyone that came into his restaurant that night. Everyone loved it and every last serving was consumed. The chef went home that night and though quite exhausted had a lively skip in his step, a big smile on his face and enough energy to occasionally try and punch the Moon.

The next day he had hardly got out of bed after a very pleasant night's dreaming about fish when his head waiter was on the phone informing him that it was only 10.00am and the restaurant had already been inundated with telephone bookings for the next few weeks ahead. The chef rushed out to the fish market and bought even bigger quantities of plaice and armfuls of freshly picked thyme. Back at the restaurant he set about re-creating the recipes he had invented the day. He then combined them in the same way by adding water and making a most wonderful and flavoursome soup. It worked every time - full to capacity night after night his restaurant was soon the talk of the town and everyone wanted to dine there just to experience the taste of 'Thyme and Plaice.'

This went on for many months and the chef enjoyed every material benefit with his newly acquired wealth that his great fish soup had brought him. But in living his success it wasn't long before he was no longer wondering about his future and about his unfulfilled dreams. He was no longer asking questions about what it was that gave that extra something to a recipe. He was no longer curious about being creative with new ideas - for the fame that his soup had brought seemed sufficient to please him.

But what he also hadn't noticed was that every time he prepared the recipe for his wonderful soup he was adding a little more water than the last time. The soup still tasted wonderful and its delicate scent still twisted and turned its' way down the streets outside his restaurant seducing the nostrils of passers by. But each day the distance it travelled got less and less as little bit by little more and more water was being added to the recipe.

It took a while before the head waiter pointed out that for the first time in months the restaurant was not full. It didn't seem a big enough problem to mention though because the takings were still well up on the year before. But after a couple more weeks the restaurant was emptier still and business started to go rapidly downhill. The chef also noticed that very few people were ordering his wonderful soup but just choosing his standard fare.

He had also received quite a few complaints from people who tried it before and said that it was now just a shadow of what it used to be, but he wasn't listening to them like he used to. He believed he had been preparing the soup in exactly the same way. But because he had been adding more and more water a little at a time each day what he couldn't see was that he was now creating almost clear water. It had virtually no taste let alone nourishment and as for the delicate scent that had vanished too. Weeks passed and eventually there was just the usual handful of faithful customers in the restaurant that he had had in the leaner times before his great fish soup creation. No-one amongst them was the least bit interested in experiencing the 'Thyme and Plaice' anymore.

To stay in business the chef had to downsize his newly acquired life of luxury brought about by his fish soup and it was then that some of his earlier thoughts about what makes a successful dish started to slowly arise in his mind again. He soon realised that he had lost something somewhere after dining out on one good idea for too long. No sooner had he realised this when his creative skills were activated once again as he felt the desire to experiment again and to listen to what people around him said about his dishes. He also recognised that his whole life had been determined by fish and he began to think that there might be other things he could cook up in his imagination.

With these thoughts he gradually restored his business to its earlier satisfactory state before the great soup discovery and managed to occasionally win a few more customers with his new creations. But most important of all his curiosity returned and was now extending in different directions. He was still puzzling though over what it was that made a magic recipe - he thought he had found the secret but on reflection realised he may have found something but lost many other things that were far more important.

It was whilst he was musing over these interesting thoughts that he just happened to notice someone he thought he recognised seated in the corner of his restaurant. It was that same distinguished looking lady he had seen in the café many months earlier. Again she was surrounded by another group of younger people their glistening eyes staring at her with rapt attention to catch her every word.

Then there appeared one of those unexplained lulls that occur sometimes in a roomful of people. He was no longer listening with fish ears. He heard what he maybe should have heard all that time ago before he discovered his soup as the lady said ".... the secret to success is the right combination of Time, Place and..... People !"The chef smiled inwardly - somewhat wiser he continued to experiment in his modest way but not just with fishy ideas now but with how he thought and he also remembered to listen more carefully to what those around him were really saying.

K.Byron

"A solved problem is like a broken sword on the battlefield"

Proverb quoted from 'The Dermis Probe' by Idries Shah

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