There is nothing quite like reading a great fable hidden with lessons and a feel-good moral. Our Iceberg is Melting is a book all about change – how to deal with change, how to navigate the murky waters that come with change, and how to get a group on board with change. From Harvard Business School, award winning author John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber bring an easy read about changing and succeeding under any conditions. The book has made a big difference for many large businesses and organizations handling change in their companies.
The book begins with a fable about a colony of penguins who live on an iceberg (that is melting). After one of the younger and curious penguins, Fred, discovers the iceberg is melting, he goes to the council to try and get them to understand the issue and take it seriously. Change was necessary. It was the keener Alice who takes Fred seriously and goes on an adventure to see the melting iceberg for herself. The book talks about how a key group of five penguins – all with different strengths, personalities, and outlooks – form to head the initiative to find a solution to the problem. The five penguins included: curious and analytical Fred, assertive and fierce Alice, the colony leader Louis, the wise though long-winded “professor” Jordan, and the handsome, friendly, and clueless Buddy.
Eight steps of change are utilized (and later explained after the fable) to find a solution:
1. Create a sense of urgency
2. Pull together the guiding team
3. Develop the change vision and strategy
4. Communicate for understanding and buy in
5. Empower others to act
6. Produce short-term wins
7. Don’t let up
8. Create a new culture
The penguins engage in each of these steps to find their solution. If you don’t want to know about how the story ends, then stop right here and grab the book from your local library. It won’t disappoint.
It’s a challenge to get the colony on board with taking the issue seriously, especially when there were penguins set in long-held traditions and just plain skeptical penguins like NoNo. Different approaches are utilized – presenting the facts, completing a visual experiment to prove the iceberg really was melting, presenting a solution to the group after meeting a friendly seagull, and explaining how the solution would work to the colony. An abundance of ice posters put up everywhere (even underwater) helped reinforce the plan for a new life.
After seeing a seagull fly overhead and tracking it down to learn about its lifestyle, the core team of five penguins see the seagull’s nomadic way of life as a possible solution to their problem. They would have the most athletic penguins journey to find a new iceberg they could live on and if a problem arose there, they would move the colony again. Why couldn’t they live a nomadic lifestyle like the seagulls? They were smarter and knew they could adapt. The alternative was too horrible to imagine, and this was an exciting new way of life.
The core team of five penguins are able to rally everyone on board by following the eight steps to change and succeed under any conditions. They successfully find a new iceberg to call home and change their colony’s way of life. The new penguins that were born years later asked Louis about The Great Change and it was a story they loved hearing over and over.
Kotter and Rathgeber are able to present a simple and visual story to their readers in a very non-threatening way to explain the eight key principles for successful change and how they can be utilized. Organizations and companies today would do well to read this book, share it with their employees, and have open discussions about the narrative and how the change steps were employed.
I highly recommend this fun book to management and employees alike – whether you work for a big corporation, are running your own small business, manage a team, or are a member of the labour force in any capacity – you will find this to be an informative read that, if utilized, can make a difference.
This book not only will help your workplace to thrive, adapt, and be excited about change rather than fear something different and its consequences. It’s a read that is good for anyone undergoing any change – not just a workplace related one. You will find the eight steps apply in a variety of circumstances.
If you pick this book up and give it a read, let me know what you think! I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did!
Happy reading, Sabrina
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