Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

John Kotter · Holger Rathgeber

Sep 2006 · Macmillan

About this ebook

Most of the denizens of the Antarctic penguin colony sneer at Fred, the quiet but observant scout who detects worrying signs that their home, an iceberg, is melting. Fred must cleverly convince and enlist key players, such as Louis, the head penguin; Alice, the number two bird; the intractable NoNo the weather expert; and a passle of school-age penguins if he is to save the colony.
Their delightfully told journey illuminates in an unforgettable way how to manage the necessary change that surrounds us all. Simple explanatory material following the fable enhances the lasting value of these lessons.
Our Iceberg Is Melting is at once charming, accessible and profound; a treat for virtually any reader.

Ratings and reviews

This is a cute story about embracing change. It wasn't what I expected or what I was looking for, but it could be useful to start a discussion about our reactions to impending changes.

Reviewed by Ilker Cingillioglu, Brisbane, 02/03/2010 Our Iceberg is Melting is a fun and simple fable about how a penguin colony in Antarctica responds to the need for revolutionary change. Kotter demonstrates a scenario in the form of a dilemma in which interactive humanized penguins with diverse personalities are put through a quest for managing change. In a way he endevours to elicit how his 8 stage change model could easily be used by any group of people - in this case penguins - when the emergency bells ring. The book simply illustrates and provides insightful lessons around the relevance of Kotter's acclaimed 8-stage change process as follows: 1) Creating a sense of urgency by eliminating complacency and inertia and bringing up the inconvenient news and the desperate need for change, 2) Pulling together the guiding coalition by convincing a broad-based group of penguins and engaging them in acting as a part of the solution by exploiting their distinguishing skills and experience, 3) Developing the change vision and strategy (seagull tactics) in a way to ensure the survival of the colony by looking for alternative places to live, 4) Communicating for understanding and buy in by spreading the vision across the colony with ice posters, speeches and seagull stories and telling other penguins what needs to be done, 5) Empowering others to act by assigning scouts to look for new places, 6) Producing short-term wins when scouts successfully complete their first missions by acquiring vital information about the existence and location of new food resources which helped penguins embrace change even more, 7) Keeping up the good work and continuing to look for bigger and better places to move the colony to, as the scouts are rewarded for their effort and more penguins are getting excited and involved in the change process, 8) Creating a new culture by anchoring the changes in the culture of the colony and never letting them give up their new ways of living and life style. As the authors suggest, the core message that can be drawn from this book is "that the world needs much more action from a broader range of people—action that is informed, committed, and inspired—to help us all in an era of increasing change." The penguin characters introduced in this book are so similar to individuals that we encounter in our organizations and they can easily be recognized as being like people from all walks of life. I also believe that its being a very clear, simple and quick read makes it possible for anyone to grasp the idea right away.

Very well composed. Simple to read and to the point :).

About the author

John P. Kotter, world-renowned expert on leadership, is the author of many books, including Leading Change and The Heart of Change. He is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School, and a graduate of MIT and Harvard. He is co-founder of Kotter International, a leadership organization that helps Global 5000 company leaders develop the skills to lead change. He and his wife Nancy live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Holger Rathgeber spent his early professional career in Asia. He has worked in industry since the early 1990's and is now with one of the leading medical technology companies, Bectom Dickinson. Raised in Frankfurt, Germany, Rathgeber currently resides in White Plains, New York.