“Our Iceberg is Melting” paints a simple picture on getting everyone to move towards a new destination
“Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions” by Holger Rathgeber and John Kotter paints a simple visual story of a group of penguins who are unaware that the iceberg they live on is melting. The story follows the journey of one penguin, Fred, who makes the discovery and then the intricate journey Fred has to undertake to convince his community of penguins that their iceberg is melting and that they need to move their habitat.
Central to the story are the motivations of each character in the penguin colony and how Fred and his growing clan of believers help them see the real picture.
Beneath this seemingly simple metaphor lies the deeper story: Of how to lead and navigate change in an organisation.
Change management is a key journey many leaders need to enable during moments of key transformation in organisations. Leaders need to guide and inspire their teams, and it is no easy task.
The book outlines an eight-step process to navigate change:
- Create a sense of urgency by identifying possible threats and looking at scenarios to address them
- Build a team that has enough trust within the community and empower the members to lead the required efforts. A single person may find it difficult to lead and implement transformational change
- A change in vision need to be developed to create the right strategy
- It is important to communicate that vision across levels and through different methods
- Empower multiple change agents to work on the required pathways to implement the vision
- The change
