Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

by John Kotter, Holger Rathgeber

Overview

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.

About the Authors
JOHN KOTTER has been on the faculty at Harvard Business School since 1972. He is the author of eleven award-winning titles and frequently gives speeches and seminars at Harvard and around the world. He lives 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399563911
Publisher:	Temple Publications International, Inc.
Publication date:	01/05/2016
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	155
Product dimensions:	5.73(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.68(d)

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.

Editorial Reviews

In every facet of life, change is king. But learning to cope with changing situations requires forethought, planning, and cooperation. Our Iceberg Is Melting spins a global warming fable about Antarctic penguins to delineate strategies that any corporate community can use to survive and thrive in a changing business environment. With eight succinct, easy-to-apply steps, author John Kotter sets out the actions most essential to enacting your company's response to evolving conditions. Cool rules for swimming to safe waters.

This fable of penguins facing a threat of survival mirrors a business organization facing similar danger. The story is complete with characters such as NoNo and the Professor, whose equivalents might be found in any business. Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor, and Rathgeber, an executive with a medical technology company, define the penguins' eight steps to making a successful organizational change. Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions can help companies face their own icebergs. Copyright © 2007 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Penguins illustrate how to conquer change

By Michelle Archer, for USA TODAY

At first glance, Our Iceberg Is Melting seems easy to dismiss as an attempt to fuse a few hot topics — global warming, marching penguins — into a Who Moved My Cheese? fable-as-business-lesson best seller.

But this penguin parable has a pedigree in the form of Harvard Business School's John Kotter, author of Leading Change, the 1996 business guide that also sported our flat-footed, feathered friends on the cover. The Heart of Change was his 2002 follow-up.

This time out, Kotter moves the penguins inside, using how a colony of them copes with a potential catastrophe — yes, their iceberg is melting — to illustrate his eight-step process of successful change.

Their story is short and peppered with the personalities organizations inevitably include: the naysayers and nitpickers, the innovators and agitators, the leaders and followers. The idea is that everyone in a group must play a role in navigating change.

In that vein, Kotter and co-author Holger Rathgeber write that their goal is to use a good story with visual stimuli (full-color, cartoon-like illustrations) to influence a broad range of people to better handle change and produce results. In other words, companies should buy a copy for everyone from the CEO to the stock clerk.

This approach paid off for Spencer Johnson of Who Moved My Cheese?, who writes the foreword.

Kotter's process advocates quick action to confront issues, group thinking and the buy-in of the whole organization. The goal: replace old habits with new behaviors and make them stick.

Whether you're a fan of lowest-common-denominator reading or not, there's no denying the logic behind Kotter's steps and the at-times clever way they are woven into the penguins' journey.

From the Publisher