Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions
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...
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"I came across Our ICEBERG IS MELTING in May, ordered and dsitributed 60 copies in June, evaluated its effect on our change effort, and then ordered 500 more copies in September. This is a gem." — Heidi King, Program Manager, Dept. of Defense"As a result of the book and my sharing it with a few people in the organization, we have moved quickly on several fronts. We are galvanized to go ahead instead of further studying, more organizing and so on. It is making a difference for us." — Tom Curley, President and CEO, Associated Press"This is the easiest to read yet most informative book I have ever seen. Setting one of management's biggest challenges, 'what problem, I don't see a problem,' in the context of a melting iceberg and a determined penguin, was a stroke of sheer genius."— Michael Dimelow, Director of Product Marketing, TTP Communications PLC Soundview Executive Book Summaries 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
\ From Barnes & NobleIn 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.\ \ \ \ \ From the Publisher\ Penguins illustrate how to conquer changeBy 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.\ \ \ Soundview Executive Book SummariesThis 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\ \
