Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions by John Kotter

I had to read this for a college class but it was surprisingly interesting. I really enjoyed how concise it was and how it even includes some pictures because I find it very hard to imagine concepts in my head. Overall it’s a great read on leadership but I’d also say it could apply to entrepreneurs as well.

If you have ever tried to get anything done in a bureacratic environment, you can – and should – read this. It takes less than an hour, and is a brilliant storytelling of Kotters Change model.

Why write a business fable about penguins to champion change management? In the author Q&A section of “Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions,” John Kotter explains:

“I’ve been studying for a long time how people learn. And I think it is pretty clear that our brains are hardwired for stories. A good story is easy to absorb and remember, especially if it has emotional components.” He notes that interesting animal stories have “some basic points in them that, because they stick around in your mind, can actually change what we do.”

Coauthor Holger Rathgeber adds, “The whole thing started when I was asked to spend two to three hours with a large audience of managers and executives focusing on John’s Eight Steps from his ‘Leading Change’ book. It was clear to me that a PowerPoint presentation wasn’t a good way to do this. So I created a very rough plot about a colony of penguins sitting on an iceberg that is melting.”

You’ll love the humor—because you’ve likely heard similar suggestions in recent team meetings! What should the penguins do about their melting iceberg? “Another bird suggested they find a perfect iceberg. No melting, no exposed caves, no fissures, just wonderful in every way so that their children and grandchildren would never, ever have to face a crisis like this again. Perhaps if they appointed a perfect-iceberg committee?”

We’ve served on those committees, right? (LOL!)

This book prompted me to reflect on presentations, speeches, and sermons I’ve heard recently. Unfortunately, there were more PowerPoints than stories. I’m wondering if the first century’s technology had included PowerPoints, would Jesus have used that tool—or would he have continued to use parables? (I’m guessing parables.)

This book offers an interesting perspective on leading change within your organization. Many practical tips presented through the eyes of penguins.

I just finished this book a few hours. It took about 2 hours or so to get through 160ish pages.

If you are familiar with John Kotter’s eight steps to change, then you’ll quickly identify how this fable incorporates those eight steps. To be clear, this a story about penguins and the change process they go through to convince their colony that they must move. It is NOT a how-to guide. It does not really discuss theory. There’s some content at the end that discusses what the penguin went through and how it relate to the eight steps of change.

If you are a practitioner, this book provides examples that you can use to communicate the change process to individuals that make not be familiar or are struggling to understand.

If you are unfamiliar with how change works in an organization and don’t want to read a bunch about theory, this book will give you very light insight into what that process looks like in an easy-to-read, sometimes funny, format.

I have no reason to give this book anything less than a five star rating as it perfectly executes what it set out to do.

Cumple con todo lo publicado en la descripción.