Our Iceberg is Melting by John Kotter - Book Report/Review Example

INTRODUCTION “Our Iceberg is melting” by John Kotter it is a fable that talks about one group of penguins living on an iceberg that is in danger of melting. Those penguins have to solve this problem with new and innovative ideas if they want to save the colony of penguins. John Kotter, the author, was born in 1947, he graduated from a MIT Bachelor, nowadays he is a Professor at Harvard University, where he studied his PhD in Business Administration in 1972. He wrote 18 books and 12 of them were bests sellers when published. He also receives several awards due to the relevance of his texts and the importance that it has in nowadays society. His work has been printed in more than 120 languages and he has sold more than 2 million copies in the last 20 years. Understanding this fable from the point of view of one company or organisation we can observe that penguin’s personalities are really similar to the personalities of the people who we can found on a company, and further more also people around us. This is the base through Kotter explains the “Eight Step Process of Successful Change” to achieve a successful and effective change. DEVELOPMENT In this fable the author present us various main characters and every each of them have a different personality, but despite they are different they become one strong and powerful group that can overcome all the boundaries that they have in front. There always can be improvements or changes that lead our company to the success and to do that, most of the times, it is really necessary to change the conservative culture to a new ideas and innovative culture that will continuously improve our enterprise and will solve the daily crisis. The main characters of the story are: Fred: a young penguin, without experience but really curious, observant and clever but also reserved. Is the first one detecting the problem of their iceberg and he explain this to the Council of penguins in a really simple and also effective way. Basically he says: “Our iceberg is melting!” Alice: she is a penguin with a strong personality, not really patient but rational, supervisor and also with a huge leadership skill, what she says it is done. She is the second one that realises that something is going wrong with their iceberg, because Fred shows her physically the problem. She goes to the Council and ask for a meeting where Freud can explain his discovery. Louis: He is the leader of the Council. He is wise, with a lot of experience on agreements because of his age, he is open-minded, willing to listen the others ideas always that they have good reasons to prove what are they saying. He listens to Fred and he is interested about the problem. Buddy: He is the boyishly and friendly penguin that everyone in the colony seem to like and trust. He is not really intellectual but he is ambitious and has a good initiative to solve the problem with their home. Jordan the “Professor”: intellectual, intelligent and analytic penguin. He only guides himself by reasons that convinced him. NoNo: Closed minded penguin with a conservative personality. He does not accept the changes or new ideas and is the one that is cramping and making difficult the change. The group of penguins start a process to handle their problem in the best way: the first step, identifying the problem; the second one, convince the council about the fact that they have a real problem and create a real urgency to change as quick as possible. They develop a team work based on the Eight Step Process of Successful Change that from the point of view of an enterprise can be interpreted as follow: SET THE STAGE 1. Create a Sense of Urgency It is necessary to create the conscience of the importance of changing soon, and also that this change will always be something positive for the employees and also for the company. 2. Pull Together the Guiding Team If we want to see quick changes it is necessary to create a team work that satisfy basic requirements such as: leadership, credibility, authority, skills on communication, capacity of analysis and sense of urgency. This group will guide the company employees to make the urgent changes or updates that the company needs. DECIDE WHAT TO DO 3. Develop the Change Vision and Strategy Once the guide group is created, they must take out the advantages that this new change will produce and compare them with the current situation. Having in mind that the benefits are bigger after the change, now is it time to propose ideas as a result of the new change. MAKE IT HAPPEN 4. Communicate for Understanding and Buy In The leader group must communicate the new change to the employees making that the majority or at least most of the groups accept and agree with it. Also they must be aware that this results will make better the company and their jobs. 5. Empower Others to Act It can be possible that although the leader group explicitly and in an understanding way communicate the changes for everyone, some people would not be convinced of the change and would want to leave the things as they are; they are the No-No of the company and we have to keep an eye on them. Insist on dialogue with them and to try to convince them to not intervene in a negative way during the process. 6. Produce Short-Term Wins After so many efforts put on the process of the new change, the progress should be notorious and people involved in should also know it in order to be more motivated in obtain better and faster results. 7. Don’t Let Up If the results are positive in the activities done during the process to change or to get our goal, don’t let up. We have to continuing making efforts to realize what we want. It is known that becoming this true was a challenge from the beginning, but on a really short time this will be a reality if we still making efforts with a huge determination. MAKE IT STICK 8. Create a New Culture As the penguins on the fable change their culture of fishing, we can also do it. We have to be constant on the necessary changes and updates to make our organisation better. So, if we want to reach our goals as entrepreneurs, we have to leave back our old traditions and be more innovative. This 8 points can guide a company (or ourselves) in the way of handling changes and the importance of having in mind the power of team work to solve the problems. Every human being is different, and in my own opinion I think that everyone needs of someone else, that is why everyone has different skills, everyone complements with everyone and this is exactly what this book is about. It is needed a curious, fair, intelligent, social and leadership person to make a task, one single person can not solve a huge problem by himself, maybe it is possible, but with more people adding ideas the result will be better and faster for sure. CONCLUSION This book shows us how to react in front of the resistance or fear to change and also the benefits that brings avoiding this boundary and making involved as many people as possible. This can help to make this change happen and at the end will be very favourable while identifying and solving the problems. This review it is a personal interpretation of the topic, and at the end, I think, there are more icebergs that are about to collapse or break down but also this fable makes us think about the different ways to face and solve problems by making changes that will bring a lot of benefits. Read More