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.)
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Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions
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