| Our Iceberg is Melting is a simple fable about doing well in an ever-changing world. Based on the award-winning work of Harvard's John Kotter, it is a story that has been used to help thousands of people and organizations.
The fable is about a penguin colony in Antarctica. A group of beautiful emperor penguins live as they have for many years. Then one curious bird discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home and pretty much no one listens to him.
The characters in the story, Fred, Alice, Louis, Buddy, the Professor, and NoNo, are like people we recognize - even ourselves. Their tale is one of resistance to change and heroic action, seemingly intractable obstacles and the most clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles. It's a story that is occurring in different forms all around us today - but the penguins handle the very real challenges a great deal better than most of us.
Our Iceberg is Melting is based on pioneering work that shows how Eight Steps produce needed change in any sort of group. It's a story that can be enjoyed by anyone while at the same time providing invaluable guidance for a world that just keeps moving faster and faster.
In an exclusive interview to www.oxfordbookstore.com, leadership guru John Kotter spoke about Successful Change and the role of leadership, youth and tradition in making it happen. Read on to know more…
How did this idea of The Eight Step Process of Successful Change come to your mind? Was it born out of real-life situation or was it a spontaneous thought that developed and grew within you?
The Eight Steps came from studying a large number of change efforts to see what problems people had and what formula seemed to work best. I first mapped out what I had found in an article, subsequently published in the Harvard Business Review, and then in the book Leading Change.
What is it about penguins that made you explain your ideas on change through their fable?
The young man designing the cover for the book, Leading Change found a picture of penguins that seemed to suggest leadership. Everyone liked his work, so that became the cover. Penguins then stuck in my mind and that of my co-author on Our Iceberg is Melting. He decided, and I agreed, that a penguin colony would make an excellent
setting for any number of reasons: emperor penguins are distinguished and cute. They live in colonies, not alone or in small groups. People would understand enough of their world that we would not have to take time to describe it. The colonies are big enough for the birds to run into real-life problems yet not so big and complex that the fable would be 1000 pages, and so on.
Must ‘tradition’ always ‘die a hard death’ to bring about change? Can’t we bring about change while upholding our tradition too? In your view, can tradition be flexible and adaptive?
Good change never alters all traditions, just those that need to be shifted to help people prosper in a changing world. But even altering some is a challenge. And yes, certain traditions can make change easier than others. For example, a tradition of giving status to people who find new opportunities or hazards will help the group adapt to new conditions.
What I really liked in the book was Buddy’s way of removing the ‘mysterious’ obstacle in the kindergarten teacher and the subsequent involvement of many little penguins in bringing about the change. Can you narrate a real-life situation in today’s world where the young ones have played such a crucial role?
The most successful airline in the world in the past quarter century is Southwest, which is based in Dallas, Texas, USA. One of the reasons why they have done so well is that they empower and encourage their chicks - 21-year-old new employees - to provide initiative in their jobs. And they do, to the great benefit of everyone in the airline.
In your view, what makes a true leader? Are people born leaders or are leaders made in a specific situation?
We are all born with some leadership potential - some of us much, much more than others. We all have experiences that develop that potential - again some of us much more than others. And, as you suggest, one’s developed potential can be more relevant in certain situations than others. So, have much leadership potential at birth, develop it to its full extent, go to situations which most need your leadership skills, and people will call you a great leader. Have less potential, less developed, and go to places that don’t 100% fit your skills and you can still provide some leadership. But most people won’t see you as a “leader”.
Though Louis was a natural leader, do you think that Fred, Alice, Buddy and Jordan were also leaders in their own right?
Following what I just said, when you provide a great deal of leadership, people tend to call you a leader. If you provide some leadership that helps in a specific situation, but don’t do it much or visibly, people tend not to call you a leader. Thus, although all of the five key penguins provided leadership to help the colony survive and prosper, probably only Louis and Alice would have been seen as doing so (and maybe only Louis).
Should we trust our feelings first when we try to bring about a change and then let our thought execute that feeling?
I suspect we need to listen to both thoughts and feelings all the time. Unfortunately, our educational systems and most corporate cultures tend to encourage the first (thought) and discourage the second (feelings).
How was your experience as a Professor in Harvard Business School? What new things have you learnt from your students at Harvard Business School?
I have enjoyed my life at Harvard a great deal. I feel that I have learned so much from my students over many decades now that I would need to write an entire essay to explain.
And finally, tell us about the books that have made a difference to your life.
There are so many that it is hard to pick but a few. And I suspect that as a child I was vastly influenced by stories - including fables - that I cannot even recall today.
Click here to read John Kotter’s biography
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Interviewed by Satarupa Ray
Designed by Subhadip Mukherjee
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