A Project Report On “ Our Iceberg Is Melting

(BOOK REVIEW) ”
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

From
NARAYANA BUSINESS SCHOOL, AHMEDABAD

Subject : Organizational Behaviour (4519204)

Component : (Specify CEC)

Submitted By
NAME : Jitendra Gupta
BATCH : MBA 2022-24
ROLL NO : 84
SECTION : Sigma
DATE OF SUBMISSION:

Under The Guidance Of

NAME : Prof. Noopur Surti
DESIGNATION : Professor
DEPARTMENT : Organizational Behaviour
Table of Contents
Book summary and analysis ........................................................................................................................ 3
Identify the practitioners.............................................................................................................................. 5
Interventions ................................................................................................................................................ 6
Important lessons learned from the book .................................................................................................... 7
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 10
 Book summary and analysis

The book ‘Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions’ by John
Kotter entails an analysis of the importance of leadership as one of the management practices
that individuals and organizations should incorporate. The book uses a simple metaphor ‘Our
iceberg is melting’ to illustrate the fact that one can perform well in a dynamic environment.

The story relates to colony of penguins within the Antarctica region. The penguins had
been living together peacefully for a long period and did not perceive the need to change.
One day, a curious penguin by the name Fred identified a shocking phenomenon that
would threaten their existence. The iceberg which was their home was melting.

Despite warning the other penguins of the eminent danger, no one took him seriously.
Considering the fact that Fred did not have any authority within the colony, he realized
the need to initiate change. To achieve this, he approached another penguin by the name
Alice who was more open-minded and flexible.

The fable is used to illustrate how people react to change. The tale depicts a number of
elements which include confusion, insight, a heroism and resistance to change.
Additionally, the story also illustrates the challenges that are encountered on a daily
basis in an effort to implement change and how to deal with them.

Through the fable, the author shows that penguins are more effective in dealing with
real challenges compared to human beings. He achieves this by illustrating the steps that
the penguins took in order to resolve the dilemma.

These included effective problem identification, realization of the need to resolve the
problem urgently, integration of teamwork, and thinking outside the box. In an effort to
resolve the problem, the penguins experienced a number of problems such as
skepticism. However, the penguins were able to adapt to a new way of life through
effective selection of choices.

This paper entails a review of the book, ‘Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and
Succeeding Under Any Conditions’ by John Kotter. The paper outlines the importance
of the book to various parties in addition to comparing it with the book ‘Why Should
Anyone be Led by You? What it takes to be an authentic leader by Robert Goffee and
Gareth Jones.

John Kotter biography

John Kotter is an accomplished professor working with the Harvard Business School. He is a
graduate of MIT University and Harvard Business School . For a long period, Kotter has been
considered to be a guru with regard to leadership and change. He has authored more than
fifteen books with ‘Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions’
being his latest.

Additionally, he has also garnered a number of awards for his proficiency in business
leadership. Some of these awards include Johnson, Smith and Knisely Award for New
Perspectives in Business Leadership and the Exxon Award.

He has also acquired enormous experience on leadership and change which is evidenced by
the success with which he established Kotter International, a leadership organization. The
objective of the organization is to help organizational leaders to acquire practical leadership
skills and methodologies that they can use in leading change (Harvard Business School, 2009,
para. 1).His books are aimed at illustrating how organizations can implement change.
 Identify the practitioners.
Constant Developments
Despite some tough and well-established traditions, the penguins continue to evolve. Alice,
Rosalie, and the scouts are determined to continue their efforts:
 Louis considers revamping the “Leadership Council” to include the bravest penguins.
 Scouts are now recruited according to well-defined criteria and benefit from more fish
as a work bonus.
 New subjects have been added to the children’s school curriculum and the Professor
now holds the post of Chief Meteorologist.
 Fred becomes the Head Scout.
 Buddy remains the modest penguin he was at the start of the adventure.
 Interventions

What Do I Do Now?
The penguin colony has a “Leadership Council” with Louis, the Head Penguin, in charge. This
is where ten wise penguins meet regularly to reflect on the organization of the group.

Alice the Determined

Alice is on the Leadership Council; she is a little different from other penguins. Indeed, she is
not arrogant and behaves in a very altruistic way with her colleagues. That is why Fred decides
to go talk to her to explain his fears.
Like the rest of the colony, she tends to think of Fred’s concerns as being caused by personal
issues. Yet she decides to listen to him carefully. Also, Fred offers to take her to see the place
that is at the origin of his concerns. It’s happening under the block of ice. Despite the presence
of predators, the two penguins take the risk of going to inspect the crack and signs of
degradation of the iceberg.

Problem? What Problem?

Alice keeps her promise: she informs the members of the Council led by Louis. However,
overall, everyone has something else to do rather than listen. They do more bickering, about
meeting schedules or the duration of weekly discussions. Alice then suggests inviting Fred to
the next meeting. The Head Penguin readily accepts, in particular to satisfy his curiosity. What
got Louis to agree to Alice’s proposal was especially because she paid him compliments. His
big penguin ego immediately reacted positively.
However, the Head Penguin prefers not to mention Fred’s presence at the next session to avoid
last-minute withdrawals. For his part, Fred asks for additional information before his
intervention in the Council in order to prepare a suitable speech, as he wants to convince the ten
honorable members of the Council, some of whom, he has been warned, are difficult to impress.
 Important lessons learned from the book

The change process

There are a number of errors that minimize an organization’s effort to implement change
Kotter has formulated eight processes that firms’ management teams should follow in
their effort to implement change. These steps are analyzed below.

Establishing a sense of urgency

Kotter asserts that most individuals and organizations fail in their effort to implement
change due to their complacency. This means that individuals do not realize the
importance of implementing change urgently. The external business environment
presents numerous challenges and opportunities to businesses.

Kotter illustrates the element of complacency by using an example of Andrien is a

divisional head in a large chemical producing company. Despite identifying possible
problems that the organization may face in the future, Andrien does not implement the
necessary changes. The resultant effect is that the firm failed.

Kotter asserts that it is paramount for firms’ management teams to continuously

evaluate the external environment in order to determine the appropriate decision to
implement. Lack of urgency makes individuals to respond slowly to changes. Kotter
emphasizes that individuals should move out of the comfort zones and respond
appropriately to the changes that they are facing.

Creating a strong guiding coalition

To implement change, Kotter is of the opinion that it is important for individuals and
organizations to establish a powerful guiding coalition. The coalition should be
composed of members possessing the necessary characteristics. One of the ways
through which this can be achieved is by considering members who have good qualities
such as good reputation, expertise, good relationship with other members and good
leadership qualities.
The importance of forming a strong guiding coalition arises from the fact that one
individual cannot posses all the qualities necessary to implement the necessary change.
 Additionally, the guiding coalition should have the interest of the organization at heart
rather than being guided by self-interest. All forms of bureaucracies in the team should be
eliminated. Kotter further asserts that lack of a strong leadership within the guiding
coalition can limit the effectiveness of implementing change.
Kotter illustrates the importance of developing a strong guiding coalition by giving an
example of Claire who is a human resource director with a US-based bank. In an effort
to implement change in the organization, Claire does not include key line managers
from the bank’s department as members of the guiding coalition. The resultant effect is
that the taskforce charged with the responsibility of implementing change does not
achieve the intended objective.

Developing a clear vision and a change strategy

According to Kotter , developing a clear vision is critical in the process of implementing
change. This is due to the fact that vision enables individuals charged with the responsibility of
implementing change to have a clear direction. The resultant effect is that all the parties’
actions are effectively aligned.
Lack of a clear vision may result into confusion amongst the individual implementing the
change. Additionally, their efforts become incompatible which makes the change process to
be time consuming. Kotter further asserts that the change process should follow a well
developed strategy. This will aid in eliminating potential conflicts.

Communicating the vision

Organizations should ensure that there is a clear understanding of the formulated vision and
strategies amongst all the parties. To achieve this, firm’s management teams should
integrate effective communication strategies. In their communication efforts, organizations
should integrate different vehicles.

This will play a critical role in creating adequate understanding of the vision. The resultant
effect is that a large number of individuals will be integrated in the change process which
means that resistance is reduced. Additionally, in communicating the vision, firm’s
management teams should also teach employees new behaviors using the illustration of the
guiding coalition team.
Empowering a broad-based action
In implementing change, there are a number of challenges that are experienced . According
to Kotter, some of these challenges originate from within the organization. For example, one
of the challenges may arise from the fact that the organization may have implemented a
rigid organizational structure that does not allow implementation of change with ease.
Secondly, employees’ job categories may not be well defined. As a result, there is a high
probability of job conflict amongst the employees.

Another problem may arise from poorly implemented performance-appraisal systems.

However, organizations should incorporate the most effective strategies aimed at
eliminating the obstacles.

Organizational management teams should encourage employees to participate in different

activities and actions that would enhance implementation of change. Additionally, risk-
taking behavior amongst the parties should also be encouraged.

Planning short term wins

Organizations should integrate clear performance improvement plans. After designing the
plan, the management teams should ensure that the necessary improvements are
implemented. The plans should take into consideration short term wins which are aimed at
monitoring the progress. Kotter is of the opinion that short term wins should have a shorter
timeframe for such as one year. The short term wins established should be easily identified
by the all parties within the organization.

In order to enhance participation of all employees, Kotter advocates for organizational

management teams to incorporate reward systems. For example, they should recognize
employees who depict exemplary performance improvement.
Never letting up
Kotter further asserts that organizations should consolidate their improvement efforts in
order to enhance more change. This means that the credibility awarded to leaders who
portray exemplary change efforts should be used to deal with challenging situations.
To ensure that change is effectively implemented, it is important for organizational
management teams to consider outsourcing experts to help in the change implementation
process. Additionally, firm’s management teams should ensure that their employees can
 implement the formulated vision on their own. One of the ways through which this can be
achieved is by ensuring effective employee development.

Integrating change into the organizational culture

Management teams should integrate the new behaviors established with the organizational
culture. This can only be achieved if the organization associates new behaviors with its
corporate success. Integrating change with organizational culture can enhance the change
implementation process.

Conclusion
From the book review, Kotter is very effective in illustrating how one can implement change
through effective leadership. The book is very beneficial to individuals intending to develop
their leadership skills. A number of steps that should be considered in the change process are
outlined.

One of these steps entails ensuring effective communication of the intended change. To
achieve this, different communication strategies should be put into consideration. Kotter’s
book is similar to the book by Goffee and Jones in that the two books have outlined how one
can become good in leading change