Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

“An iceberg that suddenly collapsed into many pieces would be a disaster for the penguins, especially if it occurred during the winter in a storm. Many of the older and younger birds would surely die. Who could say what all the consequences would be? Like all unthinkable events, there was no plan for how to deal with such a catastrophe.”

Crises are rare, and groups often don’t prepare for them; also, disasters are painful to think about. Long-term stability, meanwhile, makes members believe their group is immortal. If one or a few people call that comforting belief into question, they will slam into a wall of objections and find themselves isolated and ignored.

“Icebergs are not like ice cubes. The bergs can have cracks inside called canals. The canals can lead to large air bubbles called caves. If the ice melts sufficiently, cracks can be exposed to water, which would then pour into the canals and caves. During a cold winter, the narrow canals filled with water can freeze quickly, trapping water inside the caves. But as the temperature goes lower and lower, the water in the caves will also freeze. Because a freezing liquid dramatically expands in volume, an iceberg could be broken into pieces.”

The iceberg’s structural troubles symbolize problems that might crop up with any organization. Cracks can form in a group’s beliefs, operating standards, or flagship product. Stresses can form from outside pressures such as increased competition, tough new regulations, or changing needs and customs in a society. The icy water that seeps into the iceberg’s fissures thus stand in for problems we all face from time to time. The means by which the penguins solve their iceberg problem will also work on tough situations humans face every day.

“‘I will need your assistance,’ she told Fred. ‘I need you to be prepared to help others see and feel the problem.’ After a short pause, she added, ‘And be prepared that some birds won’t want to see any problem.’”

Penguin leader Alice knows well that big problems will garner big resistance. Any solution likely will jar the colony’s well-established, comfortable lifestyle. This will cause many penguins to ignore, ridicule, or shout down the solution because it threatens their comfortable world or puts their position in the colony at risk.

“Imagine parents who lost their children. Imagine them coming to us and asking, ‘How could this have happened? What were you doing? Why didn’t you foresee this crisis? It was your job to protect the colony!’ What would you tell them? ‘Well, yes, sorry. We had heard that there might be a problem, but the information was not 100 percent credible.’”

Leadership councils confronted with a difficulty sometimes avoid the problem by exaggerating doubts about the peril. They fail to consider the consequences of inaction and instead hope the problem will simply go away. Well-established systems of leadership sometimes rot during easy times and fall apart during the stress of a crisis.

“Alice cleared her throat loudly, then spoke with a steely resolve. ‘When we have a problem, forming a committee and trying to protect our colony from unpleasant news is what we normally do. But this is far, far from a normal problem.’”

A favored approach of established bureaucracies is to set up a committee of investigation; this effectively kicks the problem into the future yet gives leaders plausible deniability. After all, they did form a committee. Ironically, when disaster finally arrives, it damages or destroys not only the main part of the organization but its leadership as well. More often than not, then, good leaders during good times are completely wrong for the job when bad times arrive; this is why Alice wants to take the issue from the leaders’ hands and give it to the general assembly.

“It was not comfortable for either of them not to have the answers to the horrible problem they faced, but they were encouraged as more and more birds would say something like: ‘If I can be of help, let me know.’ Fred, Louis, and Alice were certainly not aware of it—professional change experts they were not—but by reducing complacency and increasing urgency they had taken exactly the right first step in potentially saving the colony.”

Wanting everyone to sense the importance of the problem but not wanting them to despair or panic, leaders Louis and Alice wisely increase their interactions with colony members, both entreating others to take the crisis seriously and encouraging them to participate actively in the solution. This gives the penguins a sense of control over their destiny that leads, not to despair or desperation, but to focused, forward-looking creative thought.

“Another penguin suggested that Louis delegate the problem to the younger birds who were the experts on ice. Louis pointed out, patiently, that those birds had little credibility in the colony, had no known leadership skills, were very inexperienced, and a few were not well liked. The bird making this suggestion said, ‘So what’s your point?’”

Organizations often ignore members with no political power or those who are young and less experienced. Leaders especially disdain such members, as they’re at the opposite end from the leaders on the scale of influence. It’s precisely these low-status members, though, who often suggest innovative and useful ideas, largely because they have little incentive to keep things the same—and, in a crisis, it’s that sameness that can destroy the organization.

“Louis picks out a potential group to guide the effort. Interesting makeup. Does not appoint. Asks for help. Turning non-team into team with squid and talk. Then somehow end up talking of possibilities and dreams!”

Jordan realizes that Louis has met the recent challenge by assembling a diverse group and focusing first on turning its members into a functioning, closely coordinated team that shares aspirations for the colony. Louis thus employs, consciously or not, Step Two of the Eight Step Process of Successful Change described in Chapter 14. Logician Jordan finds that this approach appears to be a sensible, if unexpected, early step.

“I can almost see how we might live. We’d learn to move around. We wouldn’t stay in one place forever. We wouldn’t try to fix melting icebergs. We would just face up to the fact that what sustains us cannot go on forever.”

Alice realizes that the colony doesn’t have to live in the same place just because that’s what they’ve always done. Finding a new home will likely be much easier than trying to repair a fragile iceberg. Once the colony has achieved that success, it’ll have a new and freedom-enhancing ability under its wing.

“The dramatic meeting, Louis’s ‘we are not an iceberg’ speech, Buddy’s storytelling about the seagull, the countless ice-posters, and the talking circles began to have the desired effect. Many birds, though hardly all, came to see and accept what they had to do. Complacency, fear, and confusion continued to decrease. What had started out with a threat had turned, at least in a number of bird heads and hearts, into an opportunity. Optimism and excitement grew. Communicating the new vision of a nomadic life, of a very different future, was for the most part remarkably successful. The colony had taken yet another big step forward.”

The penguins have achieved Step 4 of the Eight Steps, communicating to increase understanding and acceptance of the new project. This process has transformed most of the fear into enthusiasm, and most of the group is now onboard. Naysayers still make inroads, but the work nonetheless moves forward toward a launch date.

“NoNo was everywhere. ‘The gods are very mad,’ he told crowd after crowd. ‘They will send a gigantic killer whale to eat all our fish. Its enormous mouth will bite our iceberg into pieces and crush our children in its awful jaws. It will create five-hundred-foot waves. We must stop this nonsense about “nomads” immediately.’”

Not everyone with leadership skills is onboard with the nomad project; NoNo is the chief objector to the plan. He does an excellent job of stirring up fears and reducing participation in the project. As such, he’s one of the biggest obstacles to its success, and the crisis team must find a way to reduce his appeal.

“Many in the colony continued to be amazed at what the scouts told them, even when it was said a second or third time. Most of the birds who were skeptical of a nomadic life found themselves becoming much less skeptical. Birds who were enthusiastic felt more enthusiastic. Again, under trying circumstances, the colony had taken a very important step forward.”

The first wave of scouts returns with stories of other icebergs where the colony might live, and this news convinces skeptical birds that a new vision for the penguins’ future might be possible. During a crisis, a project that produces good results will have a powerfully beneficial effect on morale, and doubters will begin to relent. This is Step 6 of the Eight-Step Process for crisis-solving outlined in Chapter 14.

“The second wave of scouts found an iceberg that looked suitable for a number of reasons. It was: A safe home. No evidence of melting or water-filled caves. Equipped with a tall snow wall to protect them from the icy storms. Close to good fishing sites. Located on a route with enough small icebergs or ice plateaus along the way to give the youngest and oldest penguins some rest during the journey. The returning scouts were proud, excited, and very happy. The rest of the colony was proud, excited, and happy to see them.”

The project to save the colony pays off. All the careful planning, hard work, and overcoming of obstacles results in a successful outcome. The efforts prove that traditional ways and resistance to change can be supplanted by new and better approaches that garner support from nearly everyone.

“The next season, the scouts found a still better iceberg, larger and with richer fishing grounds. And though it was tempting to declare that the colony had been subjected to enough change, and should stay forever on their new home, they didn’t. They moved again. It was a critical step: not becoming complacent again and not letting up. As you might imagine, the preparation for the second move was much less traumatic than the first.”

A critical test of the colony’s resolve is when they decide to make a second move to take advantage of a new and even better iceberg. This displays the penguins’ newly acquired ability to stay dynamically involved with changing resources. A group that doesn’t rest on its accomplishments but keeps moving toward even better situations is a group that has an excellent chance of thriving well into the future.

“As time went on, the colony thrived. It grew and grew. It became more skilled at handling new dangers and grabbing new opportunities, at least in part from what it had learned about how to live from the melting adventure.”

Once the process of deliberate change becomes a habit—and once enough penguins experience the thrill of facing a crisis successfully—the colony’s culture shifts away from listless complacency and toward greater creative dynamism. Now that they know how to work together to solve big problems, they no longer shy away from challenges that may crop up. Sudden dangers are less a signal for panic and denial and more a chance to develop new and better resources and capabilities.

“There was always some tension between those who thought their role was to keep things in order and those who were urgent about producing necessary changes. But most penguins intuitively understood that you needed both to thrive in this new era.”

One of the most important points about effective change is that it’s not a battle between factions but an openness to all ideas. This doesn’t mean that the colony becomes frozen with indecision; instead, it accepts and accommodates doubts and includes those concerns while moving toward an effective solution. For example, the penguins make safety during the move a prime concern, which satisfies the doubters.

“Although Louis never said so explicitly, he felt the most remarkable change of all was in how so many members of the colony had grown less afraid of change. The army of volunteers was now an irresistible force of change. And none of those powerful penguins would ever want to miss again the excitement and the learning that happens to all of us when you come together with others to make something extraordinary happen.”

The great lesson of the move to a new iceberg is that the colony overcomes its inertia and becomes willing to change. The penguins work together, making use of many talented individuals instead of relying on the usual leaders. They learn that they can meet challenges and thrive in the process.

“The specific way in which our friends from Antarctica solved their problem and turned it into an opportunity is in fact what we find among the most successful and innovative organizations today, whether they have 100 people or 100,000 people, are privately owned or public, or are high tech or low tech.”

The penguins find ways to respond to the shifting demands of their iceberg crisis. Their inclusive responses to the doubters, creative solutions to problems that arise, and ability to keep the colony on track closely follow the Eight Step Process described in Chapter 14. The story’s purpose is to clarify how that process can guide groups through any difficulty.

“Who are the Freds that see the opportunities and threats—your iceberg—facing your group, and want to proactively confront them? Is there an Alice who helps their voices be heard? How did our bird friends accomplish step one? Step two? Steps six and eight? Then take it into your world. Where are you in your change or strategy implementation process? Where have you made progress? What are some of the barriers that slow you down? On which step or steps do you need to direct your energy and attention now?”

The penguin adventure tells a story that applies to any organization. Its main heroes are common personality types that will recur in many or most groups. Knowing how they can be useful, and recruiting them to the process of change, can produce impressive results.

“[C]onsider the power of group discussion. Far too few teams going through change have a shared mental map or even a shared language of the predictable challenges they are facing and smart ways of dealing with those issues. The word ‘alignment’ is used a lot these days, and it starts here.”

Effective communication is critical to the success of group projects. When a crisis team doesn’t fully understand its own decisions and strategies, or it makes those decisions without general input, the general membership may misunderstand the goal, feel left out of the process, or have concerns that are unanswered and that cause them to balk. A far better approach is to reach out to the members in a consistent manner, engage them in conversation, and encourage them to contribute to the effort.

“We have found that an initial discussion can begin with a bit of awkwardness on the surface—since here is a serious group of adults talking about a silly fable! This can lead to nervous laughter (but laughter is not bad!) or to the person feeling the most threatened by the conversation trying to shut it down. But all it takes is one or two brave souls to ask or answer the quite rational questions, and these discussions take off.”

Frank discussions aren’t always easy, and people may feel too intimidated to raise concerns. Leaders must make clear that open conversations are important and valuable. If they listen and comment calmly and reasonably, other members will step up as well, and talking will lead to doing.

“We throw people into launching and supporting change initiatives and projects and we just assume that life and past experiences have been a good teacher for everybody to pick up today’s relevant insights and skills. But we have seen again and again that this is not necessarily true when you have to change more often and in bigger ways. Life—which means the past—can be a pretty bad teacher.”

The rate of change in the world, especially in the challenges faced by organizations, has gone up, and the need for new policies, traditions, and techniques has grown as well. The skills people need to cope with the occasional crisis now are in much greater demand, and more and more people find themselves caught up in situations that demand skills they haven’t yet developed. The first change organizations must make, then, is to acknowledge that things need to be revised, and to put in place processes and techniques that everyone can apply as they navigate the brave new world of constant change and adaptability.

“[O]ur brains are hardwired for stories. A good story is easy to absorb and remember, especially if it has emotional components. This is probably because that was how humans learned for tens of thousands of years. The leader tells the youngsters the great story about how one from their clan grabbed dinner from the mouth of the saber-toothed tiger and saved the tribe, or how he was eaten by the saber-toothed tiger. A dramatic, interesting story that has important lessons in it.”

Author John Kotter explains how a fable can impart useful information more effectively than a dry lecture on basic principles. Stories have beginnings, middles, and ends; one thing leads to another and then another, and the problem gets solved. A story’s vividness is easy to remember. Its lessons are arranged sequentially for easy use, and its outcome becomes the inspiration for a change initiative.