Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

by John Kotter, Holger Rathgeber Narrated by Oliver Wyman

Overview

The revised and updated tenth anniversary edition of the classic, beloved business fable that has changed millions of lives in organizations around the world.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a simple story about doing well under the stress and uncertainty of rapid change. Based on the award-winning work of Harvard Business School's John Kotter, it can help you and your colleagues thrive during tough times.

On an iceberg near the coast of Antarctica, 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 almost no one listens to him.

The characters in the story--Fred, Alice, Louis, Buddy, the Professor, and NoNo--are like people you probably recognize in your own organization, including yourself. Their tale is one of resistance to change and heroic action, seemingly intractable obstacles and clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles. The penguins offer an inspiring model as we all struggle to adapt to new circumstances.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is based on John Kotter's pioneer­ing research into the eight steps that can produce needed change in any sort of group. After finishing the story, you'll have a powerful framework for influencing your own team, no matter how big or small.

This tenth anniversary edition preserves the text of the timeless story, together with new illustrations, a revised afterword, and a Q&A with the authors about the responses they've gotten over the past decade. Prepare to be both enlightened and delighted, whether you're already a fan of this classic fable or are discovering it for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

In every facet of life, change is king. But learning to cope with changing situations requires forethought, planning, and cooperation. Our Iceberg Is Melting spins a global warming fable about Antarctic penguins to delineate strategies that any corporate community can use to survive and thrive in a changing business environment. With eight succinct, easy-to-apply steps, author John Kotter sets out the actions most essential to enacting your company's response to evolving conditions. Cool rules for swimming to safe waters.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

This fable of penguins facing a threat of survival mirrors a business organization facing similar danger. The story is complete with characters such as NoNo and the Professor, whose equivalents might be found in any business. Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor, and Rathgeber, an executive with a medical technology company, define the penguins' eight steps to making a successful organizational change. Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions can help companies face their own icebergs. Copyright © 2007 Soundview Executive Book Summaries

From the Publisher

Whether you work in a business or the business of life, everyone from CEOs to high school students can gain from what they take from this story.”
––from the foreword by Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of Who Moved My Cheese?
 
“. . . companies should buy a copy for everyone from the CEO to the stock clerk.”
––Michelle Archer, USA Today
 
“I ordered and distributed sixty copies, evaluated its effect on our change effort, and then ordered five hundred more. . . . This is a gem.”
––Heidi King, Department of Defense
 
“The penguins in this book will not only steal your heart, they’ll make you a smarter person.”
––Mary Tyler Moore, actress, producer, director, and Academy Award nominee

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172106927
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	01/19/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	612,338

Read an Excerpt

What People Are Saying

“Our Iceberg Is Melting is superb. It embodies powerful messages that can help a broad audience. It covers all the steps to success in a changing world, from finding the substantial issues, aligning with a potent champion, charting the course, getting buy-in, dealing with those who want no change, and so on.”

—CHRIS HAND
“Never have I read a parable in a business book that took a complex issue like change management and distilled it down into a simple story for all to understand. This is the ideal follow-on to Leading Change and The Heart of Change. A must-read for anyone dealing with managing change.”

—RICHARD J. KOSINSKI
“Our Iceberg Is Melting is fantastic—offbeat, but right on. We should make everyone in Washington, D.C., read it.”

—JOHN BATTEN
“I came across Our Iceberg Is Melting in May, ordered and distributed sixty copies in June, evaluated its effect on our change effort, and then ordered five hundred more copies in September. This is a gem.”

—HEIDI KING
“This is the easiest-to-read yet most informative book I have ever seen. Setting one of management’s biggest challenges—‘what problem, I don’t see a problem’—in the context of a melting iceberg and a determined penguin was a stroke of sheer genius.”

—MICHAEL DIMELOW
“I have followed Kotter’s work for years, respect it greatly, use it with my clients, and know its unique power to help people and organizations perform better. This latest effort—this little penguin tale—is, in my opinion, the best and most useful book he has ever written.”

—ALAN FROHMAN
“As a result of the book and my sharing it with a few people in the organization, we have moved quickly on several fronts. We are galvanized to go ahead instead of further studying, more organizing, and so on. It is making a difference for us.”

—TOM CURLEY
“It’s a great book. It does an excellent job of communicating in a simple and humorous way the key challenges of leading change. We can easily identify with the characters. It allows a light-hearted discussion of very difficult issues.”

—DEB KARSTETTER
“When I was a child in France, I was first introduced to the French classic The Little Prince. I reread this marvelous book while in college and many times since as an adult. It is a book that keeps me growing and thinking. I can see Our Iceberg Is Melting becoming The Little Prince for the twenty-first century.”

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Our Iceberg Is Melting"
by .
Copyright © 2016 John Kotter.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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