John Kotter - Is Your Iceberg Melting?

JOHN KOTTER: I'm John Kotter.

And just to be clear
at the beginning,

I recognize that this must look,
to most of you, pretty absurd.

This is indeed a stuffed bird.

It's an emperor penguin.

But it's-- And this is a prop
because it's not freezing

in here.

This is a nice
studio at 68 degrees.

So why are we doing this?

Well, Holger Rathgeber
and I have recently

written a book that's called
Our Iceberg is Melting.

And the book is about a
penguin colony in Antarctica.

Emperor penguins,
like our friend here.

And the book also is, in
a sense, kind of silly.

But the purpose of the book
and the lessons of the book

couldn't be more serious.

The basic structure
of the story is this.

It's a fable, takes
45 minutes to read.

There's this middle
level penguin

in the colony who starts to
notice that something's wrong.

A very curious guy.

There seems to be a piece
of the iceberg they lived on

and have lived on
for generations.

Over here, that has disappeared.

And so because he's curious,
he starts looking around,

and he discovers some
very disturbing evidence

that the iceberg
could be melting.

And worse yet, and it's a long
story, but what it boils down

to, he discovers that the
iceberg is melting in a way

that it could literally break
apart during the dead of winter

when it is literally dark down
there about 24 hours a day

with catastrophic consequences.

But he's not a boss.

He can't order anybody.

He has no credibility as a
forecaster of the weather.

And people aren't inclined to
listen to somebody who worries.

And the book is
about what Fred did.

It's a book about change.

A book about a changing world
and how you can change with it

or not change.

And in this little
fable, we have

put all of the very,
very real problems

that we found when studying
organizations in the real world.

The problems they run into when
they have difficulty even seeing

change.

The problems they run into
when they try to deal with it.

And we put in the most
clever of solutions

that we've seen real
people come up with.

So that at the end, they really
achieve something terrific.

They end up in better condition
than when they started.

And our penguins in this story,
as it turns out, are like that.

Those guys that do great,
they're very clever penguins.

And the book is
written as a fable

because I'm convinced that
more and more and more people

have to understand how
the world is changing,

the need for change, how change
works, when it works well,

or organizations are going to
have a heck of a time adapting

to an increasingly
turbulent environment

that we find out there.

And the rate of change is
not going to slow down.

The evidence is
overwhelming about that.

And this little
fable, which puts

a bit of a smile on
most people's faces

and is interesting and
fun to read, we hope.

And we have evidence, at least
so far, that a lot of people

will read it.

It will change the nature of a
conversation in an organization.

It will get issues out.

It will get people from
below initiating more.

It will reduce the
anxiety level around what

change might do to you.

And in the process,
it will help speed up

in a useful way any change
that you're embarking upon,

whether it's a new strategy,
or process engineering,

or integration of
an acquisition.

It doesn't matter.

This little kind of silly
thing can do a lot of this.

And that's why I want to
bring it to your attention.

That's why Fred wants to
bring it to your attention.

And as I said, I know this
looks a little strange.

And so does the
book, by the way.

But you'd be surprised
what it can do.

That's right, right?

He said yes.