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| Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions | 
 enlarge | Authors: John Kotter, Holger Rathgeber, Spenser Johnson
Creator: Peter Mueller
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $8.75
You Save: $11.20 (56%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $8.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  (64 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1182
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.6
ISBN: 031236198X
Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1
EAN: 9780312361983
ASIN: 031236198X
Publication Date: September 5, 2006
Release Date: September 5, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Anyone in Business Should Read this Book July 10, 2008
It took me less than two hours to read this book, and it was truly worth the time. Presented in "fable" format about a group of penguins, the story contains a true test of how to deal with change...a change that will come whether you want it to or not.
I work in the media world, and would make this mandatory reading for anyone in that space. Most people in our world even see the iceberg melting, but are hesitant to do anything about it. This book throws out learning principles like Dr. Seuss, with style and effectiveness. Highly recommend.
Simple, but effective, Story July 9, 2008
This bok is a quick read, probably less than an hour. The book talks about how to recognize when change is needed, and how to manage a group through the process of change, but does it in a fun way. The book is a fable, the story of a group of penguins who discover that the iceberg they live on is melting, and have to figure out what (if anything) to do about it.
While it sounds silly, and does contain some humor, sometimes a simple story can convey many important lessons. This is one of those times. In reading the story, I kept thinking back to teams I'd worked on, and seeing similarities between particular colleagues and particular penguins.
As the authors point out at the end, much of the power of this story is in it's simplicity. By stripping it down to the essential details, it's much easier to follow the process. They also point out that if a group of people are all familiar with the story, it gives them a common language to use when dealing with these issues.
 A Communist fable? June 24, 2008
12 out of 18 found this review helpful
Although "Our Iceberg" is written in the style of an illustrated children's book, my first reaction to this fable was a bit of confusion. That was especially true of JK's first point, creating a sense of urgency. How does one identify when it's appropriate to do this? The fable conveniently is based on a life-and-death matter facing the penguin colony. But are all changes a company needs to make of the same priority? Isn't there a "cry wolf" effect if you don't modulate the volume on some matters? The book doesn't give any guidance about this.
But the more I thought about the book, the more surprised I was to find some parallels with, of all things, Communism. (NOTE: SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW.) For example:
@ the communal sharing of fish for the Scouts (@102-103);
@ the Heroes Day Celebration (like Heroes of the Revolution) (@102-109; attribution of this idea to a child is also a typical literary trope from Maoist propaganda);
@ the use of saturation propaganda, in the form of slogans and posters all over the iceberg and even underwater (@80-81);
@ the silencing of dissent (No-No, the dissenting penguin) in the form of constant harassment by a team member who followed him everywhere and jabbered at him (@90-91)-- like the techniques used against dissenters during the Cultural Revolution in China;
@ the glorified image of the team of five change leaders, especially the picture @ 55-56, where they have a kind of glow behind them -- very similar to all those Soviet-style pictures;
@ the way the the original Head Penguin becomes a "grandfather figure" for the whole colony (@122) -- much like propaganda posters showing Lenin and, later, Mao similing at children and dandling babies; and even
@ the threatened destruction of the iceberg "from within" due to its own internal weaknesses -- like the Communists said would happen to capitalism (@16-17, and elsewhere), and
@ the new nomadic way of life of the penguins, who would forever be expanding their territory (@117-119)-- like the Marxist-Leninist idea that the Revolution would spread all over the world.
Isn't it ironic then, that this book is being handed out in the hundreds by some CEOs, and even shared with children?
The quashing of dissent is one of the more troubling features of this tale. Thanks to the device of its being a story with an omniscient narrator, we are able to "know" in advance that the prognosis about the iceberg is probably right. Moreover, it's an event based on the laws of physics, and can be demonstrated using physical principles (with the shattered bottle). In real business, we seldom have such a priori knowledge of the rightness of our predictions, nor is that rightness often so neatly demonstrable. This book teaches that we shoud just trust the leader's "visionary" speeches regardless, and that those who don't should be marginalized.
If this comparison is apt, it wouldn't be the first time capitalists have handed out Communist literature within a company. In 1939, the scion of Standard Oil (and future US Vice President) Nelson A. Rockefeller made company executives in Venezuela read Marx's Das Kapital, in order to understand unrest among the company's oil field workers there. (See G. Colby & C. Dennett's "Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon - Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil" (1995) @90.) Unlike the case with "Our Iceberg", though, Rockefeller's goal wasn't to convert his staff to believe what was in the book.
I recognize this analysis might not persuade everyone. You might believe "Our Iceberg" is 100% capitalist all the way, without questioning whether capitalist and Communist glorifications of leadership might have more in common than we'd like to admit. If so, then when you're handed this simplistic fable and told to read it, you might at least pause to consider: why can't modern CEOs emulate Rockefeller's respect for his staff's intellectual level? Is it the respect or the intellectual level that has fallen farther? If you can figure that out, you're probably on your way to identifying some real problems in your organization.
 Intuitive appeal towards the understanding change June 24, 2008
This book uses a fable to illustrate the importance of understanding change as a constant, and the need for us to embrace this fact through looking at the broader spectrum.
Be in control of your own destiny. June 3, 2008
Make no mistake...if you are asked to read this book or "Where's My Cheese?", you can expect some drastic changes in your organization. It's management's way of preparing people for these events.
This change will be in the form of restructuring, layoffs, budget cuts, position eliminations, and anything else associated a "crisis".
You, the reader, also need to make your own choices based on the information available to you and I don't believe this is sufficiently covered in the book. Ultimately, you need to decide for yourself if a different career path or retirement is the best course of action for yourself and your family...and not blindly buying in to the vision of the current management.
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