LEADERSHIP & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

M R Jhalawad


Iceberg is a large floating mass of ice detached from

a polar glacier or ice sheet and carried out to sea.
 INTRODUCTION
This is a fable dealing with complicated subject like
Leadership & Change Management
Fables are powerful because they take serious,
confusing, and threatening subjects.
Make them clear and approachable
Fables can be memorable.
They can stimulate thoughts, teach important
lessons and motivate any one old or young- to use
those lessons
The fable that follow was inspired by John Kotters
award winning research on how successful change
happens.
 Once upon a Time
There was a penguins colony in the frozen
Antarctica on an iceberg
268 penguins were living there for many years
Iceberg was surrounded by a sea rich in food.
Fred was a cute penguin like others.
Fred was unusually curious & observant.
Fred fished less and studied the iceberg & sea more.
Fred was doing just what seemed right to him
Fred had a briefcase full of observations & ideas
He arrived at a conclusion that the iceberg is
Melting And Might Break Apart Soon.
It would be a disaster for penguins
Fred knew he had to do something
 Alice
The colony had a leadership council known as group
of ten, lead by Head Penguin
Alice was one of the ten bosses, tough & practical
She had a reputation of getting things done
Fred shared his study with Alice & told his findings
Alice said , skeptically, take me to the place that
most clearly shows the problem
Place was underneath & inside. Both moved there.
Below the surface Fred pointed out fissures & other
clear symptoms of deterioration caused by melting
Fred saw her perplexed look, so he explained her.
 Root Cause of the Problem
During a cold winter, the narrow cannels filled with
water can freeze quickly trapping water inside.
Because a freezing liquid dramatically expands in
volume , the iceberg can be broken into pieces.
Alice was shaken, she asked question after question
She assured Fred that she will take up the matter.
Alice contacted all members, asked them to see the
place. But no one was willing, they were skeptical.
Alice asked Louis, The Head of penguins to invite
Fred in next meeting to present & defend his
conclusions.
As Alice persistently insisted, The Head agreed to
invite Fred to meeting
 Personality Traits of Council Members
Two members loved to debate validity of statistics
One member would fall asleep
Another member was un comfortable with numbers
Two other members did not like to be told
Fred was to face team exhibiting above characters
Fred thought to give practical demonstration
He constructed a model of the iceberg using real
snow and ice
Meeting was at the hill top.
Fred moved the model to the
meeting place with help from
his friends previous night.
 Meeting
When Fred reached meeting place members were
looking to his model mystified and debating
Louis asked Fred to tell about his discovery.
Fred told story of his discovery & tried to explain
through his model.
There was silence when demonstration completed
Alice informed the group of having seen the spot herself
and that this cannot be ignored.
Name of one member was NoNo, responsible for
weather forecast, which invariably were wrong.
NoNo asserted that iceberg was solid & strong.
Melting is common during summer, in winter things
return to normal.
What is guarantee that data & conclusions are correct
 Practical Demonstration
Fred asked for some time and went down
He brought a glass bottle.
He explained that bottle looks like ice , but it is not
It is harder than ice, it warms up but does not melt
We could fill it with water, seal the hole & place it in
cold wind.
Tomorrow we can see whether it breaks by the force
of expanding water as it freezes?
Louis agreed for a trial & assigned this job to Buddy
Next day when bottle was brought
it was clearly broken .
They decided to call general body
meeting of the colony
 General Body meeting

Alice narrated about her journey & coming danger

The birds were stunned
Lot of arguments exchanged in favor and against.
There looked to be no unanimity.
There was suggestion to form a committee to discuss
and analyze problem.
Important thing was that the first step
REDUCING COMPLACENCY AND INCREASING
URGENCY - was taken to save the colony.
Louis thought of the next step to be taken.
Complacency
 Birds Steering Committee
Louis called Alice, Fred, Buddy, and Jordon.
Jordon was called professor because of his
intellectual abilities
Louis t0ld them that the colony need a team of
birds to guide it through this difficult period.
He believed that five of us are best team for the task
Professor asked why do you assume that five of us
can succeed?
Louis asked the professor to list strengths of all the
five members.
Jordan narrated as:
 Strength Analysis
Louis head penguins. Enough experience to be
wise.
Alice practical. Aggressive. Making things happen.
Does not care about status and treat everyone same
Buddy boyishly handsome. No ambition, Trusted
Fred younger. Amazingly curious and creative.
Level - headed. Insufficient data to assess his IQ.
Me logical. Fascinated by interesting questions.
He said Louis, What you said is remarkably logical.
They were not very sure where & how to start
The Head found a way out to begin with.
 Turning Five Birds Into A Close Knit Team
Louis suggested that it would help if all of us close
our eyes for a moment.
All followed him
Louis asked to point to East keeping eyes closed.
All did so.
Now open your eyes Louis asked them
All pointed in different direction.
The Professor indicated that Louis like to turn the
five birds into a close knit team.
Within two days penguins certainly looked much
less like individuals pointing in different direction
Louis succeeded in pulling together a team to guide
the needed change
 Finding The Way Out
Alice suggested to ask other birds to find solutions
One bird suggested to drill a hole from surface down
to channel to let out water & pressure.
The Professor pointed that if all the birds work 24
hours , it will take 5.2 years
Another idea came to find a perfect iceberg.
Few more ideas were presented but they were not
accepted. Birds were getting disparate
An elderly bird suggested we should do what Fred
did after knowing the problem
Walk around keeping our eyes & ear open. Be curious
Louis accepted the suggestion. Let us try new
approach
 A Ray of Hope
They went west. Saw surroundings & heard others
After an hour or so Fred said, Up there.
Fred was looking at a seagull. Normally there is no seagull
in Antarctica, they all stared
What is it, asked Buddy.
Fred replied he does not know. But a bird cannot fly
forever. Must have a home on ground.
Is seagull trying to live with them?, It
could freeze as a rock in less than a week.
Has Seagull lost the way?
But, not looking afraid
What if moving from one piece
of land to another was just the way
it lived Nomad. A wild idea came to Freds mind
 A New Way Of Life
Alice said, You are not suggesting ..?
The Head Penguin responded by saying , We are
thinking about possibility of a new & different way of
living. We need to think through carefully.
 A New Way Of Life
Alice suggested we should know more about the bird

They all searched the seagull and found in half an

hour.

In warm & gentle voice Buddy introduced all

members to the seagull.

Seagull listened, but kept a distance

Buddy asked seagull, Where do you come from &

what are you looking for here?

 A New Way Of Life
Seagull said, I am a scout. I fly ahead of the clan
looking for where we might live next.
In reply to The Professors questions seagull told of
his clan s nomadic existence.
He spoke about what they are, what it was like to be
scout
By this time seagull began to turn blue and have
trouble speaking , he said good-bye and flew away
Professor & Buddy were not convinced that what was
good for seagull, could be good for them also.
We are different
There were lot of discussions but they could not
arrive to any consensus .
 Decision Making
Following day Louis called a meeting of the entire
colony.
In response to quarries from Louis all members
agreed that they are disciplined, have sense of
responsibility, stand for brotherhood.
Then Louis asked, Are these beliefs, shared value are
linked to a large piece of ice!!
Alice shouted, Not. She was followed by the
professor, Fred & few of younger birds.
Louis said, I would like you to listen to Buddy.
Buddy narrated the story seagull is a scout for his
clan, he explores territory to find good place for his
colony to move next .
 Decision Making
They are free! They go where ever they like to go.
Penguins had many questions and were sharing with
others. Louis let the jabbering go on for a while.
When noise subsided he told crowed, This iceberg
is not who we are. It is only where we now live.
We are smarter, stronger, and more capable.
So why cannot we do what they have done, & better
We can leave it behind, let it melt, let it break
We will find other place to live.
When necessary we will move again.
We will never have to put our families at risk.
We will prevail
 Impact

Impact of Louis talk can be assessed as

1. 30% were convinced

2. 30% were digesting what they heard

3. 20% were very confused

4. 10% were skeptical but not hostile

5. 10% thought the plan was completely absurd

 Ups & Downs
Alice explained her latest ideas .
Let us put every where slogans
We need to remind birds what they have heard
We need much more communication
Communicating the new vision of nomadic life for
the most part was successful
A dozen birds expressed interest in being scout.
Many more birds who were enthusiastic were
becoming frosted.
All sorts of information started flowing good, bad,
encouraging, discouraging
NoNo was misguiding people.
 Concrete Actions
Some urgent actions were needed.
Louis asked Buddy to select motivated scouts & send
them off to search for potential homes.
Scouts were successful in their mission to find new
iceberg for the colony
Next morning Louis called the scouts, heard them
and selected another team to explore promising
possibilities at iceberg suggested by first team.
Second team of scouts found an iceberg that look
suitable for a number of reasons. A safe home.
They decided to move there on May the 12th just
before the start of Antarctica's winter.
All birds were asked to get ready for this
 Outcome
They finally moved to new colony
As time went on, the colony thrived, it grew & grew
It became more skilled at handling new dangers that
it learned from melting adventure.
So many members of the colony had grown less afraid
of change
They learned the specific steps needed to make
adjustments to new circumstances
They worked well together to keep leaping into a
better & better future
Today, the colony moves around like nomads
Most have accepted it. Some love it. Some never will
 Fables Impact
Fables can be fun, but their power, as with
penguins story, lies in helping to act
smarter, producing more, achievement, less
confusion, lower stress, and a general sense
of being in control through understanding
what is going around you.
People from all walks of life have
consciously used the Penguins story to
better achieve what they want and what
their organization need.
 Understanding Change Management
Ask yourself questions such as:

Who are the NoNo around me?

Who are the Alices & Freds?

Who am I?

This should be supplemented by Kotters research on

successful change
Let us study Kotters famous elements of change
management
First Step - Set The Stage

Create sense of
urgency
Help others to see the
need for change and
importance of acting
immediately
Second Step Pull Together the
Guiding Team
Pull together the guiding
team

Make sure that there is a

powerful group guiding the
change with leadership ,
credibility, communication,
authority, analytical skills.
Third Step Decide What to Do

Develop the change vision &

strategy.

Clarify how the future will be

different from the past and
how you can make that
future a reality
Fourth Step Make It Happen

Communicate for
understanding & Buy In.

Make sure as many others

as possible understand &
accept the vision &
strategy
Fifth Step Empower Others
To Act

Remove as many
barriers as possible so
that those who want
to make the vision a
reality can do it.
Sixth Step Produce Short - Term
Wins

Create some visible,

unambiguous success

as soon as possible
Seventh Step Do Not Let Up
Press harder & faster
after the first success.

Be relentless with
initiating change after
change until vision is
a reality
Eighth Step Make It Stick
Create a new culture.

Hold on to new ways

of behaving , and
make sure they
succeed, until they
become strong
enough to replace old
tradition
Pay Off Of This Exercise
When you act in
concert with others,
Because you all have
read, reflected, and
discussed the same
fable, the end result
can be very powerful
Source:
OUR ICEBERG IS MELTING
Changing & Succeeding Under Any Conditions
JOHN KOTTER
The award-Winning Author
From Harvard Business School
HOLGER RATHGEBER
Publisher:
St. Press New York