This presentation is based on famous book 'My Iceberg is melting.' The author has taken great pain to explain principles of leadership, teamwork & change management in simple yet appealing manners.

1. LEADERSHIP & CHANGE MANAGEMENT
M R Jhalawad

2. Iceberg is a large floating mass of ice detached from
a polar glacier or ice sheet and carried out to sea.
हिमखंड हिमशैल

3. 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 Kotter’s
award winning research on how successful change
happens.

4. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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:

13. 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.

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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 Fred’s mind

17. 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.

18. 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?

19. 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 Professor’s 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 .

20. 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 .

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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.

24. 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

26. 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

27. 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.
Fable’s Impact

28. Understanding Change Management
 Ask yourself questions such as:
 This should be supplemented by Kotter’s research on
successful change
 Let us study Kotter’s famous elements of change
management
Who are the NoNo around me?
Who are the Alices & Freds?
Who am I?

30. First Step - Set The Stage
 Create sense of
urgency
Help others to see the
need for change and
importance of acting
immediately

31. 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.

32. 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

33. Fourth Step – Make It Happen
 Communicate for
understanding & Buy In.
Make sure as many others
as possible understand &
accept the vision &
strategy

34. 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.

35. Sixth Step – Produce Short - Term
Wins
 Create some visible,
unambiguous success
as soon as possible

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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