42 pages • 1-hour read
Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions
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Introduction-Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary: “Welcome”
The book uses a time-honored teaching device, the fable, to make clear the methods organizations can use when dealing with changes in the modern world. Based on author Kotter’s “award-winning research on how successful change really happens” (3), the story teaches effective strategies that, when applied, can turn crises into opportunities.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Our Iceberg Will Never Melt”
A colony of 268 penguins lives on an iceberg off the coast of Antarctica. As far back as the penguins can remember, the colony has been there. It’s very cold, and they huddle together like a big family. They’re emperor penguins, the largest kind. Tall and beautiful, their coloring makes them look as if they’re wearing tuxedos.
One of them, Fred, is very curious and observant, often off by himself taking notes on what he sees. He’s alarmed by what he has noticed: The iceberg is melting and on the verge of breaking.
Chapter 2 Summary: “The Iceberg Is Melting and Might Break Apart Soon!”
Chapter 3 Summary: “What Do I Do Now?”
The colony’s Leadership Council, the Group of Ten, includes Alice, a pragmatic problem-solver who’s not as aloof as the other leaders. Fred goes to her with his worries about the iceberg. She’s skeptical—at first, she wonders if Fred’s having emotional problems—but she’s willing to see his evidence.
They dive into the sea, avoiding hungry orcas and seals, and inspect their floating home’s underside. Fred points out cracks and caves, signs that the iceberg is melting. These fissures and openings can fill with seawater, which expands when it later freezes, a process that could break up the iceberg. Alice realizes that Fred is on to something.
She decides to think on it and then speak to the other leaders. She’ll need Fred’s help explaining things, and she warns him there’ll be a lot of resistance. Fred feels better because someone in authority listened to him; he feels worse because a lot of penguins will fight against him. Yet the coming winter freeze lies only two months ahead.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Problem? What Problem?”
Alice speaks to the Leadership, including Head Penguin Louis. Most listen, but many wonder if she’s having marital problems. None want to dive down and look at the alleged cracks, and Louis diplomatically resists having Fred do a presentation at a Leadership meeting, but Alice cajoles him into it.
Fred learns that statistics will upset many of the leaders, as they won’t like being instructed by outsiders. Instead, he builds a model of the iceberg out of ice and snow and, with friends helping—and grumbling—manages to get the model pushed to the top of the steep hill where the leaders meet.
Using the model, Fred explains his findings. The leaders seem interested. Then the penguin NoNo argues that Fred is merely a “junior” penguin, and his theory isn’t 100% assured. Fred agrees but points out that, if they neglect the problem and the iceberg breaks up, it will happen during the coldest time of year, killing many of them. Alice adds that if disaster strikes, parents of dead children won’t react well when they learn that the leaders did nothing because “the information was not 100 percent credible” (30).
Some leaders want to form a committee to investigate further, and, meanwhile, keep their discovery a secret. Alice says that’s good enough for normal problems but not for this one. Instead, they should call an assembly of the entire colony and seek consensus on a plan of action. Several leaders have a fit over this idea.
Fred fetches a glass bottle to the meeting. His father found it, and he doesn’t know what it is, but he thinks it can be filled with seawater and left out to freeze. If the bottle breaks, this will be evidence that his concerns are valid and that a general assembly should convene. If it doesn’t break, they needn’t worry so much.
Alice quietly admires Fred’s daring. Louis agrees to the test, and Fred pours water into the bottle and seals the top with a well-fitting fish bone. He gives the bottle to Buddy, who’s trusted by all. The next day, Buddy returns with the bottle. It’s cracked, damaged because the freezing water inside expanded.
The leaders agree to call an assembly. Most of the adult penguins attend. Alice describes her visit to the underside of the iceberg; Fred shows his model and describes the problem; Buddy tells about the glass bottle. Louis declares that there’s a real problem that needs solving. He and Alice later make visits to the central community gathering place, where they admit they don’t yet know the answer and hope that everyone will contribute solutions. This calms everyone down as they focus on thinking about what to do.
Introduction-Chapter 4 Analysis
The opening chapters present the problem—the penguin colony’s iceberg home may break apart—and describe the beginnings of the process the colony develops for solving the crisis.
The book is a “business fable,” a category of stories about characters who face financial or life crises and must learn important lessons that they either acquire through experience or at the feet of wise counselors. The book’s brief introduction is by Spencer Johnson, author of another bestselling business fable, Who Moved My Cheese? which also deals with a group grown complacent that must solve a critical problem or face disaster. Another example is The Energy Bus, about a transport filled with people who inspire each other to greater achievement. (Study guides for both books are available at SuperSummary.com.)
The authors choose Emperor penguins for their memorable characters. Emperors are the largest of the penguins, reaching more than three feet in height and weighing as much as 100 pounds. They walk upright and look like they’re wearing tuxedos; they’re also vividly interesting, widely known animals. These characteristics make them a good choice, as they bear a mild, likable resemblance to humans.
The iceberg crisis stands in for any large, dangerous problem that might suddenly confront an organization, especially today when the speed of technical and social change accelerates and the resulting crises multiply. The authors specify that the colony contains 268 penguins. This suggests a medium-sized organization, so that readers can shape its lessons to fit whatever size their group of concern happens to be. The colony, as a general-purpose association, can represent any type of organization—business, charitable, government, community, recreational—that the reader might be involved in.
Unlike most physical materials, water expands when it freezes. This is why, when people put a full glass bottle in the freezer to cool it quickly and then forget to take it out, the bottle often bursts open. Penguin Fred’s broken bottle demonstrates the same point, which implies that the colony’s iceberg, whose fissures are filling with water that freezes in winter, will similarly break apart. Fred’s concerns, and the resistance he faces from other penguins, mirror what happens when people in big, complacent organizations notice problems caused by changing conditions and run into a gauntlet of dissidents who like things the way they are and don’t want to be confronted with the need for change.
In Chapter 4, the Leadership Council calls the colony together and explains the crisis. The Council makes a point of stressing the urgency of the situation. This is the first step listed in Chapter 14’s “Eight Step Process of Successful Change,” the centerpiece of the book’s management theory and a summary of its lessons. Beginning with Chapter 4, each of the next several chapters focuses on one of the eight steps.
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