Product Description

This charming story about a penguin colony in Antarctica illustrates key truths about how deal with the issue of change: handle the challenge well and you can prosper greatly; handle it poorly and you put yourself at risk. The penguins are living happily on their iceberg as they have done for many years. Then one curious penguin discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home - and pretty much no one listens to him. The characters in this fable are like people we recognise, even ourselves. Their story is one of resistance to change and heroic action, confusion and insight, seemingly intractable obstacles and the most clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles. It is a story that is occuring in different forms around us today - but the penguins handle change a great deal better than most of us.

Based on John Kotter's pioneering work on how to make smart change happen faster and better, the lessons you can learn from this short and easy-to-read book will serve you well in your job, in your family, and in your community. And these lessons are becoming ever more important as the world around us changes faster and faster.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7420 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Robin Geffen, Financial Times Magazine
'It promotes the idea of in-depth thinking...in business it is
important to listen to different strands of thought'

About the Author

John Kotter has been on the faculty at Harvard Business School since 1972. He is the author of 11 books that have won awards, honours, or been business bestsellers. Professor Kotter gives speeches and seminars at Harvard and around the world. Holger Rathgeber works for Becton Dickinson, one of the world's leading medical technology companies.

Customer Reviews

Worthwhile and accessible read
I've just finished reading this short book. It explains Kotter's Eight Step Process for Change that he first described in more conventional form in Leading Change and then Heart of Change. It tells the story of a colony of penguins who eventually commit to abandoning the iceberg they have inhabited for generations.

Whilst it won;t make the Man Booker shortlist next year, I found the fable subtle, realistic and rich enough to keep me reading, and it didn't take long to read the 147 pages of large type, several of which were devoted to some very attractive colour illustrations of points in the story. The story illustrations of Kotter's model were good, and the penguin characters had some familiarity, particularly NoNo the influential saboteur, who did all he could to oppose the change.

This is designed as a more accessible format for the type of manager who would rather freeze on an ice floe than read a research-based management book such as Kotter's original Leading Change. The authors researched how some of the key messages of Kotter's work could be better communicated through story-telling and enhanced by good pictures.

And I think the authors have pulled it off. I can see this book going down well in certain team contexts or change management training courses. Well worth checking out, and it won't take much time to read.

Penguins Learn to Stick Their Heads in the Ice Beneath Them

My favorite part of John Kotter's classic, Leading Change, is the cover image of a penguin leaping across a space between two blocks of ice while 10 other penguins look on from the side the penguin leaped from. Here is one case where you can tell the book by its cover.

Obviously, that wonderful image penetrated deeply into the consciousness of Holger Rathgeber in designing this penguin-based version of how a leader might deal with the problem in Who Moved My Cheese? (changing conditions affect survival)? If you miss that connection to Who Moved My Cheese? there's a foreword by Spencer Johnson to make it clearer.

The Emperor Penguins have lived on an iceberg in Antarctica for many years. They planned to always live there. But Fred had a different idea: The iceberg was melting in a way that meant the possibility of a catastrophic collapse in mid-Winter. The rest of the book explores how Fred's knowledge is translated into useful action for the 268 penguins that lived in the colony.

The fable naturally draws on John Kotter's famous eight steps for leading change which I have paraphrased below into seven to make them easier to understand:

1. Get peoples' attention.
2. Establish a change-leading team.
3. Agree on the results you want.
4. Allow needed changes.
5. Show regular progress.
6. Stay focused.
7. Build new habits that will serve you well after the change is done.

Fables are difficult to write. I admire John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber for taking a crack at it.

But if you pay attention to the facts, you'll find that their story doesn't quite make sense. Emperor Penguins live on the pack ice that forms seasonally. As the pack ice retreats, they simply move to the edge. Seldom would they stay on an iceberg. Why? Because the ice breaks up when the youngsters are old enough to swim to the main ice pack. If you read science articles, you'll also learn that what is more likely to threaten a penguin community is that their iceberg drifts into an area where the winter freeze isolates the colony too far from the open sea. The penguins have to walk to the sea rather than dive in to get food.

Also, most icebergs are going to eventually release into warmer seas and melt that way rather than be split by freezing water as described in this book.

If you look at the leadership, it's also very male dominated. The story would be more realistic if it included more male-female interaction.

The problem of survival in the face of the environment seems more akin to what a town council might face in deciding to relocate away from a leaking dam that what a business organization might face.

I could go on, but I'm sure you see the point: A better fable could have been written (even if it had to involve penguins).

I also compared the book to Leading Change and The Heart of Change. Unless you are only able to learn by reading fables, both of those books are much better on this subject.

My suggestion is that you let the iceberg melt and read about how people lead instead in Dr. Kotter's other excellent books.

By no means a Change Management bible, but a great introduction...
I was recommended this book in a Change Management course I went on recently. A quick 1 hour read on the train back from London, this book isn't intended to be a Change Management bible, but it is a cute fable that does introduce you to Kotter's 'Eight Steps To Transformation Change' - I would recommend this as a great book to give out to a team undergoing change.