Our Iceberg is Melting... staying adventurous

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Our Iceberg is Melting by John Kotter features the 8-step process to successful change...
told in a fable about a Penguin Colony.

America is on the cusp of the biggest sociological, philosophical, and economic change ever. It may be the most dramatic and revolutionary of all time. From lifestyle perspective to economic prowess, the psychology, cultural and relational framework is shifting. Like an iceberg taking on water in its middle but not discovered until winter comes, it can be too late to make adjustments.

New trends in how we live and do things and philosophies on how we live and do things, will soon have dramatic impact on our culture.

So how do we manage change constructively?

Our Iceberg is Melting gives us a course outline to follow.
More and more biz books are written for communication and educational effectiveness today. Our Iceberg is Melting hallows this style. It teaches and helps you apply to real life the principles for change as you read.

Using a fable along with key principles outlined helps your mind to put this in to real world perspective.

First the principles, then a summary of the fable.

The Eight Step process of Successful Change.

Set the Stage
1. Create a sense of urgency.
Help others see the need for change and the importance of immediate action.
2. Pull together the guiding team... with varied skills for the task to convince all minds and handle uniquely different situations.

Decide What to Do
3. Develop the change vision and strategy.
Clarify how the future will be different, be better, and how you can make it into a reality.

Make it Happen
4. Communicate for understanding and buy in.
Make sure as many as possible understand and accept the vision.
5. Empower others to act.
Remove as many barriers and obstacles as you can so those who want to make the vision a reality can do so.
6. Produce short-term wins.
Create some visible, unambiguous successes as soon as you can.
7. Don't let up.
Press harder and faster after the first successes.
Be relentless with initiating change after change until the vision is reality.

Make it Stick
8. Create a new culture.
Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions.

The importance of thinking and feeling differently.
Thinking differently can help change behavior and lead to better results.
--collect data, analyze.
--present information logically to change people's thinking.
--change thinking, in turn, can change behavior
Feeling differently can change behavior MORE and lead to even better results.
--create surprising, compelling, and, if possible, visual experience.
--the experiences change how people feel about a situation.
--a change in feeling can lead to significant change in behavior.

The Fable
Once upon a time, there was a Penguin Colony on an iceberg in Antarctica, near Cape Washington. They lived there many years and they all were a happy, astute bunch. Their natural elegance of appearance as penguins made them look like they walked proudly in tuxedos all the time. Out of the 268 penguins, Fred was somewhat of a loner. He liked to hang out looking across the sea and seem to also be observing and noting things. A little different bird in the colony but his curiosity and observations skills led him to draw up some interesting conclusions. He carried a briefcase of all his notes of his observations.

But Fred was getting more and more concerned... or, frankly, very worried and troubled. So much so that one day he decided to meet with one of the colony council birds, Alice. She was well respected by most, and Fred felt he could talk to her.

He told Alice he was very worried about the nature of the iceberg they were on. Alice saw it as a great place to live and they had been there for a long time. But Fred said its melting... and we can't see it. Where was it melting?... in the center. He took Alice for a swim under the iceberg to show her. She saw what Fred was seeing. There were many channels of water underneath and a large body of water in the middle. When Fred got back he pointed out... that when winter comes the channels will freeze first, trap the water inside and it will expand when it freezes causing the iceberg to break up into many sections. It would cause havoc for the community and many young and old could die.

Alice saw Fred's point and suggested they get a key few of the council together to share his observations. Well, some in the council bought into Fred's story and some didn't. Fred then used a bottle that floated up one day to demonstrate what happens when a sealed bottle full of water freezes. The council members came to inspect the bottle the next day. Like Fred suggested, it broke into numerous fragments. The Council decided we must do something about it. They decided to have a meeting with the whole community. Some felt it could cause fear and panic break out. Although, it was necessary.

They presented their observations and set out a challenge to the group to come up with ideas to solve this problem. Many ideas came up, maybe not the best ones, so they agreed to continue to walk around the iceberg and dream up more ideas.

Then Fred had an unusual observation, as usual for Fred, when looking up in the air. He saw a Seagull. What is a Seagull doing here? He suggested they interview the Seagull. They did and found out he was a scout for other Seagulls and they were constantly looking for places that had food. This gave them the idea. Why not become nomadic penguins and find a better iceberg with great fish. They lived off of fish and needed good fish inhabited areas. The scouting idea was scary for some (mostly moms of the excited young wanting to be scouts) as the young adventurous scouts could get lost and or eaten by whales.

They began preparing the community for a potential new lifestyle and living on new icebergs... even better than the one they live on and love and adore. After the first scout mission, the scouts said they found several possibilities. So they began to narrow them down.

They had some naysayers causing trouble and saying all this was foolishness and we would all die. The young penguins were starting to have nightmares. The core team had a variety of personalities, so each one was strategically assigned to a key person causing the problems to change their way of thinking. It worked. They dispelled the fear factors emerging.

Being nomadic penguins was something no one was used to, but it seemed like a better solution than to try to fix the iceberg by neutralizing the problem by drilling holes so the water could escape the caverns( a lot of penguins pecking to make the holes), or the idea of using whale glue to glue the cracks back together. Moving to a possible better iceberg and keep looking for a better icebergs was looked on the best way to go. It meant having scouts at work continually, and keeping them fed... most penguins fed for themselves and weren't used to feeding others outside their own family. But the scouts needed to scout and so food needed to be provided for them. Again, innovation played a part in finding a solution for this too.

The fable cleverly outlines examples of the change process and things you run into and how to handle them. The story re-enacted urgency,
getting authority figures behind it,
pulling together and creating a balanced core team
(carefully selecting this guiding group),
forming a new vision
and communicating the new vision successfully,
making everyone feel empowered,
removing obstacles as they came up,
creating short-term wins to keep everyone encouraged,
and not letting up.

They never moved around before. It became a tradition of lifestyle. So they had to strategically execute the change effort so it would not be impeded by stubborn, hard-to-die traditionalists. They broke tradition and became nomadic. But each move was one to a better iceberg with better fish opportunities. Change was not for change sake, but for constantly getting better, improving their position in life.

The moral of the story...
In a constantly changing world, we should constantly be moving into the benefits of what is changing around us.

More resources on change by Kotter:
http://www.ouricebergismelting.com/
http://www.theheartofchange.com/
http://www.johnkotter.com/

The premier change agent was Jesus.
He came and presented views that every one was fascinated by. The people listened to him and were amazed by him. Why was he so successful?

He narrowed things down to one word... Love.
To love God with all your heart, mind, soul and body.
To love others as much as you love yourself and how you love yourself.

Love is forgiving, forbearing and tolerating. Like the woman caught in sin. The law said to stone her... Jesus forgave her.

In Luke 10 he told His disciples to go to the places where people were. Live with them.
"The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and
sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he
planned to visit. These were his instructions to them:
'The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray
to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to
send more workers into his fields. Now go, and remember
that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.' "

"Don't hesitate to accept hospitality,
because those who work deserve their pay."

"Heal the sick, and tell them,
'The Kingdom of God is near you now.' "
(Luke 10: 1-11, NLT)

The Law of the day said to "come" and bring sacrifices.
He said to "go" and show mercy to the undeserving.

He said to be merciful...
I don't want your sacrifices. He had a plan. He was to be their sacrifice. Man could not live up to the law, so he instituted forgiveness. He knows our nature and we can't and don't do what we say we should. So he said be open and admit your shortcomings and know there is forgiveness and tolerance. For, His sacrifice would cover it all.

A very different way of thinking of the day. Maybe even today. He even demonstrated dramatic change again. He died and left his old body and came back in three days with a completely different body. He said if you die in My Spirit, the Spirit of Me in You will live forever. This new body was so different. Most didn't even recognize Him.

He appeared suddenly and disappeared suddenly with this new body. He said to keep watch because He will again come back suddenly. He left again, and this time, he didn't leave the body he had but went straight up in the air. Like in a cloud of sorts. The disciples waited... and 10 days later, the rush of His Spirit hit the room they were in and they changed... dramatically.

They with ease did all that Jesus showed they could do while on earth. One person who even persecuted Jesus' followers, was dramatically changed. Jesus came to him in such a brilliant light that Saul, the Christian persecutor, was blinded. He changed to be one of His most outstanding followers. Everywhere he went people changed. Everywhere the other disciples went people changed. It was one of the biggest change events ever.

And we have this at our disposal today.
If we seek and and ask for it.
If we wait on it.
Because our body's of today will again be changed, transformed suddenly.

"It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead.
Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die,
but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are
buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength.
They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be
raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.

But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not
all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a
moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown.
For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be
raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.
For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies
that will never die; our mortal bodies must be
transformed into immortal bodies.

Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled
"Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?"
(1 Corinthians 15: 42 - 53, NLT)

This is our great finale of change.
Is it worth focusing our lives around such a reward?

Spiritual life is transformation upon transformation as we follow the life of Jesus until now. This is to continue and we may very well see in our own lives... the old transformed before our very eyes into the new. We have a much better body that will never decay away, become old and despised, unattractive, and useless. (An interesting picture to compare... our old imperfect next to the new perfection.)

"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but
let God Transform you into a new person
by changing the way you think.
Then you will learn to know God's will for you,
which is good and pleasing and perfect."
(Romans 12:2, NLT)

We can honestly accept the truth of our imperfections of our old form, and see us being transformed into a perfect truth, nothing to hide, of our new form.

We are also nomadic in the process. Going here and there to vision upon vision, place on place, and heart to a heavenly heart.

We are compelled to search for this new place,
a better place, and experience never ending adventures
in Spirit life every day.