Creatures of habit often dislike change. Therefore, change can sometimes be difficult
Creatures of habit often dislike change. Therefore, change can sometimes be difficult. Typically, throughout the change process, many will encounter obstacles that prevent them from progressing. In the book “Our Ice is Melting,” Kotter provides a story that is full of personification. The book revolves around two main characters, Fred and Alice. Fred is seen as a different type of character who is very observant and keen on what is happening in his environment. Fred observes that the treads on the icebergs are not appreciated by the members of his colony. Alice is quite different. Alice is able to understand Fred’s point of view, unlike other leaders within the colony Fred approaches Alice about this problem, Alice listens and decides she wants to really understand Fred’s issue.
Although Alice is does not stand behind Fred’s point of view, she decides to bring the argument to the other leader’s within the colony. Most of the leaders were also against Fred and his findings. Nono, the weather forecaster suggests that Fred should come in front of the members and present his argument, rather than Alice. Fred decides that he will attend a meeting to address the issues that he sees. Fred prepares a speech to convince the leaders within the colony that the problem is present and needs to be rectified.
Fred attends the meeting and pleads his case. Nono is completely against Fred’s point of view and attempts to convince the other leaders to stand by his side. After much debate it is determined that the leaders will stand behind Fred.Leaders raise the question as to whether or not members of the colony should be involved in the process.
Fred comes up with a solution to the issue, and comes up with the idea of freezing the bottle. The argument is that, if the bottle filled with water breaks after being left for some time they will take the initiative of involving the colony members to find the solution to the problem. His experiment turns to be positive and the colony leaders decide to call a meeting to address the issue to the members. The departure of the meeting after the issue is addressed leaves the members of the colony in fear. Most of the members could conclude that Fred was taken as an outcast because he had an idea that would save the community, which most of the leaders had fear of him getting the popularity.
Fred’s efforts are well recognized and for this reason he is referred as a professor. Louis the leaders also recognized the effort of Fred. Buddy the professor, explains the advantage of working as a team to solve the issue.
Several ideas were laid by the birds on how they could drill a hole through the iceberg in order to let the water drill out of the ice berg but the ideal of 168 birds peaking the iceberg was dismissed by Buddy the professor, with an argument that the activity would take about 5.2 years (Kotter, pg. 47, 2006). Several meetings were conducted, to come up with the solution of the ice berg. Buddy has taken the initiative to develop a presentation, spending sleepless night trying to figure out the major cause of the situation. He makes several PowerPoint slides in order to make his presentation perfect (Kotter, pg. 59, 2006). The meeting is attended by almost everybody and the solution to the problem is resolved as to practice nomadism. The conclusions are welcomed as good news to some members but the likes of Nono are not overwhelmed by the decision.
The reaction on the effort were appreciated but some members were not participating on the action of saving the environment. The activities although being supported by the colony members, the suspicion and nervousness among the members was a common characteristic. The effort as a group led to a success. Their success was passed to other generations, as other small birds were given the history of what had happened and the effort that Fred had taken in order to control the tragedy that was upcoming.
The story illustrates Kotter’s view on others ideas. Different people have smart ideas that can be used by others in order to initiate a positive change. These big minds range from students to retirees. According to Kotter, melting ice bergs could be product lines that could be aging. Nono is an example of people who will always resist the change. Whenever constructing an idea raised by the staff member on of the member has to raise an argument against the ideas. (Kotter pg. 85, 2006)
Kotter’s story provides a good example that follows the eight steps of a successful change. The urgency of a situation is discovered by someone within the organization as it happened in the case of Fred. After realizing the sense of urgency the person should be concerned to inform the others and try to create the sense of the urgency. This is exemplified by Fred’s initiative of deciding to share the issue with Alice. Then the third step is to ensure that the powerful group that can lead to the successes of the change are pulled together. This has been exemplified by the action taken by Alice and Fred.
Once the union is successful, the group has to find a way forward. This happened in the colonies, several meetings had to be conducted in order to discuss the issue. They laid a strategy that will curb the situation.
Once the decision on what to do has been made the strategy has to be implemented. The Louis colony took the action after making the decision. One has to make the strategy stick to other members irrespective of the resistance that he/she encounters. One has to create a culture that will ensure that the strategy is successful.
