Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2005

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Introduction-Chapter 4

Chapters 5-11

Chapters 12-16

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Overcoming Resistance to Change During a Crisis

When a crisis strikes, groups that stubbornly hold on to outmoded approaches risk losing everything. Such resistance to change can stymie efforts to solve a crisis. Innovators must find ways to calm fears and inspire members to embrace needed change.

Groups form habits and traditions because they protect and nurture successes. Like the penguins in the story, successful groups can become complacent and expect past wins always to be repeated in the future: “Tradition dies a hard death. Culture changes with as much difficulty in penguin colonies as in human colonies” (116). The chief cause of resistance to change is that most group members get used to the way things are and don’t want to go to the trouble of changing those ways.

They have a point: Change can be costly in time, effort, resources, and risk. Costs of a migration, for example, can be especially high: For the penguin colony, the proposed move to a new iceberg involves the dangers of a major sea crossing, with the risk of death ever-present. Beyond a certain point, though, avoiding direct action to resolve a crisis can be more deadly than taking the risks of change.

Nonetheless, doubters will demand proof that any action is needed. In the penguin story, Fred and Buddy respond by demonstrating, with a closed bottle filled with freezing seawater that cracks the bottle, that ocean seepage into iceberg fissures will expand when it freezes and break up the berg. This convinces the penguins that there’s a real problem that needs to be solved. Naysayers thus aren’t all bad, since they force those who warn of trouble to strengthen their arguments.

Even when presented with evidence, many of those with comfortable lives still won’t want to see themselves disrupted. Leaders sometimes resist change because their cushy positions in the group may be disrupted by a massive shift in the organization’s processes and policies. A crisis team can work around this resistance by keeping communication lines open and active, stressing the benefits of the new change, including the old leadership in decision-making, and repeating the new ideas in a campaign of constant reminders.

The crisis team also invites everyone to get involved in the campaign. They welcome ideas for improving the project and reward those who participate. As with the penguin colony, these efforts can reach all the way to members’ children, who will bring eager energy and bright ideas to projects. As more members become enthusiastic about a new plan, the tide turns, and even the doubters will climb aboard.

The chief lessons are that members of any group that faces a crisis need to be willing to change, and that effective communication can overcome doubts by making clear the benefits of adapting to the new situation.

Teamwork During a Crisis

If one person in a group or organization sees a major problem and alerts the others, she will get flak in the form of doubt, resistance, and stonewalling. Alone, she’ll probably fail to effect change. Her first job, then, is to find powerful allies. The allies must then engage the rest of the group, enrolling them in the effort to fix the problem until most or all of the members support the project.

Penguin Fred first takes his concerns about the melting iceberg to Alice, a leader who’s known for listening to ordinary penguins. She knows how to move an issue through the Leadership Council, and she and Fred convince Head Penguin Louis to bring the problem to the colony at large. Thus, an innovator’s early success comes from choosing strong allies who can help convey the urgency of the problem to the group’s members and leaders.

“And then it’s all about teamwork—aligned leadership” (158). A newly appointed crisis team will be ineffective if its members aren’t all pointed in the same direction. The organization’s director should work with the new crisis team to build cohesion among its members. Once they’re in agreement and have learned how to work together, they can launch the project to resolve the crisis.

Development teams can’t succeed unless the members understand the problem, have a stake in the outcome, and can participate to move the solution forward. The penguin crisis team establishes discussion groups, encourages bright ideas from everyone, including kindergarteners, and invites everyone to pitch in. By volunteering, individuals will feel that they can make a difference as part of a larger group or community that works together to help everyone. Doubters receive reassurances and opportunities to assist the effort. In these ways, more and more members will have a stake in the project’s outcome.

One of the most important parts of the campaign is clear communication. Members need to hear the message, talk it over, and resolve concerns and objections. Teams should be relentless in broadcasting the message at discussions, in general meetings, and with published slogans. They then keep repeating the message until nearly everyone has embraced the new direction. When people realize the extent of a crisis and ask what they can do to help, the crisis team is ready with lists of tasks that need to be done.

The penguin colony’s migration plan succeeds because everyone works together. This type of effort fails, though, if one individual tries to do it alone. Success is based on teamwork that expands to include the active, enthusiastic participation of most or all of a group’s members.

A New Tradition of Embracing Change

A group may change its ways during a crisis, but later those ways may be abandoned as members slide into complacency. The problem is that, sooner or later, another crisis will strike, and the group will struggle to stand up to the new challenge. It’s important, then, to make a tradition out of breaking traditions.

Once changes are in place, and an organization successfully transitions from its old methods to the new ones, there’s the risk that the resulting success will give the group a false sense of security. The new techniques will become standards that no one wants to change. With another crisis, resistance to change will erupt all over again.

To reduce that possibility, crisis teams need to establish new traditions that stress the importance of embracing change. The penguin colony, for example, launches courses in scouting technique, instructs its children in the history of the colony’s successful migration, and rewards scouts and innovators with medals and extra food. Each of these new traditions supports habits that embrace change when it’s needed.

To prevent traditions from becoming obstacles during a crisis, the smart move therefore is to preestablish traditions that already encourage new methods and new ideas. These new habits must be emphasized and practiced until they supplant earlier habits: “Hold on to the new ways of behaving, and make sure they succeed, until they become strong enough to replace old traditions” (134). When the next crisis arrives, an organization will respond automatically by seeking out new solutions and implementing them smoothly. Instead of members wasting time arguing for inaction, they’ll respect the newly honorable tradition of meeting challenges with innovative solutions and energetic optimism.

Where old traditions might otherwise block a needed change, a new tradition of embracing new alternatives will encourage everyone to adopt an adaptive, responsive mindset that can meet any challenge the future may bring. In this way, organizations can uphold a new tradition of breaking traditions.