Video Transcript: Our Iceberg is Melting
Session 27 is about our iceberg is melting. Now in the last session last two sessions we talked about John Kotter's eight steps toward a meaningful and lasting change, establishing a sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and a strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering for broad based action, generating short term wins, consolidating gains and producing more change and anchoring the new approaches in the culture. So that's what we've been talking about. Now, Kotter has taught on this, in fact, he wrote a book on each one of those eight steps. So original book was Leading Change. And then there are all these other books that came up as a result of that. And then in order to make this more palpable to people, I guess, then just something of the head, he decided to create an allegory. And so he wrote an allegory story, and it's called Our Iceberg is Melting. Here's a picture of the book, and it's the story of some penguins. And what I want to do today is just run through a slide program. Now, they took the book, and they made a animated movie about it. And unfortunately, there had to be a rental fee that was paid, I'd love to show that to you. But there had to be a rental fee for every time it was shown. And I didn't know how many times it was going to be shown and couldn't, couldn't confirm that. And, you know, there are other issues that were involved in that. So getting permission to put it on this website for Christian leaders Institute. And so what I did was I downloaded a slide program that somebody made that summarizes the story of these penguins on an iceberg, and how they have to figure out change and go about changing just a word of mea culpa, I guess, and that is, the person who did this didn't do it very well, in the sense that names are misspelled. There are some wrong grammar in several places. And I'm not going to even try to point all those out, I just want you to catch the story in the flow of the story here. And so sometimes, like early on, we're introduced to a character, that the name says Louise and it's actually Lewis, and etc. So I'll, I'll make some reference to that. But what I really want you to note is the flow of the story, and how they move from creating an urgency, a sense of urgency to that, anchoring the new approach in the culture. So here we go. First in telling the story, I wish to tell you a story about a flock of penguins who live on an iceberg in Antarctica on the South Pole. This flock of Penguin has been living as a colony on this iceberg for years, as far back as they can remember, they would tell you, this is our home. They learn to live together in harmony, like a big family, a penguin is monogamous. They build family with love and marriage. Penguins also go hunting for creatures in the sea and spend much of their time with friends and relatives. Except this one guy, Fred. Fred is very curious and observant. And there's Fred, you know, just up on a hill on the iceberg and, and he's just looking out over the sea. Fred had a briefcase stuffed full of observations, ideas and conclusions. One day, Fred noticed an iceberg that had collapsed into many pieces. And he realized that an iceberg can become fragile. And so he looked at that he said, Oh boy, I have to do something. Because as he explored his iceberg, he realized that his iceberg was potentially becoming fragile. icebergs are not like ice cubes. The birds can have cracks inside called canals, the canals can lead to large air bubbles called caves. If the ice melt sufficiently, cracks can be exposed to water, which would then pour into the canals and caves. And during a cold winter, the narrow canals filled with water can freeze quickly trapping the water inside the caves. And as the temperature goes lower, the water in the caves will also freeze. Freezing liquid expands dramatically in volume. And so an iceberg can be broken into pieces. Alice is one of the leadership council members. She's tough and has a reputation of getting things done. Fred took Alice to dive down into the water and into the caves and canals and pointed out the fissures and other symptoms of deterioration caused by melting. Alice followed Fred into the heart of the iceberg to see it with her own eyes because she says show me how it happened, says Fred said Alice, our home is in danger. So Alice was shaken by what she had seen. Fred felt relieved as somebody else shared his worries, but felt worse as he didn't have a solution to it. And so Alice says this is not good. I must talk to all the leaders. And Fred says I'll prepare a presentation to convince them so at that point of creating a sense of urgency. Now Louis was the head of the Council and the most respected penguin on them all. Alice was a practical aggressive make things happen person there was somebody on the leading council called NoNo. Name is important. NoNo was one of the council members who was responsible for weathering forecasts he was accustomed to being blamed for being wrong in his forecast more often than not, Buddy is on the guiding coalition of 10 Penguins. He's handsome. And he's slightly ambitious, he wants to see a change made in his position within the colony. So prepared, Fred prepared iceberg model of ice to show the council. And after seeing the demonstration, Louis was hesitant for the assumption about that they were breaking Well, NoNo said, No, our iceberg is not melting. No, you're gonna have a NoNo, you just know it. And he said, Can you guarantee that this data and conclusions are 100% correct? And Fred says, I can't guarantee that but if our iceberg breaks into many pieces in winter, many of us are going to die. And one of the other says imagine parents who lost their children. Imagine them coming and asking How could this have happened? What were you doing? Why didn't you foresee the crisis? And then Louis, the head pinion penguin says, If Fred is right, we're only going to have two months, until winter to prepare things. So Alice said, we must inform everyone we must call a General Assembly of the Council. And lead it Louis said he needed proof if the assumption was not a mistake before he would call a meeting of the general group of penguins. And because people were saying worrying everybody is very bad panic, we don't want to panic people, we've got to keep this as a secret. And so the council was on unwill, unwilling to bring it to everybody. So Fred, creates another demonstration before deciding yet to call for General Assembly, Fred proposed an idea with a bottle that he found washed up ashore and was harder and stronger than ice. But as much as clear as ice he would fill up this bottle with water, seal it with a cap and leave it in the ice for a night. If the next morning, his assumption was correct, the bottle would be broken. And so the next morning, their bottle was smashed and broken by an expanding ice and their nightmare had come true. And so Lewis says, We've got to tell everybody, and so they tell everybody and they're all looking and panic begins to settle in our iceberg is melting, something has to be done Stop complaining, start thinking what will happen to me Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh boy. But look at lesson one down on the bottom, they are creating a sense of urgency. A team of five people the guiding coalition, including Louis, Fred, Buddy, Alice, and the professor, somebody who's knows a lot and thinks a lot is there, they're charged with thinking of a solution. Let's drill the frozen ice and release the water just like they did to an oil well. And somebody else says with all of our 268 Birds Helping Hand in Hand it will take 5.2 years to do that. Let's move to the center of Antarctica where the ice is thicker and stronger. Said we'll be too far from the water. How will we fish? What about using superglue to hold the iceberg together. And Fred says that's very funny. And then somebody notices notices the bird flying says look up there the bird can't fly forever, it must have a home somewhere. Or somebody says it could be very lost and doesn't seem to be afraid. What if moving from one place to another is just the way it lives. And somebody you say it's a nomad? Yes, it moves around. Maybe we wouldn't try to fix the iceberg, we just face up to the fact that what sustains us cannot go on forever. And they start to plant the idea of moving around to develop a change vision and strategy. So this idea of moving around is not new. We've done it before. That's what the founder of our colony did when he moved to our home today. So it's something that's tied into the past, right? It's honoring the past, even as it's moving into a new vision. Says we'll move and move, we won't stick to our ice. So Louis called the General Assembly again and formed a new strategy and they communicated for understanding and buy in. And the nomadic solution is logical, but they still got to test this out to see if it'll work. So they need a scout team. A scout team should go and look for another iceberg. Take your men and find a place so Buddy has said yep, yes sir. All go I'm going to be the lead scout. But now the conflict starts coming in. There were nearly a dozen birds expressed an interest in being a scout. NoNo and his friends were forecasting storms and dangerous currents, said the gods are mad at them and will punish them. A teacher told the young how how scary the move is and so the young were scared and started having nightmares. Penguins needed a lot of food and fat to build up fat for the winter. The scouts would wouldn't have sufficient time to fish if they were out exploring. Some leaders think the scout team should should or need a leader and start lobbying Louis and this caused conflict among the leaders. A word of mouth spread for obstacles from NoNo and the feeding and the feeding Scout problem. How are they going to get enough food and more and more discouraged, got discouraged and did not attend meetings and Louis told NoNo that his forecasting service was not needed at this moment. I think I deserve to be the scout leader please. Consider and finally, you know, Louis gets to the point where he says, Leave me alone. It's enough Buddy goes to his teacher says hi teacher I love to tell your students how heroic it was to do something for the company in the past says okay, so Buddy helped talking and convincing the teacher to speak of bravery to the young people, not fear mongering but bravery. And so he goes somewhere here. What about your nightmare? Are you still scared? Said no, they're gone. I'm going to help the colony my teacher said, no matter how small we were, or big, we could all help dad. Said I'm going to help fishing, spare food for the scouts so that when they come back, they'll have enough food. I'm going to help with promotion campaign, and we're going to celebrate our tribute to our heroes day when they return so empowering others to act even the kids can be part of it. I was thinking about when we're raising money and how children brought in banks of money that they've saved and earned in the line. lemonade stands and like, so Here go the scouts you know life was boring. This is fun. I must help Jane gonna be proud of me. So strong, bright, highly enthusiastic scouts jumped into the water to search for a new iceberg that is good enough for them to move to scout have been looking and trying to find the answers. Now, when the scouts returned, they told amazing tales about the sea about swimming long distances about new icebergs that they had seen. And they used up a lot of energy and they're hungry, and the little member of the team gave them the spare foods that's less than six producing short term wins. The little one also gave them medals to honor them as their heroes producing short term wins, identifying heroes. The next day wasting no time, a second group of scouts went out to find the right iceberg which would become their safe home. This would have to have a tall snow wall to protect them from icy storms and had to be close to fishing sites and located on a rock with enough for small icebergs or ice plateaus along the way so that the young and old can rest so they're the ones charged with finding the right place. Notice Step seven. Don't let up press harder, create more change, anchor changes in the culture. So after the first success, a perfect iceberg was found. Later, the colony moved to new home and the year after that they moved again to find a better iceberg. Now, even they found the perfect iceberg. They still keep moving because a nomadic culture has become their culture. Last step is creating the new culture, anchoring the new approaches in the culture. So our penguin says just to wrap up once again, this is the change management process, create a sense of urgency, pull together a guiding team developed the change vision and strategy, communicating for understanding and buy ins that people are saying I'm going to go empowering others to act since all part of it, producing short term wins, don't let up but you know, consolidate your gains and create more change, and then create a new culture. So that's an allegory. It just tells a story. Now, here's an afterword. Sometimes you get in movies, right? Louis retired, becoming only a grandfather raising as many nieces and nephews. Alice took over Louis's job as the head of the Council. Buddy was offered many jobs but turned them down. So he could stay with his family. NoNo, no one believed NoNo anymore. His weather forecast job is handed to the professor. See, the people who are the critics who are constantly saying no, no, will be marginalized eventually, if there are wins, and Fred became the head of the ongoing scout team that was constantly looking for new places, new icebergs for them to live on. Like other good stories, you want to know what happened to them, right? That's the kind of things that can happen. So that's the end of the story, but just the beginning for you. Is your company safe? Is your company. Is your church safe? Are you sure your iceberg isn't melting? Okay, so we've talked about change, a great deal, and are trying to give you the idea that this is a process that you're going to have to go through. If you're going to change successfully. Don't try to jump the steps. Make sure you follow them carefully. And prayerfully. We're going to get into prayer ministry later, but just know that change is hard for people. We are people as I said at the beginning of this three session lecture on change. People like the status quo, they like doing things the way they're doing things they like, allowing ritual to take place so they don't have to think much and they're within a comfort zone and they like their comfort zone. And so change is going to be difficult for people. But if you approach it this way, you're going to find More and more people will come along with you. And there won't be the crisis that I caused in all of a sudden introducing bang, a whole new style of worship for a Sunday, you can do it in a way that allows people to have buy in, that allows other people to have input and gathers. Leaders who have influence who are going to be part of an extension of you to the positional power people, as well as the rest of the congregation or organization that you're part of. And it can be done, it is being done. There are fantastic stories about churches that are going through renewal about organizations that once were dying, and now they found a new life. And there a setting out there are even great stories about a vision. Remember that church I told you about in our area grouping of churches that had figured out it was dying, and they were just waiting for the last one to turn off the light and shut the door. They're gaining a new vision, not for their church so much. But they're looking for a ministry that they can turn things over to that's going to make a difference. And it's going to take over there, they're going to give the facility to them and allow that facility now to serve a new generation as there's a new start two small churches in my community. And each of them is doing okay, but they got a new vision. They recognize a church growth principle, and that is that more people are won to faith in new churches than established churches. And so they decided to come together and pool their resources and start anew, and then to establish ministry centers in various places around the community where differences are being made. These are churches that were On a plateau, 90% of the churches in the United States, at least are on a plateau or declining. And they're just many are deciding we need a new day, we need a new life, we got to find a way to establish this. So all I've been talking about in this whole idea of visioning and in planning is how do you get to that new day. So as you change, do it prayerfully we're going to talk about in the next couple of sessions, getting the right people on your team, developing a team of people, not the guiding coalition but your working team, on your staff, the people around you, and whatever kind of organization you have, getting the right kind of people around you who can help move toward that vision positively. And then we're going to talk about developing prayer, and how you develop prayer as a leader in your own life. And then as you develop prayer as a corporate body, what does that look like with everyone engaged in prayer? We're gonna talk about that. And then we're going to talk about spiritual warfare, because you can't talk about being a Christian leader, without recognizing that there is an enemy. And he is he is about the destruction of everything that God is about trying to do. And so you're going to have to engage in spiritual warfare. So we're going to get to know what the Bible says about our enemy, and how to approach him and how to win victory when he tries to destroy us, All that's coming up the next sessions. We'll see you again