How do penguins respond? The iceberg is melting. ...

Recently, I read an interesting booklet "The Iceberg is Melting", which tells the story of a group of penguins living on an iceberg with rich products and suitable environment.

A penguin named Fred, through his curious and patient observation, found that the iceberg where he lived showed signs of melting, and in the worst case, it would fall apart in the severe winter two months later, eventually leading to the extinction of the whole penguin colony.

Fred reported this situation to Alice, who is an approachable doer in the penguin leadership team.

Alice gave Fred a chance to explain his findings at the leadership meeting.

Fred explained to the leading group with an iceberg model and a glass bottle filled with water that the iceberg is melting, which will lead to the crisis that the whole penguin colony will be homeless in winter two months later.

King Louis of Penguin summoned:

Jordan, the most learned "professor" among penguins, Buddy, a very popular and simple young man, Fred, the crisis discoverer just mentioned, and Alice, the doer, formed a five-person crisis leading group. Through delicious squid and unrestrained chat, everyone was no longer a team.

Then they didn't choose to hide the crisis from the penguins, but told everyone that the crisis was imminent and needed to be solved together.

Penguin made many suggestions, but they were all rejected by the five-person leading group.

Later, they met seagulls and learned from the plan of seagulls to send investigators. They planned to organize a penguin reconnaissance team to find a suitable migration site.

Of course, Professor Jordan played a very important role in this process. He asked many professional and meaningful questions.

Everyone began to think about the possibility of migration.

Next, the professor prepared a long and well-founded speech, but King Louis decided to convey the change plan in another way.

I think the speech "We are not icebergs" is very enlightening.

Subsequently, members of the leading group briefly introduced the crisis.

The results of this meeting are:

Next, Alice led the production of many slogans carved on the ice to remind everyone of what they heard at the meeting, and added a new slogan every week until there was no place to put the new slogan on the whole iceberg.

So, Alice and them put the slogan on the only way for penguins to catch fish.

In short, penguins can see the slogan when they open their eyes.

As a result, the whole people are talking about migration. Although there are both positive and negative aspects.

Buddy, who is very popular, and Professor Jordan, who is knowledgeable, have made their own contributions to solving negative news.

Even the little penguin in kindergarten began to plan various activities to promote the goal of "migration", such as awarding the heroic medal to the investigator and mobilizing his parents to give some logistical support to the investigator.

With the support of many parties, in the end, the investigators found an iceberg suitable for migration, which also changed the tradition and culture of penguins settling in icebergs.

This simple story can tell us a lot.

When it comes to change, experts have different views.

Some people say that we should set a goal and vision, and then work towards it.

Some people say that we should change our culture and cook frogs in warm water.

Some people say, direct command how to do it.

……

The iceberg of penguins' life is melting, and they can't establish a "migration" culture. And it is estimated that no matter how you promote it, people are reluctant to leave their homes to move. Local culture is deeply rooted and difficult to change.

The speech of King Louis of Penguin is very interesting. He first emphasized the values that everyone agrees with and found that values have nothing to do with icebergs. In other words, our values allow us to make such changes, and we don't want to change our underlying ideas.

If the emperor penguins come and say, our icebergs are melting, so we have to move. It is estimated that other penguins will think this statement is nonsense, unfounded and unreliable. We haven't seen the iceberg melt yet. Even people with ulterior motives will probably take this opportunity to rise up!

Think again, how did this change begin?

Fred discovered the crisis and made iceberg and glass bottle experiments for the leading group through Alice's recommendation, so that everyone realized that the crisis really existed and seeing was believing.

This way of witnessing is more direct, shocking and convincing than Fred's massive research data and reports.

Starting to change through witnessing is the first step, making everyone aware of the existence of the crisis and establishing a sense of urgency.

In the second step, emperor penguins wisely chose penguins with different personalities and specialties to join the reform leading group.

Facts have proved that every penguin in this group has played its own strengths and encouraged them to continue to participate.

In the third step, the reform leading group learned from the experience of seagulls and found the correct goal of migration through verification.

The fourth step, through continuous publicity, there are slogans and slogans everywhere, so that everyone can understand and join in this change.

The fifth step, everyone's active participation, almost all penguins have participated in the realization of this goal.

Step six, send a reconnaissance team. When they came back, they couldn't wait to share their wonderful experiences. Their heroic deeds were rewarded by everyone. Such short-term achievements have prompted more people to join in the change.

Step 7: After the first winter, another reconnaissance team set out the next year and they found another iceberg.

Step 8: Penguins gradually adapt to the change of migration. They move around like nomads. And everyone has a new definition of the word "home". "Home" is no longer an iceberg, but a place where relatives stay.

Of course, there are some interesting plots here.

For example, penguins' emotions turn into changes.

Penguins felt "shock" and "panic" when they first learned that the iceberg was melting.

There is a penguin named "Ye Fei" who has always been opposed and rejected.

After accepting and understanding that "the iceberg is melting", many penguins are very uneasy.

One of the short stories is that the kindergarten teacher conveyed the anxiety of this change to the little penguin, which caused the little penguin to have nightmares, such as dreaming that he was eaten during the migration.

Buddy, who is loved by everyone, patiently communicates with the teacher:

Buddy gradually dispelled the teacher's doubts, and he repeated all this patiently, calmly and sincerely. At last the teacher was relieved.

Next, the kindergarten teacher found many heroic stories about how to help others adapt to difficulties and changes, and told them to the children with great feelings. She told the children that the penguin kingdom now needs heroes to meet new challenges, and everyone can contribute their own strength, even the smallest penguin.

Later, the little penguin stopped having nightmares, and his parents were relieved.

Inspired by this, the little penguin spontaneously organized a hero gift festival for the investigators, and mobilized its parents to prepare food for the investigators, knowing that penguins used to hunt only for their families.

So this mood gradually turned into accepting change.

I believe everyone will have different feelings when reading the pamphlet "The Iceberg is Melting".

Just like when we face changes, the measures we want to take are different.

I always think that the first two steps of "building a sense of urgency" and "building a leadership team" are very important and easily overlooked.

As we all know, a certain crisis or risk we will face may not be as serious as "the iceberg is melting", and it may just be a poor communication in a certain link.

When people like Fred appear, many people feel that they are exaggerating their pursuit of existence.

Yes, we admit there is a problem, but so what?

The company is still making a profit, and no one blames us too much. We have always communicated this way, there is nothing wrong.

Maybe I'm the only one who will feel a little uncomfortable when I throw away the pot and bring it back, but no one has been substantially punished.

I remember there was an activity inside Google, and now many companies have begun to follow suit.

Just for a few days, we will attack a service together and test its service robustness.

Such attacks include: power failure, construction of abnormal input conditions, active attacks and so on.

This kind of activity can directly discover the risks and vulnerabilities of the service and make it more and more robust.

The famous swimming champion Phelps also has the same effect in training methods.

His coach will give him some special training from time to time, such as: the goggles suddenly get into the water, someone is yelling at him, and there is something wrong with the swimming lane.

These trainings make Phelps have better resilience in the face of some "crises".

Of course, these are all ways to actively create a "crisis".

In reality, as long as we pay attention, we will find a lot of "problems" waiting for us to solve instead of creating them.

When the "crisis" is only a small "problem", the cost of solving it will obviously be much less.

In this sense, it is very important to establish a sense of urgency for change.

The way to build a sense of urgency in The Iceberg is Melting is also very artistic.

Remember that iceberg model Fred took out?

Seeing it with your own eyes is often more impressive than a pile of data and reports.

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, it is mentioned that system 1 believes the evidence of "seeing is believing", and system 2 also accepts this cognition.

What's more, King Louis Penguin not only started from everyone's value recognition, but also organized a very distinctive leadership team when he publicized it to the public.

Note that he didn't organize the smartest or richest penguins, but kept the penguins unique in the whole leadership team.

Alice came out when she needed strong execution.

When it comes to communicating with the people, Buddy appears.

When some theoretical support and judgment are needed, the professor comes on stage.

Fred appeared when some ideas and new ideas were needed.

It's time to call and assign tasks to the joint forces, and Louis is here.

In the few changes I have experienced and seen, basically all the leadership teams are more like a manager team.

Managers of all departments have their own achievements to complete, and there are always various reasons why they can't attend the regular meeting of change, let alone make contributions.

Or assigned to the following coolies to carry out, coolies are not authorized, so what they can do and what they can achieve is very limited.

In the end, the so-called change came to nothing.

Therefore, we need to think about whether this person should be a member of the change leading group, not just by his title, but mainly by what he can do and what he can bring to change.

And through various methods, let the members of this temporary team get familiar with each other as soon as possible and cooperate with each other.

You know, change needs a leadership team, not a management team.

In the daily state, an excellent management team can make a company achieve its performance goals well.

What is more needed is an excellent leadership team when dealing with change events.

The next steps are familiar to us, such as establishing goals and visions, communicating and publicizing visions, getting everyone involved, achieving short-term success, persisting, integrating and changing cultures.

This part of the content, in Jack Welch's "win" and other books have a very detailed introduction.

I believe everyone is familiar with this part. After all, there are countless books and articles about vision in management.

I believe that as long as you put your heart into it, you will find your own, team's and company's melting iceberg.

Is it to ignore the status quo of its melting, or to initiate changes before it melts?

Depends on you.

Because you may be Fred, Alice, Professor Jordan, Buddy or even Louis.

When the iceberg is melting, what is your choice?