That's Not How We Do It Here!: A Story about How Organizations Rise and Fall--and Can Rise Again

Whats the worst thing you can hear when you have a good idea at work? Thats not how we do it here! In their iconic bestseller Our Iceberg Is Melting, John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber used a simple fable about penguins to explain the process of leading people through major changes. Now, ten years later, theyre back with another must-read story that will help any team or organization cope with their biggest challenges and turn them into exciting opportunities. Once upon a time a clan of meerkats lived in the Kalahari, a region in southern Africa. After years of steady growth, a drought has sharply reduced the clans resources, and deadly vulture attacks have increased. As things keep getting worse, the harmony of the clan is shattered. The executive team quarrels about possible solutions, and suggestions from frontline workers face a soul-crushing response: Thats not how we do it here! So Nadia, a bright and adventurous meerkat, hits the road in search of new ideas to help her troubled clan. She discovers a much smaller group that operates very differently, with much more teamwork and agility. These meerkats have developed innovative solutions to find food and evade the vultures. But not everything in this small clan is as perfect as it seems at first. Can Nadia figure out how to combine the best of both worldsa large, disciplined, well-managed clan and a small, informal, inspiring clanbefore its too late? This book distills Kotters decades of experience and award-winning research to reveal why organizations rise and fall, and how they can rise again in the face of adversity.