# 55: The Iceberg of Traditional Higher Education Is Melting
Story behind the Passage
Change is everywhere, we just do not see it all the time. But there are people who notice and know that action needs to be taken. I talked about Kotter’s eight steps of change before but I have to talk about the model again. What I see happening in higher education makes me think about change a lot. How can it be that those who notice that change is taking place and who are willing to take action have such a hard time? This is the story of Fred in Our Iceberg Is Melting.
My Learnings
“Fred knew he had to do something. But he was in no position to make any pronouncements or dictate how others should act. He was not one of the leaders of the colony.” How can it be that the innovators are always the ones that are treated as outcasts by the insiders— by mainstream thinkers? This is a rhetorical question. I know the answers and so do you if you have ever learned anything about innovation and change management.
Still, the knowledge and the tools do not always solve the problem — not on a foggy November day.
Fred in Kotter’s story becomes the leader he can be by learning how to manage change. He is trying to save the penguin colony. I wonder who is saving the universities. I wonder when they will wake up. Who is their Fred? Where is he? Yes, they are doing stuff to innovate but they are lagging behind so much that I have no idea how some of the subjects are going to survive. But some of them will come back, I am sure of that.
So, what is the problem?
Actually, I do not know. I guess, even game changers know what nostalgia is. The old things that are not needed in society anymore disappear for a reason. If they are needed again, they come back — in a different guise, with different hands holding the strings. The comprehensive universities of the past where there for a reason for more than five centuries. There were smart people teaching. There were smart students studying and passing on the intellectual spirit that they had picked up. There will be a different spirit in the future. We have to let go of something in order to make room for the new.
Maybe some people never get the timing right. Either they are always too early with their inventions. There is no market for their ideas. People do not understand. And others are always too late. They have great ideas and they do not copy. But someone was there first. In both cases, these people stay in the position of Fred at the beginning of the penguin tale. They remain non-leaders, people who have no say. These people usually get frustrated at some point and then they find compromises for their lives — if they want to. Or they become rebels and always fight even if there is no reason for this.
I am glad that Fred made his way. He saved the colony. They found a new place to live.
The universities will also move somewhere to a new place. I wonder who is going to join the colony. Right now, the penguin population is quite homogenous, at least in some fields. They have never gone on any excursion to check out new habitats. They have no idea what life is like somewhere else. Where things are happening. Where change is visible and exciting. Where penguins can try out new stuff and really grow by learning new things; by taking responsibility for new challenges.
I wonder what Fred might tell others who are in the same position that he was in when he started. How could he be so sure that what he was seeing was dangerous? How would he cheer up other innovators who doubt their own observations and intellect? Some of these answers can be found in the book, I know. Others remain open for interpretation — as always.
Books show us a path. We have to walk it. If we find the inner strength and the support we need.
Reflection Questions
1) Did you ever notice a particular change process that required action before others did? What did you do?
2) If you were to study again or complete the same education program you went through in the past — would you do this at the same institution? Why/not? What has changed?
3) Do you think there institutions or companies that will always survive?