I am taking out my Iceberg Story from my coaching stories page and posting this as a blog. If you have read this before, bear with me or forward this to someone whom you feel may like this.
I believe it has been somewhat hidden in terms of visibility and would really like to share this story with more readers. Hope you will enjoy another “tongue-in-the-cheek” story – challenging many of us to “dive” into the deep waters with our coachees. And for the non-coaches, when have you taken a deeper interest and appreciation into the issues faced by your spouse, children, family members and friends? As a boss or manager, when have you taken more than a nominal interest in what makes your employees or staff behave the way they do? So …. Let me tell you a story ……
One day, a man was fishing from the rocks at the seaside. He heard someone calling, “Hey, Mister!”
He checked around and saw a dark form somewhere out in the sea. He thought that was where the sound came from and he answered, “Good Morning! Did you just call me?”
“Yes, I did,” came the reply. He strained his eyes but could not make out exactly what it was.
“What can I do for you?” he shouted back.
“I am trying to get to the shore,” the voice said.
“Oh, do you need some help?” the fisherman asked.
“Of course I do” the voice replied.
By now, the man can see a person standing on a floating surface some distance away from the shore.
“Are you hurt?” he asked the person, who then replied, “I am not sure.”
The man evaluated the situation and decided that he needed to get closer to the person to provide some help. So, he got into his little boat and rowed out towards the person.
“I am coming over to you in my boat,” he told the other person as he rowed.
The person said, “Wow, you are the first person to do so.” The man was perplexed and asked, “What happened?”
“I met a few people as I drifted along. Each time I had different experiences. There was a lady who tried to help me by using a long pole to pull me in. Another time, a man took his binoculars to check me out but did nothing else.”
The fisherman said, “That is tough. Luckily you have managed to survive until now. You must be cold and hungry too. I have a hot drink and a dry blanket on my boat. I will soon be there with you.”
“Thanks,” said the person. “I feel a lot better now, knowing that help is on the way. It is really hard when you are in trouble and worse still, all alone.”
As the fisherman rowed nearer, he discovered that the person was a man standing on a piece of floating debris that had iced over in the cold weather. He got alongside and quickly offered the hot drink and blanket.
“Are you alright? Let me get you to the shore.” said the concerned fisherman.
“I think I am ok but it is so hard to get to the shore with this thing,” said the person, pointing to the floating surface.
The fisherman did not understand, “I am sorry, I do not understand what you mean.”
The person said, “This is all I have left with me and I will not part with it in any way. I have drifted on this for a long time and it is a part of me. But, for some reason, it is not able to come close to land.”
The fisherman got even more curious and asked, “That is strange. May I step out of my boat onto this surface and check out why?”
“Sure, but you must be careful. Don’t damage it – it is very precious to me.”
As he stepped onto the surface, the fisherman almost fell off it because the surface was very slippery. To his amazement, he saw that it was solid ice.
“Oh dear, I think this is the tip of an iceberg!”
“Iceberg? What is that? All I know is that I have been on this for a long time and it must be a part of me.”
The fisherman told him, “What you are standing on is only a small portion of the iceberg. The rest of the iceberg is submerged under the water, which is why you did not realise that it was there.”
“So what if it is there – I will not part with this “whatever” because it is what is familiar to me.”
“But didn’t you say you wanted to get ashore? How can this happen if you won’t part with this iceberg? Once the iceberg gets ashore, assuming that this is possible, it will melt and disappear anyway.”
The person was clearly distressed, “If I don’t get ashore, I will not last much longer without food and water, and it is so cold at night too. What is going to happen to me?”
The fisherman was very moved by his distress and decided that he will brave the cold and check out the size of this iceberg. He may be wrong and it wasn’t an iceberg at all.
So he dived into the cold water and felt with his hands the shape of this floating thing. After a while, he came out of the water and told the person, “It does seem to be an iceberg and is very huge. I cannot imagine how this can get ashore.”
The person was sad and confused. The fisherman said, “Why don’t you take a dive and see for yourself?”
“I can’t swim,” said the person. The fisherman said to him “How about this – let me take your hand and we dive into the water together.”
So they went into the water and the person was convinced that there was a huge mass of ice underneath the surface. When they came out of the sea, the fisherman suggested that they take some small bits of ice and put them onto the boat. The ice melted.
The person understood the enormity of his problem and said to the fisherman, “What is going to happen to me now?”
The fisherman replied, “Let me take you ashore on my boat. If you stay on this iceberg, you will eventually perish when the weather goes into summer.”
The person said to the fisherman, “Other people have told me to jump and swim ashore but you took the effort to row out to me. Some have told me that I can stay where I am because they said that if you have drifted on this for so long, it should be able to take you where you want to go. But you made me realise that this is only a huge mass of ice and it will melt soon. I know I have to trust you because you even gave me a hot drink and dry blanket and you are shivering from the dive just now.”
“Alright, I will come ashore with you in your boat and thank you for making me aware that what I was drifting on was nothing solid at all.”
To the coaches out there, you will recognise and, hopefully laugh, at the dry wit of this story.
To others who have yet to experience what coaching is all about, it may be an enlightening experience to discover what sort of icebergs that you are drifting on in your life journey. You never know when they will take you down with them.
Once again, it is the time of the year where Christmas is in the air everywhere. Today, Christmas is an industry in itself – it has transitioned from a religious commemorative event to be the global festive party it is today.
The Purpose Coach 
You must be logged in to post a comment.