Product Description

Who Moved My Cheese? is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a maze and look for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in life - whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money or a possession, health or spirital peace of mind. And the maze is where you look for what you want - the organisation you work in, or the family or community you live in. This profound book from bestselling author, Spencer Johnson, will show you how to anticipate change, adapt to change quickly, enjoy change and be ready to change quickly again and again. Discover the secret for yourself and learn how to deal with change, so that you suffer from less stress and enjoy more success in your work and in life. Written for all ages, this story takes less than an hour to read, but its unique insights can last for a lifetime.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #415 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 94 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message of Who Moved My Cheese? is that all can come to see it as a blessing, if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable that takes place in a maze. Four beings live in that maze: Sniff and Scurry are mice, non-analytical and non-judgmental; they just want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Hem and Haw are "little people", mouse-size humans who have an entirely different relationship with cheese. It's not just sustenance to them; it's their self-image. Their lives and belief systems are built around the cheese they've found. Most of us reading the story will see the cheese as something related to our livelihoods--our jobs, our career paths, the industries we work in--although it can stand for anything, from health to relationships. The point of the story is that we have to be alert to changes in the cheese and be prepared to go running off in search of new sources of cheese when the cheese we have runs out.

Dr. Johnson, co-author of The One Minute Manager and many other books, presents this parable to business, church groups, schools, military organisations--anywhere where you find people who may fear or resist change. And although more analytical and sceptical readers may find the tale a little too simplistic, its beauty is that it sums up all natural history in just 94 pages: things change. They always have changed and always will change. And while there's no single way to deal with change, the consequence of pretending change won't happen is always the same: the cheese runs out. --Lou Schuler, Amazon.com

Review
A motivational book to help you deal with change in your life --Guardian

Designed to help people thrive during periods of change --Sunday Times

It leaves you feeling upbeat, and excited, and ready to go out and find your own cheese --Better Business

A firm favourite with businessfolk --Daily Mirrorr

Highly influential
--Financial Times magazine

The Mirror
"Its message about opening your mind to change stays with you long after you have finished it."

Customer Reviews

Entertaining Lesson.
A short story about 2 mice and 2 'little people' in a maze looking for cheese.

Of course 'cheese' is just a metaphor for what you want in life (such as money, the ideal job), and the 'maze' represents where you are looking for what you want (such as your family, an organization). As the story goes, one of the characters (Haw) learns to deal with change successfully and writes what he has learned on the maze wall. In this way, the reader gets the main points in the book and can learn too how to deal with life's changes.

A little book that is big on wisdom, many should find it entertaining and useful. Also recommended The Sixty-Second Motivator -another short story that is to the point and practical.

The Emperor's New Clothes
I was given this book to read by someone after rebelling at work against change for the sake of change. While the very basic story is designed to help someone understand that when change happens one must be able to adapt, it does not explain why the change is happening.
It starts with a class of students having a similar problem to myself and then the lecturer tells the story. After the story they all discuss what they thought of it and what they got out of it, and one of them says that what it means is that you do not go along with the change you must find something else to do.
I have seen this story before when I was a little boy. If you don't agree with everyone around you because that is what you have been told to believe, then you must be an idiot. Surely this is breeding automatons, not enquiring minds that challenge.

Critically examine it. Purely for HR departments. Drivel!
A concise, simple, and immediately persuasive text, however examine it a little closer and the ‘argument’, if it can be called that, is so full of holes it resembles a piece of Swiss cheese (appropriate as cheese with holes in is used in the illustrations!) Be forewarned – You are ordered to suspend Descartes ‘Cogito ergo sum’, read the text, absorb it, and follow it unquestioningly! I say this as its defence against those who disagree with it is simple – ‘You are resistant to change!’ This has all the hallmarks of those fringe religious sects who suspend rational thought and unquestioningly follow the admonitions of their leader. Not a wise course of action!

A synopsis

There are two ‘teams’, Sniff and Scurry, the Mice, who rush about in search of cheese, entirely oblivious to how or why they do what they do, but aware that circumstances could change at a moments notice; and, Hem and Haw, the Littlepeople, who frequently think over what they have done, and why they did it, but are content to stay with what is familiar. They all live in a maze containing stores of cheese. Upon discovering a particularly bountiful store, Cheese Station C, they cease to explore new parts of the maze. However, they are forced to set out on an adventure when the supply of cheese runs out. Clever Sniff and Scurry embrace the fact that when the cheese runs out they must change and seek out a new supply. They rush blindly about the maze till they discover a new source, Station N, the Garden of Eden for cheese lovers. As such they could be termed ‘experimenters’. That is to say, they never accept that what happens today will always happen tomorrow. The suckers, Hem and Haw, prevaricate ‘needlessly’ on their new circumstances resisting the change that they interpret as being ‘unfairly’ imposed upon them. Perhaps they could be termed ‘associationist philosophers’, who, when something happens believe that it will always happen in the same fashion, ad infinitum. Eventually Hem, tired of this ‘negativity’ to the increasingly dire situation they find themselves in (by now they are starving), abandons Haw, and sets out alone to seek a new supply of cheese. During his journey he discovers the wonderful lessons of change. Every so often he writes his discoveries on the wall, just in case Haw decides to follow in his footsteps. After many wrong turns he finds Station N and two chubby mice. Poor little Haw remains alone with his ‘negativity’ and probably starves to death! (We are encouraged to abandon those who persistently resist change, as their minds are un-malleable.)

Critique

1. We must unquestionly embrace change as a positive process and get on with making it work. Purile nonsense! This brings to mind ‘The Emperors New Clothes’ where everyone is so ‘positive’ about his new clothes (of which there aren’t any as ‘he’s in the buff’). If no one questions the change, or challenges it, then how can we validate it. Or are we expected to be unquestioning drones?

2. As soon as change occurs we must engage with the new modus operandi. Because Spencer spends so little time on Sniff and Scurry’s pursuit for the new source of cheese we cannot put a time frame on it. Therefore it is very easy to assert that both ‘teams’ spent exactly the same amount of time in their pursuits. However in taking that premise Sniff and Scurry actually learnt nothing about change in their mindless dash around the maze, whereas Hem learnt much, and poor Haw, nothing. Maybe that’s the point. But I wouldn’t be happy with a quarter of my people embracing change, and the initial embracers, a half, possibly harbouring the same thoughts as Haw, waiting to air them at a later date. The upshot will be that you won’t have many staff left after a series of changes. Perhaps this too is the point of the book!

3. That this book is simple probably appeals to the mindsets of the managers who slavishly promote it. They hope that the workforce swallows its ‘entertaining’ storyline without questioning their motives for change too closely. It is, as one reviewer has remarked, a lazy managers device. It is much better if practically everyone embraces change - ‘ Think of all the time we can save.’

4. One can’t help thinking that the book has a limited life span. After people have gone through repeated changes, noticed very little has changed, and are disheartened, whose book do they turn to? Perhaps Spencer has another bestseller up his sleeve!