Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
Book Review - 4 Stars
"Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way To Deal With Change In Your Work And Life" by Dr Spencer Johnson is an intriguing but simple parable to people to adapt to change.
Spencer Johnson is the co-author of "The One Minute Manager" so if you have read that great book, you will have an understanding on the way powerful messages are woven into the story.
The "Who Moved My Cheese" Story
The Characters In Who Moved the Cheese
We have four characters:
- Two mice called Sniff and Scurry
- Two "littlepeople" called Hem and Haw who look and act like people do today but are only mouse sized.
The Cheese Metaphor
Cheese is a metaphor for whatever you want in your life and the Cheese is in the maze, a labyrinth of tunnels.
The Plot Of Who Moved the Cheese
"Who Moved The Cheese?" starts with all four characters happy. They have found the cheese and no longer have to spend much of their days searching for cheese.
The mice carry on acting like normal and rush to the cheese every day but the littlepeople get complacent. They know where the cheese is so they spend longer in bed and relax.
Then one morning the cheese has disappeared.
The mice had noticed that the pile of cheese had been getting smaller each morning, the littlepeople hadn't.
So when the mice saw that there was no cheese, they immediately returned to their old ways of sniffing cheese out and scurrying down tunnels to see if anything was in them and they found new cheese.
The littlepeople were horrified and indignant. They asked "Who moved my cheese?".
The littlepeople demanded compensation. It wasn't their fault that the cheese had disappeared so someone owed them.
The littlepeople thought that the cheese would turn up again and for the next few mornings went back to the place in the maze where the cheese used to be. But there was no cheese.
"Who Moved My Cheese?" then goes on tell the story of how Haw slowly took the actions to find new cheese while Hem was unable to adapt.
"Who Moved My Cheese?" Turned Into Meaning
The problem with using parables as a teaching mechanism is that some people can be entranced by the story but just read it at the surface level.
"Who Moved My Cheese?" solves this problem by having the story sandwiched between two reflections.
The first is following a school reunion when one person asks "why is it so difficult to adapt to change" and another says that they struggle until they'd heard a little story, which he then tells the group.
The main story is then followed by a discussion about what they'd learnt from the "Who Moved My Cheese?" parable and how when they faced change before, they had fallen back into some of the characters.
Conclusion on "Who Moved My Cheese?"
This book by Spencer Johnson only takes about an hour to read but it is an hour well spent.
It has some powerful lessons to help you look for change as is occurs and then by showing the weakness of Hem and the futility of doing nothing, it helps you to prepare for and embrace change.
I use the phrase a TINA situation - sometimes There Is No Alternative other than change.
However not all change is good and not all change is inevitable so I can understand people who see this book as propaganda to help staff to accept management's latest harebrained idea.
But it is only a book and it does make you question what is going on but perhaps the questions should have been opened out even further.
I rate "Who Moved My Cheese?" as a four star book and recommended for reading. It certainly helps you with the "what to do" and "what not to do" when you are faced with change.
Buying "Who Moved My Cheese?"
"Who Moved My Cheese?" is available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (affiliate links)
On Amazon.com, there have been nearly 1,500 reviews, fairly evenly split between those loving the book and those hating it. Interesting so this is clearly a book that you should have an opinion about.
Have You Read "Who Moved My Cheese?"
If you have read this book, I'll be very interested to hear what you think so please leave a comment below.
Who Moved My Cheese Videos?
The full length videos of Who Moved The Cheese? have been removed from YouTube for breaching copyright but this preview remains which gives you the flavour for the book.
I'm not sure the cartoon videos help as they may trivialise the message but I would be interested to hear what you think.
Spencer Johnson, author of Who Moved The Cheese? is one of the top business brains included in The League Of Extraordinary Minds
http://businesscoaching.typepad.com/the_business_coaching_blo/2009/05/league-of-extraordinary-minds.html
Posted by: Paul | October 19, 2009 at 01:26 PM
Sorry the WHo Moved The Cheese Videos have been removed from YouTube
Posted by: Paul | May 07, 2010 at 01:03 PM