Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

Dr. Johnson, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and many other books, presents this parable to business, church groups, schools, military organizations--anyplace where you find people who may fear or resist change. And although more analytical and skeptical 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

Product Description
From one of the world's most recognized experts on management comes a charming parable filled with insights designed to help readers manage change quickly and prevail in changing times.

By Walter Maurer e-Solutions Architect

Spencer Johnsonhas been a prolific author of "One Minute" type books. He's the author, after all, of six " One Minute" books; most take complex subjects and present simple solutions one can implement. Books such as One Minute Manager (with Kenneth Blanchard) and One Minute $ales Manager (with Larry Wilson) are well known to the international business community while others The One Minute Father and the 13 books in The ValueTales Series For Children are known to the family community. In his latest best seller, Who Moved My Cheese? he has taken the complex task of explaining change and change management to his audience, the business community. The book begins with a preface by Kenneth Blanchard telling the reader what this book with the unusual title is all about. This chapter can be called " tell them what you are going to tell them". In addition, Blanchard does an infomercial on the Ken Blanchard Companies and their commitment to change in corporate America.

Johnson's story takes on a parable like approach with four main characters and their ability to deal with change. Sniff and Scurry are two mice with a simple approach to life; Hem and Haw are two little people who use complex reasoning and analysis to make life-influencing decisions. The mice rule their lives by trial and error; the little people rule by thought, analysis and procrastination.

The four characters find themselves in a maze with an abundance of life sustaining cheese. The mice recognize early on that the cheese will run out and plan a " search and find" mission well before the little people discover that someone has "moved" their cheese. Sniff saw change coming early and took action with little prodding; Scurry took action before any of the four. Hem resisted changing to find new cheese and Haw learned to adapt once he realized that new cheese had to be found to survive.

The author relates this to change in the corporate world by using parables. "If You Do Not Change, You Can Become Extinct" and "Noticing Small Changes Early Helps You Adapt To The Bigger Changes That Are To Come" are two of the 15 parables each wrapped in a piece of cheese.

The key parable " The Handwriting on the Wall" becomes the discussion point that employers dealing with change management can use to drive home the importance of recognizing when your cheese has been moved. Johnson has made this a short, easy to understand, easy to use primer for change management. ...


lifechanging possibilities   November 19, 1999
Carrie Clark (cmc@clemson.edu) (Edgefield, South Carolina)
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

It took me less than one hour to read Who Moved My Cheese? When I finished, I knew something about me had changed. If I had the money, I'd buy the book for every person I know. I passed it along to my daughter, as I see her, as an adult, dealing with change as inaffectively as I did at her age. I wish someone had passed it along to me years ago! Thanks Spencer Johnston for a great book!


An A-mazing way to deal with change - Get this book!   March 12, 2004
27 out of 30 found this review helpful

Who Moved My Cheese is an A-musing and powerful book. Written in the form of a parable, Who Moved My Cheese reveals profound truths about change.

"Cheese" is used as a metaphor for what you want to have in life. Could be a better relationship, a better job, your own business, more money, peace of mind, better health, or spiritual peace of mind.

The story is about four characters who live in a maze and the maze is where you look for what you want, the company you work for (or want to work for), the family or community you live in or the industry you want to start your business in.

This is an amusing and entertaining story about four characters. In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. One succeeds and writes about it on the wall---the handwriting is on the walls.

And for those of us who read and understood the meaning of the story in this book also discovered how to deal with change...successfully. Therefore enjoying more success and less stress in your work and in your life.

This book is ideal for all ages. Kids love it and get it easier than many of the adults.

Highly recommended.


Make you think again about your life   February 7, 2000
Fadi Abu-Hejleh (Nablus, Palastine)
38 out of 44 found this review helpful

The impressive thing about this book is that within a few pages (that take only an hour of reading) makes you think again and again about your life. It leads you to think about the chances that you are missing by hanging out with old missed chances. It forces you to move on. It shows you some of the wrong directions in your life, business, family etc. This book is a must have, and a great gift for friends