Who Moved My Cheese?

By Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Change is inevitable. It can be good or bad, depending on your mindset. Dr. Spencer Johnson goes a step further in Who Moved My Cheese? to suggest that everyone can see change as a good thing if they acknowledge the nature of change and the role it plays in their lives.

"Cheese," in Johnson's terms, is a metaphor for what we want to have in life, whether it's a job, a relationship, money, a new house, freedom, health, recognition, spiritual peace or even an activity like jogging or golf. The maze, the setting of Johnson's tale, is where we look for change — the organization we work in, our families, the community.

In Who Moved My Cheese? four characters are faced with unexpected change. Each of them has their own way of dealing with it. The lessons learned about how to deal with change are written on the maze walls and summarized as:

• Change happens
• Anticipate change
• Monitor change
• Adapt to change quickly
• Change
• Enjoy change!
• Be ready to change quickly and enjoy it again and again

The points that Johnson makes as his characters struggle to find self-empowerment are worth keeping in mind in today's volatile work environment. As Haw, the character in the book who is most open to the possibilities of change, discovers, "You can believe that a change will harm you and resist it. Or you can believe that finding new Cheese will help you, and embrace the change. It all depends on what you choose to believe."

This is the ultimate and quite hopeful message of Johnson's story: Choosing to adapt will enrich your life, leading you toward new possibilities created in the ever-changing world of today's workplace. Conversely, "old beliefs will not lead you to new Cheese."

Who Moved My Cheese?
Spencer Johnson, M.D.
Spencer Johnson, M.D., Copyright 1998, 2002, 94 pp.
ISBN 0-399-14446-3
General field or genre: management

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