Book: Who Moved My Cheese?

Author: Dr Spencer Johnson

Category: Self-help and Change

Management

Summary:
Accept change and move with it.
Anticipate it and enjoy it.

Rating:
There are four
characters in a maze.
Sniff smells change early. Scurry is quick to act.
The four characters are:
Sniff and Scurry, two
mice that represent the
simple parts of our
personality.
Hem and Haw, two little
people that represent
the complex and
“human” parts of our Haw resists at first
Hem resists but then learns to
personality.
change as he adapt as he
feels it will bring discovers that
something worse. change can lead to
something better.
The Maze represents your
community, your organisation, the
relationship you are in.

At the beginning of the story

there is a piece of cheese that the
four characters eat.
The cheese in the Maze
represents what makes us happy –
money, stability, good job etc.
The mice check the cheese every
day to see if there have beenany
changes and keep their running
shoes around their neck in case
they have to moveagain.

The little people settle down

around the cheese and become
complacent and self satisfied with
their cheese.
One day they wake up to find that
the cheese is gone.

The mice immediately put on their

running shoes and go off in search
of new cheese.

The Little People stay there in

shock, not believing this terrible
turn of events.
Hem insists on staying where they
are, saying that ‘life is unfair’ and
they should be compensated for
this loss of cheese. He is never
able to abandon the place where
his favourite cheese was and stays
where he is, even if it means
becoming extinct.

Haw at first shuts the change out,

not wanting to accept that things
have changed.
At first Haw is frightened of going
back into the maze again, looking
for new cheese.

After a while, however, he realises

that looking for new cheese is
better than staying in an old place
that has no cheese.

He imagines himself finding and

enjoying new cheese and that
pushes him on.
Eventually, and after almost giving
up, he finds new cheese in a part
of the maze where he had never
been before.

Sniff and Scurry are already there,

enjoying the cheese.

This time he enjoys the cheese

but continues to go outevery day
to discover new parts of themaze
and he checks the cheese every
day for signs of change.
The lessons that Haw takes away
from the loss of the cheese are:

Change happens and we must

move with it.

We should anticipate change and

be ready for things to change.

We should monitor our current

situation so we know when things
are starting not to work.
We should adapt to change
quickly and let go of the oldways
of doing things, or the things
themselves.

We should enjoy the changeand

treat it as anadventure!