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Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life | 
 enlarge | Author: Spencer Johnson
Creator: Kenneth Blanchard
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy Used: $0.69
You Save: $19.26 (97%)
New (311) Used (699) Collectible (35) from $0.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  1445 reviews
Sales Rank: 169
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 96
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0399144463
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.24
EAN: 9780399144462
ASIN: 0399144463
Publication Date: September 8, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: pages are as featured cover slightly worn
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Amazon.com
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--nonanalytical and nonjudgmental, they just want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Hem and Haw are "littlepeople," 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, 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
Who Moved My Cheese? is a simple parable that reveals profound truths about change. It 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.Two are mice named Sniff and Scurry. And two are "little people" -- beings the size of mice who look and act a lot like people. Their names are Hem and Haw. "Cheese" is a metaphor for what you want to have in life -- whether it is a good job, a loving relationship, money, a possession, health, or spiritual peace of mind. And "The Maze" is where you look for what you want -- the organization you work in, or the family or community you live in. In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with it successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls. When you come to see "The Handwriting on the Wall," you can discover for yourself how to deal with change, so that you can enjoy less stress and more success (however you define it) in your work and in your life. Written for all ages, the story takes less than an hour to listen to, but its unique insights can last for a lifetime.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
 There is no better way to trash our culture June 26, 2008
I am grateful to all the reviewers that tried to save money and anxiety and anger for other people or potential readers of this book, by advising against buying it. I find all such comments are very interesting and very inspiring, which are elements you would never find in this book. In particular, I am grateful to the review entitled Show Me the Cheese by Bruce Silveman. It is such a wonderful review which should be published by major newspapers like New York Times and Washington Post. And we can read here for free! This book is an attempt to trash our culture, to put everything valuable we inherited from the past in a dumpster and sell some real garbage as the latest invention of once in a life time. This book and many other books such as the Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Shack, and the book insults God which I don't want to mention here, are all part of effort to show that man can be better off by themselves without the divine guidance of Jesus. Everything in the Western society in the last two hundred years are part of the development of that ideology. Just wait, you will read things worse than this!
 Great Analogy June 20, 2008
The book is a quick read and reread. A good reminder of how we MUST flow with change in our lives.
Who move my cheese June 2, 2008
A short easy listen giving great insight on what happens if you fight change. I for one had difficulty accepting changes that I didn't want, this book presented a new perspective and insight.
 Half Way Done and Loving It May 30, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book was recommended to my from my Real Estate Office. Being in a business that see's change frequently this book really provides a birds eye view of the thought process in dealing with change. It does not tell you how to do things or specify in any fields but rather sparks the notes neccessary on how to relate this to your own life! I hope my wife reads this too!
 Beating the cheese out of a simple idea May 30, 2008
Here's the book in a nutshell (or a Swiss Cheese hole, as it were): some people like change and seek it out while some people don't and resist it. There you go -- just saved you 20 bucks.
The center of "Who Moved My Cheese" involves a parable about two mice (Scurry and Sniff) and two "Littlepeople" (what?) called Hem and Haw, who live in a maze. Their lives center around a bit of cheese in the maze. But when one day, the cheese moves. The mice scurry (!) off to sniff (!) out its new location while the littlepeople hem and haw (!) and try to make sense of their newly cheeseless world. Will Hem and Haw ever get off the dime and look for the new cheese? Or will they eventually wither and die from lack of gumption?
The book offers a simplistic analysis of an obviously difficult human dilemma. Clearly, some people dislike change and will do anything to cleave to the status quo, even when the status quo is unproductive or even life-threatening. Clearly (as anyone who has suffered through a corporate reorganization has experienced) others love change and will seek it or create it -- even when the change creates chaos and makes things demonstrably worse. But "Who Moved My Cheese" simplifies the complexity of dealing with change by assuming that all change is good, that those who follow the change are smart and that those resisting it are dull and stupid.
Fine. When change happens, it is not a brilliant strategy to pretend it's not. But is blindly "following the cheese" a smarter strategy? Wouldn't it be smart to find out who is moving the cheese and why? And what if the folks moving the cheese don't let you follow it? Hideous examples from history abound -- don't make me quote them. But these lessons are not forthcoming from this book.
"Who Moved My Cheese" is one in a long line of fad books about business that don't solve any problems. It has undoubtedly sold millions of copies and spawned a fun catch-phrase. But millions of us will continue to be caught in the business change cycle imposed by (mostly) well-meaning nitwits, in which good nutritious cheese is deemed moldy by those who have no agenda but to sell their own brand of cheese. Sometimes, waiting for the cheese to return (in the form of sensible management and proven business strategies) is smarter and more ethical.
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