Who Moved My Cheese?
 | |
| Author | Spencer Johnson |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Self-help / motivational, Motivational, Business fable, Psychology, Leadership, Parable |
| Publisher | Putnam Adult |
Publication date | September 7, 1998 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 94 pp. |
| ISBN | 0-399-14446-3 |
| OCLC | 38752984 |
| 155.2/4 | |
| LC Class | BF637.C4 J64 1998 |
Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, published on September 8, 1998, is a bestselling work and motivational business fable by Spencer Johnson. The text describes the way one reacts to major change in one's work and life, and four typical reactions to those changes by two mice and two "Littlepeople," during their hunt for "cheese." A New York Times business bestseller upon release, Who Moved My Cheese? remained on the list for almost five years and spent over 200 weeks on Publishers Weekly's hardcover nonfiction list.[1] As of 2018, it has sold almost 30 million copies worldwide[2][3] in 37 languages and remains one of the best-selling business books.[4] This book guides the reader to anticipate change, adapt to change quickly, enjoy change and be ready to change quickly, again and again.
Summary
[edit]Several high school classmates meet after a class reunion and discuss the challenge of handling the changes in their lives. Michael, a business manager, says that he was afraid of change until he heard an allegorical story, which he proceeds to tell.
In the story, two mice and two "littlepeople" — people the size of mice — live in a maze. The mice, named Sniff and Scurry, are simpleminded and instinctive; they run the same path every day, eating cheese when they find it, but are always ready to move on. The littlepeople, Hem and Haw, search for a special kind a special kind of Cheese that makes them happy and fulfilled by keeping track of where they have found it before. All four discover a spot where their favorite cheese is regularly available, called Cheese Station C. The mice continue to run the entire maze each day while the littlepeople stop exploring and settle at Cheese Station C.
One day the supply at Cheese Station C is exhausted. The mice accept that there is no more cheese and continue their running path. The littlepeople sit at the station confused and angry. Hem protests that the Cheese should be there, while Haw wonders where the mice have gone. Meanwhile the mice find new supply of cheese at Cheese Station N. The littlepeople remain at Cheese Station C for several days, growing frustrated and hungry. Eventually Haw accepts that running the maze is the only way he will ever have Cheese again, faces his fear of moving on, and leaves Hem behind.
As Haw explores the maze, he realizes that there had been warning signs at Cheese Station C long before the Cheese disappeared and decides to be more attentive in the future. He encounters several other depleted Cheese Stations and realizes that this is the price of not moving on sooner. He visits Hem at Cheese Station C and tells him that there is other Cheese, but Hem refuses to budge. Haw continues exploring, writing observations about his journey on the walls of the maze, until he arrives at Cheese Station N which is stocked with all kinds of Cheese. He reflects on all of the lessons he has learned and hopes that Hem will finally let go of his attachments. On the wall of Cheese Station N, he writes the lessons:
- Change Happens
- They Keep Moving The Cheese
- Anticipate Change
- Get Ready For The Cheese To Move
- Monitor Change
- Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old
- Adapt To Change Quickly
- The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese
- Change
- Move With The Cheese
- Enjoy Change!
- Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!
- Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again
- They Keep Moving The Cheese.
Cautious from past experience, Haw inspects Cheese Station N daily and explores different parts of the maze regularly to prevent complacency. Hearing movement in the maze one day, Haw realizes someone is approaching the station, and he hopes it is his friend Hem who has found the way.
After Michael finishes the story, the classmates agree to meet again before dinner and discuss it. They tell different stories of encountering change and how they, or someone else, failed to respond to it. All of them agree that the Cheese story is a useful parable to follow and tell their friends.
Who Moved My Cheese Inc.
[edit] |
In 1999, Who Moved My Cheese Inc was founded to handle the Who Moved My Cheese? book order demands from businesses. In 2005, the company was reorganized as Spencer Johnson Partners with the idea of bringing in partners and additional content from Dr. Spencer Johnson, the author. Spencer Johnson Partners focused on creating additional programs and services that would continue to help clients navigate change, including Gaining Change Skills. Then, in 2009, the company was purchased and renamed Red Tree leadership.
Reception
[edit]In the corporate environment, management has been known to distribute this book to employees during times of "structural reorganization", or during cost-cutting measures, in an attempt to portray unfavorable or unfair changes in an optimistic or opportunistic way. This has been characterized by Barbara Ehrenreich in her book Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America as an attempt by organizational management to make employees quickly and unconditionally assimilate management ideals, even if they may prove detrimental to them professionally. Ehrenreich called the book "the classic of downsizing propaganda" and summarizes its message as "the dangerous human tendencies to 'overanalyze' and complain must be overcome for a more rodentlike approach to life. When you lose a job, just shut up and scamper along to the next one."[5]
Liberal journalist Thomas Frank situated the book in a broader genre of management-serving literature that portrays the imbalance of power between employees and managers as an inevitable force of "change" that employees must not question, and should even accept happily. Change comes, mysteriously, from outside the maze while the possibility of the inhabitants effecting change on their terms is rendered unthinkable.[6]
Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams said that patronizing parables are one of the top things he receives complaints about by email.[7] Adams' retort to the message in the parable is that it is a "patronizing message for the proletariat to acquiesce".[8]
Parodies
[edit]There are multiple parody works called Who Cut the Cheese?.[9]
- Andy Borowitz published a parody, Who Moved My Soap?: The CEO's Guide to Surviving Prison, Simon & Schuster, c2003.[10]
- Darrel Bristow-Bovey published a parody, I Moved Your Cheese, Penguin Random House South Africa, Apr 13, 2012.[11]
- Comedian/TV host/motivational speaker Ross Shafer wrote Nobody Moved Your Cheese![12]
References
[edit]- ^ Maryles, Daisy and Dick Donahue. "Behind the Bestsellers", Publishers Weekly 10 December 2001: 18.
- ^ (Over) 28 million:
- Sandomir, Richard (8 July 2017). "Spencer Johnson, 'Who Moved My Cheese?' Author, Dies at 78". The New York Times.
- "Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson: 9780399144462 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com.
- ^ "Almost 30 million":
- Charles, Ron (September 2018). "Perspective | Today is the 20th anniversary of 'Who Moved My Cheese?' Why does it still move us?". Washington Post.
almost 30 million
- "Spencer Johnson's WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? Turns 20, Long-Awaited Sequel to Pub in November". penguinrandomhouse.com. September 2018.
almost 30 million
- Charles, Ron (September 2018). "Perspective | Today is the 20th anniversary of 'Who Moved My Cheese?' Why does it still move us?". Washington Post.
- ^ "Who Moved My Cheese?". Time. December 4, 2008. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008.
- ^ Ehrenreich, Barbara (2009). Bright-sided : how the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America. New York: Metropolitan Books. ISBN 978-0-8050-8749-9. OCLC 317928923.
- ^ Frank, Thomas (2000). One Market Under God.
- ^ "What moves the 'Cheese' for books", Del Jones, USA Today, 26 December 2002.
- ^ Kreissl, Brian (7 January 2014). "Is Change Management patronizing to Employees?". hrreporter.com. Canadian HR Reporter. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
- ^ Jim Dawson (2011), Blame It on the Dog, Potter/TenSpeed/Harmony, p. xi, ISBN 9780307778772
- ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: Who Moved My Soap?: The CEO's Guide to Surviving Prison: The Bernie Madoff Edition by Andy Borowitz". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
- ^ Bristow-Bovey, Darrel (13 April 2012). I Moved Your Cheese. Penguin Random House South Africa. ISBN 9781770223080. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
- ^ "Nobody Moved Your Cheese!". Ross Shafer. Retrieved 2018-07-02.
