 | | |
| 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 New: $1.60
You Save: $18.35 (92%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $1.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  (1451 reviews)
Sales Rank: 155
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 96
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 0399144463
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.24
EAN: 9780399144462
ASIN: 0399144463
Publication Date: September 8, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Editorial Reviews:
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.
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
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 1446 more reviews...
 My wify's little boook review September 6, 2008
"Who moved My Cheese." This is a very interesting book which touch base on the basic human ways of dealing, reacting and processing life's changes.
The book introduce to us simple character that act as a form reaction so to say. In life we will run into complication. In life we will encounter unexpected change if we don't already know that there are molds growing. In life we will allow fear to inhibit our senses of the need to let go of our comfort zone and venture.
To venture out and seek something new, better can be very uncomfortable to somebody who feel as if everything is a okay or is working for them. We don't want to have to struggle to an unexpected zone because fear tells us maybe there is nothing out there better than what we already have.
Fear becomes the dominate self criticizers.
We have been program to go through steps in our lives. From not knowing as infant...the ability to crawl, walk then run; to going through a programmed chapter in our lives from elementary, high school, college, grad school and then getting the big job. What else should we do. Have we not found the "big cheese?" Yet it is perhaps this way of comformity is what traps us in the many form of unhappiness we face.
We try to be content with our jobs, our relationship, our life but in doing so we have harness this comformity along with fear of decomforming. We want to look for "new cheese," becuase the "cheese" we have now is either molding or just not being the "cheese," we thought it would be.
It is not the idea that if something is great we should disregard it and look for something better. It is the idea that we should open our minds and think outside of the box. Maybe the journey may be long, maybe we will only finds crumbs, and maybe we will find a whole new batch of cheese that is better tasting than the ones we have. The idea is our life does not just end at one station of cheese. Living is believing in yourself. Finding that letting go of your fear and learning that worries and trouble thoughts we have can confine us and stop us. The matter can easily be dealt with a simple laugh and a strong mindset that there are better things out there. Life does not end at one place.
The book taught me the easiness of life. We should not hold too much value in any aspect of our life because life is unpredictable, things change. What we should do is be the best and the happiess in our moment of comfort but fear not for changes or sell ourself short by stopping. "Never give up" life is about happiness and where can we find happiness? It's not in finding "New cheese." It in the process of regaining ourselves in every aspect; from confidence to freedom.
"Who Moved My Cheese?" Does that question really need to be asked? Maybe the cheese need to be moved.
-TK
 The Mystery of Change August 31, 2008
As a corporate director of human resources, it is a good day when I find a book that can actually be put to good use in our managerial training. This is one of those books. In fact, it is one of the rare books that weeks and months after using, I still find that managers refer to "cheese" when dealing with change management problems and solutions.
While change certainly means different things to different people, the basic underlying theme is the same. The world as we know it will cease to exist and how will you respond.
I find that the really good management books will usually use a story or parable in getting the point across. This is far superior to dry, straight away lecture. The stories make visual connections and these stick with adults. I highly recommend this book for anyone in management. Whether first line supervisor or CEO.
Michael L. Gooch, SPHR, Author of Wingtips with Spurs
Skeptic Impressed August 30, 2008
I was required to read this book for a college class. One of my classmates and I were skeptical of how this book could be of any help, since it is not the scientific literature we're used to reading. I was pleasantly surprised. The simplicity of the story allows the reader to easily apply the information to his/her-self and quickly realize some possible bad habits.
I will surely be able to apply the lessons in this small book to my professional career as a personal trainer and co-owner of L.E.A.N. Wellness Center in Mesa, AZ. (www.getleanstaylean.com)
 for simple-minded slaves, not educated free people August 30, 2008
The book opens: a group of high school graduates get together to discuss problems of changes in their lives, and one tells a story that helped his company. It is a children's story about two mice and two "little people" who live in a maze and have to adapt when the cheese in the maze gets moved to a new location. The mice look for new cheese immediately, but the little people over-analyze the situation ("his complicated brain with its huge belief system took hold") until one decides to leave to look for new cheese. His attitude starts to improve, he finds new cheese, and he writes notes on the maze wall for the little person who stays behind. These notes are called The Writing On The Wall and tell the person who stayed behind what he's learned. The book closes with the graduates discussing how the story relates to their own lives.
This is a terrible little book that I am embarrassed to say was assigned reading in a college course. There are a constellation of belief systems that revolve around the relationship of valuelessness, lack of personal investment, spontaneity, and happiness. These include systems like Buddhism, Jean-Jacques-Rousseauianism, materialist nihilism... Who Moved My Cheese? falls in this constellation. The message of the book is that the only thing in life is following "the cheese," and you'll be happier if you don't get invested in wherever you're currently getting "the cheese," so you can immediately go to where "the cheese" is without looking back.
Of course, we know of another tradition of change, represented by Lot's wife, the Exodus, the diaspora, etc. But that tradition tells us something very different about change, suggests differentiating important from unimportant, and that there are times it is necessary to resist instead of "embracing change."
Nietzsche tells us that Judaism is a "slave religion," but the truth is that "the cheese" philosophy is the true slave religion. It's no mistake that this story takes place in a maze, and the heroes are mice. The message is that life is just a giant maze, we're all no different from mice, and the sooner you accept that, the happier you'll be. This is a book for people who don't believe in self-determination and are just cogs in a giant business machine.
At the end of the book, one of the high school graduates says that his family-owned chain of mom and pop stores should have been sold off so that he could build a giant supermarket department store to compete with the new "mega-store" in town. He rejects the idea that there might have been something worth saving, not to mention the possibility of saving it through ingenuity. His conclusion is to just see which way the wind is blowing and follow along.
Another of the high school graduates says that her son was a star swimming champion but that after the family moved for her husband's work, he learned to enjoy skiing instead and now lives happily in Colorado. But if you want to know what the "embracing change" and "enjoying new cheese" philosophy has done to families, you should read Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before.
The phrase The Writing On The Wall comes from the story of King Belshazzar, who took sacred cups from the Temple in Jerusalem and used them to drink in honor of the gods of gold and silver. A ghostly hand appeared in front of him and wrote on the wall "mene, mene, tekel, parshin," meaning that Belshazzar's kingdom would come to an end. That night, Belshazzar was killed.
The author, Spencer Johnson, seems to think that The Writing On The Wall means we should all just go along with whatever life brings, but there are really two other meanings to the story. First, would Belshazzar have been killed if his people had decided not to believe the writing on the wall? Second, there some things in life more important than gold, silver, or cheese. To this book I say "TEKEL: Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting."
The parable as a blank canvas August 30, 2008
21 out of 21 found this review helpful
Who Moved My Cheese is a classic that uses a story without the burden of extra detail to force you to put your own life into the situation, and learn from it. It's true that this method isn't for everyone, but the book is popular for a reason: it helps people.
Who Moved My Cheese has that special something that most fables lack. It makes you think. The only other fable I've seen accomplish this in the last decade is Squawk!: How to Stop Making Noise and Start Getting Results.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| | |