Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

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

Often times we try to overcomplicate things because it makes us feel important in someway. True, it may seem simplicity has some inherent flaw in it but in actuality simplicity can teach us everything. Think about those institutions that we have complicated through needless verbiage and procedure. I can think of two off the top of my head government and law. Both are dominated by attorneys and remain out of touch for the common layperson. I would submit that those things that are simplified are inherently easier to understand and better because of it as with this book.

To those that have said that they would be seeking employment elsewhere if given this book by a boss or thought this was a tool to justify downsizing, I say that I didn't even think of construing the story in that manner. I don't believe "Hem" and "Haw" were lazy workers and the book a vehicle for job elimination, in fact I thought the book was a good lesson on industries. Think about this for a moment, what industries are sitting around now like Hem waiting for the cheese to come back or smelling old and rotten cheese and not looking for new cheese. I can give you three of these industries right off the top of my head: the steel, music, and film industries. All these industries suffer from "Hemminism" because they are not looking for new ways of doing business but gravitating to old business model, which this book is actually trying to get you to realize.

My advice to those thinking about reading this book, yes it does in some cases seem like common sense. Yes, if you're a driver of change it may not help you that much. However, I'm sure that there isn't an aspect of your life that this book couldn't help you in some way. Besides the book is inexpensive and will take you at most an hour to read. What else are you going to do tonight, sit on the couch and watch "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" This book has some valuable lessons hidden inside it whether approaching change from a perspective as an influencer or the influenced and is well worth a read.


Who Moved My Cheese   April 2, 2000
Ned Barnett
89 out of 112 found this review helpful

Strange question.

However, there's a good answer. Who Moved My Cheese is one of those rare little books that you can read in an hour, and change your life for the better. By Spencer Johnson (remember the One Minute Manager?), this is a charming little parable about life in a maze, and what happens to four archetypal characters when their large stash of cheese is (apparently) suddenly gone.

Some sniff around for new opportunities. Some scurry after those opportunities. Some hem and haw, rooted by fear and unable to move, and some learn to laugh at their fears and go looking for New Cheese.

Sounds corny, maybe. But like Aesop and other great Teachers, great truths can often be related in simple-sounding fables and parables.

I've had somebody "move my cheese" recently - and rather dramatically. Life has turned upside down; and believe me, that's neither fun nor confidence-building. It's scary as hell, and it hurts more than you can imagine. Life is not guaranteed - neither is a job, or income, or clients ... in fact, you might say the only guarantees life offers is that change will happen, and that life is finite.

You can adapt to change - or even embrace it - or you can resist change. Either way, your life will run it's course. Will you be happy and successful by resisting change? Or will you be happy and successful by adapting to - or even embracing - change?

This book can help your career, your business, your family life and your personal outlook. It won't stop change, or even slow it down (it may, in fact, speed it up - by making you an agent of change). But it will help you not only weather the storms, but learn how to surf the tidal waves. I've just read it, out loud, with my wife (we took turns to keep our voices going ). It took about an hour - and that was one of the best-spent hours I can imagine. I started that hour weighted down with fear - fear of change, and that great unknown that lurks just the other side of change. I ended that hour energized, eager to try new things, to reach out - and to start that by sharing this with you.

So what are you waiting for?

All the best ... (starting with this great little book)

Ned Barnett


Just a great little read.   December 7, 1999
D. Greenland (MA)
82 out of 104 found this review helpful

My husband just received this book as a birthday gift and as I was cleaning up from the party the title caught my attention. I picked it up and 45 minutes later I am finding myself writing my first online review of a book. It gives such a positive outlook on the always inevitable change that everyone is bound to encounter. The lessons are ones which we all know in our hearts but so many people are not willing to implement them. I would love to recommend this book to everyone that I know but my fear is that those who could use it's wisdom the most will still keep their eyes shut to their own "special" situations. Or they will discount it as worthless advice. I think that the people who stand to gain the most from this enlightening story are those who are already open to change and have already recognized the need to venture out into the maze. This could just be the push that they need. The book helps you to let go and conquer your fear of a situation. We each have our own story and a detailed book cannot possibly give any more instructions for our own lives than this simple one does.


It makes you think about how imperfect our world is.   January 21, 2000
Paul Dushaj (New York)
26 out of 31 found this review helpful

I have read this book and being someone who was comfortable at a position for 22 years and then had the cheese moved from under my feet without a warning, I can understand this concept better than others. This book teaches you to always be ready for the worst so that if and when it does come your are not totally destroyed by it's effects. This book is more a reminder that we can be replaced on whim and should not sit there and ponder why, just go out and continue. Remeber as a child when we fell and got up to walk again, this shouldn't changed now either. Get up and go! A must read for the unwary.

Remeber you only live once and this book tells you to go on living.


The Work of a Master   January 22, 2000
Dick Lyles (Poway, CA USA)
29 out of 35 found this review helpful

This a great work, written by a master of the modern day parable, with a foreword by another master, Ken Blanchard. The book's value is that in a very short period of time it helps the reader get in touch with an issue that is affecting us all at some level today - how we cope with change. This is one of those books that everyone should read, both to learn better how to deal with some of life's challenges, and to provide an interesting topic of discussion for cocktail parties.

Another book, just released with a testimonial by Spencer Johnson, that falls into this same category is WINNING WAYS: FOUR SECRETS FOR GETTING GREAT RESULTS BY WORKING WELL WITH PEOPLE, by Dick Lyles. Like CHEESE, it also has a foreword by Ken Blanchard, and it also deals with an issue that affects us all at some level.

Those reviewers who say these books are over-simplified miss their true beauty. The reason these books by Johnson, Blanchard and Lyles are so popular is that they highlight simple truths in ways that people can relate to them and apply them to their personal lives for personal betterment. Each book doesn't have all the answers. But then, neither do all the big fat books I've read that are more theoretical and deal with their subjects on a so-called "higher" intellectual plane.

My fervent hope is that people will read the works of these great authors and share their ideas with others for two reasons. First, so these authors will continue to produce classics like these. And second, because if more people read and apply these ideas, the better our world will be.