Collection
Description
Business. Self-Improvement. Nonfiction. HTML:THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER WITH OVER 28 MILLION COPIES IN PRINT! A timeless business classic, Who Moved My Cheese? uses a simple parable to reveal profound truths about dealing with change so that you can enjoy less stress and more success in your work and in your life. It would be all so easy if you had a map to the Maze. If the same old routines worked. If they'd just stop moving "The Cheese." But things keep changing... Most people are fearful of change, both personal and professional, because they don't have any control over how or when it happens to them. Since change happens either to the individual or by the individual, Dr. Spencer Johnson, the coauthor of the multimillion bestseller The One Minute Manager, uses a deceptively simple story to show that when it comes to living in a rapidly changing world, what matters most is your attitude. Exploring a simple way to take the fear and anxiety out of managing the future, Who Moved My Cheese? can help you discover how to anticipate, acknowledge, and accept change in order to have a positive impact on your job, your relationships, and every aspect of your life.… (more)
Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — Motivational — 1999)
Media reviews
There are many popular books that talk about change – how it is inevitable and how to accept it. Perhaps none explain it in a format you will always remember.
User reviews
LibraryThing member elliepotten
Honestly? I hated it - I thought it was a load of self-indulgent bullsh*t (and I don't often take so strongly against a book!). Only the middle section – the actual story, of two pairs of mice and their experiences trying to find cheese in a maze – is remotely worth reading. The rest is just
The story is simply an allegory for the way the simple and complex parts of our brain process change, and how we can learn to adapt and look forward rather than backwards in our lives. It is, however, a bit TOO simple to be applied to every problem in life, and should definitely be taken with a large pinch of salt.
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badly dramatized twaddle extolling the virtues of the book, the accompanying self-help programme, and its miraculous capacity to, apparently, improve everyone’s lives. I felt like screaming, 'Advertise on your own time, not mine!'The story is simply an allegory for the way the simple and complex parts of our brain process change, and how we can learn to adapt and look forward rather than backwards in our lives. It is, however, a bit TOO simple to be applied to every problem in life, and should definitely be taken with a large pinch of salt.
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LibraryThing member paperloverevolution
It's short. It was a slow day at work. I wanted to see why eighty million crazed people a day were calling for it. It was an hour of my life I will never get back. I resent the fact that this book even exists.
LibraryThing member chilemery
I, like a number of other readers, do not understand how this book came to be one of the best-selling management books of all time. Having read dozens of books on management, leadership, etc., I find myself compelled to disqualify positive reviews of this book as possibly being submitted by people
The book is overly simplistic, condescending, painfully obvious, predictable and unimaginative. You would have to be a manager terribly lacking in self-reflection, self-awareness who is wholly lacking in any capacity for introspective praxis to have your eyes opened by this book. (However, I suppose that if you are a person lacking in such capacities, then please, by all means, do read it!) If you are an employee and your boss gives you this book, s/he is basically trying to tell you that you are a dead-weight who's going nowhere in your company unless you get with the corporate program. Similarly, if you are the boss and a subordinate recommends that you read this book, s/he is trying to tell you that you are a bonehead and that you don't deserve the position that you currently hold.
The book is very short so I guess the most I can say for it is that at least when you waste your time reading it, you won't be wasting too much of it. I finished the book and thought to myself, "Now there's an hour of my life I'll never get back!" Do yourself a favor and put your hard-earned money towards reading something of substance on leadership like Collins' Good to Great, Rima's Leading from the Inside Out or any of Greenleaf's various works on servant leadership. I'd go as far as to assert that the average 9-to-5er would probably find more insight into adaptation practices by reading a handful of Dilbert cartoon strips (and would certainly enjoy him/herself more!)
(By the way, as of Oct 2009 there were 2200 'used' copies available from independent booksellers on Amazon.com starting as low as $.01. What that means is that sellers are willing to give away their copies hoping you're at least willing to pay the shipping. That's how bad they want these off their bookshelves! Prospective buyers beware -- there's a reason that there are so many of these available at such a low price!)
Update -- Unbelievable! I have just discovered that the author has come out with a children's and a teens' version of this book! Three troubling observations occur to me: First, I thought the original book was for children so this version is redundant. Second, these conspirators (author, publisher, distributor, etc.) have obviously found a way to expand their pool of unsuspecting victims by now going after our children's hard-earned book money. And third, they appear to be interested (read: self-interested) in perpetuating the creation of mind-numbed corporate robots by brainwashing their would-be victims with this drivel at an ever-earlier age. I never thought that I'd find myself a proponent of book-banning censorship but we can't take this outrage lying down--demand that this book be banned from the local elementary school and public libraries and school or community book fairs!
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who are either not well-read or who do not have much experience in the management/leadership arena (or quite possibly a myopia-inducing combination of both deficiencies). The book is overly simplistic, condescending, painfully obvious, predictable and unimaginative. You would have to be a manager terribly lacking in self-reflection, self-awareness who is wholly lacking in any capacity for introspective praxis to have your eyes opened by this book. (However, I suppose that if you are a person lacking in such capacities, then please, by all means, do read it!) If you are an employee and your boss gives you this book, s/he is basically trying to tell you that you are a dead-weight who's going nowhere in your company unless you get with the corporate program. Similarly, if you are the boss and a subordinate recommends that you read this book, s/he is trying to tell you that you are a bonehead and that you don't deserve the position that you currently hold.
The book is very short so I guess the most I can say for it is that at least when you waste your time reading it, you won't be wasting too much of it. I finished the book and thought to myself, "Now there's an hour of my life I'll never get back!" Do yourself a favor and put your hard-earned money towards reading something of substance on leadership like Collins' Good to Great, Rima's Leading from the Inside Out or any of Greenleaf's various works on servant leadership. I'd go as far as to assert that the average 9-to-5er would probably find more insight into adaptation practices by reading a handful of Dilbert cartoon strips (and would certainly enjoy him/herself more!)
(By the way, as of Oct 2009 there were 2200 'used' copies available from independent booksellers on Amazon.com starting as low as $.01. What that means is that sellers are willing to give away their copies hoping you're at least willing to pay the shipping. That's how bad they want these off their bookshelves! Prospective buyers beware -- there's a reason that there are so many of these available at such a low price!)
Update -- Unbelievable! I have just discovered that the author has come out with a children's and a teens' version of this book! Three troubling observations occur to me: First, I thought the original book was for children so this version is redundant. Second, these conspirators (author, publisher, distributor, etc.) have obviously found a way to expand their pool of unsuspecting victims by now going after our children's hard-earned book money. And third, they appear to be interested (read: self-interested) in perpetuating the creation of mind-numbed corporate robots by brainwashing their would-be victims with this drivel at an ever-earlier age. I never thought that I'd find myself a proponent of book-banning censorship but we can't take this outrage lying down--demand that this book be banned from the local elementary school and public libraries and school or community book fairs!
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LibraryThing member astults
Everyone seems to rave about this book. After reading it, I'm not sure what is so great about it. The parable seems to indicate we shouldn't overanalyze things and that we should always be aware of the next best thing. While I agree that some things in life shouldn't be overanalyzed, I don't think
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being aware of what may be the next best thing (such as a house, a job, or spouse) is so wonderful. Those people often reach for those things without thinking of the consequences such as an unaffordable mortgage, the unbearable commute/hours or the broken-hearted spouse. Show Less
LibraryThing member schatzi
I've heard a lot of amazing things about this book, but after having read it, I don't understand the hype. The book uses large font to pad the page count, and the whole story took me about twenty minutes to read. I didn't see anything profound or life-changing in these pages.
LibraryThing member nmele
Like most books on management, this is a cute gimmick stretched to book length making a fairly basic point: Change is inevitable and unless we recognize change and adapt to it, we will suffer. There, you don't have to read the book unless you like cute parables about mice and little men in mazes.
LibraryThing member stevepugh
The section on the Wikipedia entry for this book labeled Criticism starts "Some managers are known to mass-distribute copies of the book to employees, some of whom see this as an insult"...
Patronising, poorly written and full of laboured analogies. The vast number of trees used to produce the
Patronising, poorly written and full of laboured analogies. The vast number of trees used to produce the
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many, many copies of this book that have bafflingly been sold is shocking to think about. Show Less
LibraryThing member diovival
"'Anyway, we didn't change. But a competitor did and our sales fell badly. We've been going through a difficult time. Now, another big technological change is happening in the industry and no one at the company seems to want to deal with it. It doesn't look good. I think I could be out of a job
'It's MAZE time!' Carlos called out. Everyone laughed, including Jessica."
Really!?!
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soon.''It's MAZE time!' Carlos called out. Everyone laughed, including Jessica."
Really!?!
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LibraryThing member anneofia
If I hadn't read so much hype about it before I actually read the book, I might not have been just a little disappointed with it. The book is cute, humorous, quick and easy to read. But somehow I got the feeling that life is just not quite so simplistic as the author would have you believe. The
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author does present a common-sense approach to change, and some ways of coping with it when it occurs unexpectedly in our lives. If you are already doing fine with the changes in your life you don't need the book. Or, maybe I'm just in denial. Either way, the book's an entertaining read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Steve55
The subtitle ‘An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and In Your Life’ is a little spurious. This is a simple book that will take less than one hour to read from cover to cover. On the basis of a word count, or if you’re looking for a management book with answers, this will score
It presents a rather whimsical story of life for two mice and two small people in a maze. The maze represents the environment for change with unknown futures and the accompanying fears. The four characters are used to represent different attitudes to change. The mice Sniff and Scurry represent the fairly straight forward reactive approach to change. As mice they’re not credited with great intelligence but when their source of cheese is moved, react by setting off to find new cheese supplies.
The little people, Hem and Haw, are credited with the intelligence of men which in many ways provides a hindrance to their ability to change. When their cheese is moved their ‘intelligent’ response leads to a wide range of reactions including denial, recrimination and resentment which disables their ability to set off to seek new cheese. Gradually Haw comes to terms with the need for change and the contrast with Hem is used to illustrate how fear of change can be disabling and how this fear might be overcome.
This simple story illuminates a range of responses to change and provides four different characters to illustrate these response types. These types are inevitably presented in simple forms and can’t deal with the complexity of real change. That isn’t the purpose of the book and is indeed its strength. The four characters provide a vocabulary that many will find useful in describing their, and their colleagues, reaction to change. The approach taken to make that vocabulary accessible is to make the story simple so that the book can be quickly read and passed on to spread the word.
The book is so easy to read that I can imagine it being passed on to a colleague to be read in the next hour and moving through a team in a day, rather than languishing in an in-tray for three months awaiting spare time that will never arrive.
If you approach this as another pebble to be tossed into the pool of your ideas. It’s a small pebble but for many a very useful one. It is very accessible and might provide new thoughts, images and vocabulary with which to describe and most importantly share ideas on change. It doesn’t have the answers but no book ever can. People have the answers and the aim of this book is to encourage them to set off to look for their answers, their new cheese.
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very poorly. However that’s not what the book sets out to do.It presents a rather whimsical story of life for two mice and two small people in a maze. The maze represents the environment for change with unknown futures and the accompanying fears. The four characters are used to represent different attitudes to change. The mice Sniff and Scurry represent the fairly straight forward reactive approach to change. As mice they’re not credited with great intelligence but when their source of cheese is moved, react by setting off to find new cheese supplies.
The little people, Hem and Haw, are credited with the intelligence of men which in many ways provides a hindrance to their ability to change. When their cheese is moved their ‘intelligent’ response leads to a wide range of reactions including denial, recrimination and resentment which disables their ability to set off to seek new cheese. Gradually Haw comes to terms with the need for change and the contrast with Hem is used to illustrate how fear of change can be disabling and how this fear might be overcome.
This simple story illuminates a range of responses to change and provides four different characters to illustrate these response types. These types are inevitably presented in simple forms and can’t deal with the complexity of real change. That isn’t the purpose of the book and is indeed its strength. The four characters provide a vocabulary that many will find useful in describing their, and their colleagues, reaction to change. The approach taken to make that vocabulary accessible is to make the story simple so that the book can be quickly read and passed on to spread the word.
The book is so easy to read that I can imagine it being passed on to a colleague to be read in the next hour and moving through a team in a day, rather than languishing in an in-tray for three months awaiting spare time that will never arrive.
If you approach this as another pebble to be tossed into the pool of your ideas. It’s a small pebble but for many a very useful one. It is very accessible and might provide new thoughts, images and vocabulary with which to describe and most importantly share ideas on change. It doesn’t have the answers but no book ever can. People have the answers and the aim of this book is to encourage them to set off to look for their answers, their new cheese.
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LibraryThing member MatthewN
I received this book when a company I worked for was purchased by another. There was a big difference in the corporate culture between the two companies, so I guess the executives were trying to help ease the transition with this book. If there was one thing I liked about the book, it is that it
For those of us in the corporate world, it is very simple. I work for a company that pays me to do a job. What that job entails is dictated by the company. If I don't like it, I can go somewhere else. If the company cannot seem to retain people to do the work, the company will change or it will go out of business.
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was short and had pictures. Always a plus in my opinion. What I don't quite get is the hype over the book.For those of us in the corporate world, it is very simple. I work for a company that pays me to do a job. What that job entails is dictated by the company. If I don't like it, I can go somewhere else. If the company cannot seem to retain people to do the work, the company will change or it will go out of business.
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LibraryThing member coffeebookperfect
Great little book - very gentle confronting and helpful reminders to those fearful of change
LibraryThing member jaygheiser
Coincidentally, the 3 consultants from my firm working in the same room on an out-of-town engagement had all read this book. My father-in-law, who is an experienced and perceptive leader, sent me my copy--otherwise, I would never have bothered to read a thin little self-help book like this.
It
Which would you rather be, the one who thrives, or the one who is miserable? I know way too many of the miserable ones, and usually, they just don't want to stop being miserable. (hem, hem)
I guess it isn't surprising that the reviews of this book are so polarized. Either you get it, or you don't, and if you don't get it, this book would seem pretty trivial. If you think it's trivial, I suggest you try again. Any model is meant as a simplification--a two-dimensional representation of an impossibly complex world. This little book isn't meant to explain all of life, and it isn't an exploration of why change happens. It is merely a recognition that many changes are seemingly arbitrary and our choice is to either respond positively or negatively.
If this book has a fatal flaw, perhaps it is that the story isn't convincing enough. For anyone who has learned to accept change with humor and detachment and chosen to view unanticipated events as a challenge, this book may just increase your personal belief that you are well-adjusted. That seems harmless enough. On the other hand, it is easy for me to envision many of the people whom I see stubbornly refusing to accept change also being totally unmoved by this book. In other words, if you can see it, you don't need to read about it, and if you can't see it, reading about it will be aggravating.
My advice is to try. Accept this cheese metaphor as just one way to view certain aspects of life--as a very healthy way to approach events that may otherwise be interpreted as negatives. Change is inevitable. Sometimes you do have control over change, and that means you have protected your cheese. Sometimes, that cheese just goes away and it is not within your power to prevent it. But you always have control of your own attitude, and that is the real lesson of this book."
It
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turned out to be a profound and extraordinarily helpful book. It is completely consistent with my observations of life--especially life at work. Being in high-tech, and dealing with constant unanticipated organizational changes, I've learned that some people thrive on them and others just become miserable.Which would you rather be, the one who thrives, or the one who is miserable? I know way too many of the miserable ones, and usually, they just don't want to stop being miserable. (hem, hem)
I guess it isn't surprising that the reviews of this book are so polarized. Either you get it, or you don't, and if you don't get it, this book would seem pretty trivial. If you think it's trivial, I suggest you try again. Any model is meant as a simplification--a two-dimensional representation of an impossibly complex world. This little book isn't meant to explain all of life, and it isn't an exploration of why change happens. It is merely a recognition that many changes are seemingly arbitrary and our choice is to either respond positively or negatively.
If this book has a fatal flaw, perhaps it is that the story isn't convincing enough. For anyone who has learned to accept change with humor and detachment and chosen to view unanticipated events as a challenge, this book may just increase your personal belief that you are well-adjusted. That seems harmless enough. On the other hand, it is easy for me to envision many of the people whom I see stubbornly refusing to accept change also being totally unmoved by this book. In other words, if you can see it, you don't need to read about it, and if you can't see it, reading about it will be aggravating.
My advice is to try. Accept this cheese metaphor as just one way to view certain aspects of life--as a very healthy way to approach events that may otherwise be interpreted as negatives. Change is inevitable. Sometimes you do have control over change, and that means you have protected your cheese. Sometimes, that cheese just goes away and it is not within your power to prevent it. But you always have control of your own attitude, and that is the real lesson of this book."
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LibraryThing member Bonestcjmom
Great for everyone!!! Everyone is always facing changes in their life and the older you get the harder it is to deal with! This book should be mandatory reading for everyone in the world!! I keep several copies to be able to lend to friends and co-workers.
LibraryThing member DSlongwhite
This book is actually a parable. It is the story of two mice -- Sniff and Scurry -- and two little people -- Hem and Haw. They run through a maze looking for cheese to make them happy. Cheese is a metaphor for what we want in life -- a job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, a
The four characters are in Cheese Station C when the book opens. They are happy, nibbling on cheese. The two mice keep their running shoes tied together hanging around their necks in case they have to look for cheese again. At first Hem & Haw do the same, but eventually they are comfortable and consider the cheese to be theirs and that they are entitled to it. They take off their running shoes, and walk to cheese Station C in their slippers.
When the cheese supply dries up, Sniff & Scurry are prepared. He yells loudly, "Who Moved My Cheese?"
I listened to this as a book on tape and loved it so much that I presented it to the group gathered on Mount Wachusett in October.
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spiritual life, recognition, etc. And the maze is where we spend time looking for it.The four characters are in Cheese Station C when the book opens. They are happy, nibbling on cheese. The two mice keep their running shoes tied together hanging around their necks in case they have to look for cheese again. At first Hem & Haw do the same, but eventually they are comfortable and consider the cheese to be theirs and that they are entitled to it. They take off their running shoes, and walk to cheese Station C in their slippers.
When the cheese supply dries up, Sniff & Scurry are prepared. He yells loudly, "Who Moved My Cheese?"
I listened to this as a book on tape and loved it so much that I presented it to the group gathered on Mount Wachusett in October.
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LibraryThing member karriethelibrarian
The mouse parable gets a little annoying after awhile, but the message is a good one: be willing to adapt or you'll become extinct just like the dinosaurs. People who refuse to learn how to work on computers should read this book.
LibraryThing member dczapka
My aunt gifted me this little book at the end of my senior year of college, telling me in a note that, "Life is full of uncertainty -- it's how well you deal with it that will lead to your success." She hit the nail on the head, and I'm sure this book helped her formulate that idea.
As a parable, it
Me, I realized that the part about moving beyond your fear may be true. And if you get even one thing out of this book, and are wise enough to understand that it might not all turn out exactly like it does in the Maze at all times, it's probably worth the short amount of time you'll invest to read it.
As a parable, it
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(like all parables) has its faults, mostly that it's pretty simplistic and awfully heavy-handed. And sure, the metaphor is ridiculously extended, clear as day, and easy to decipher. But there's almost assuredly something to gain from this tale if you give it the time to sink in.Me, I realized that the part about moving beyond your fear may be true. And if you get even one thing out of this book, and are wise enough to understand that it might not all turn out exactly like it does in the Maze at all times, it's probably worth the short amount of time you'll invest to read it.
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LibraryThing member Black_samvara
I was given this and I've wanted to read it for years - ever since housemate T2. called me a 'cheese mover'. Turns out it's a change management book using a rather large, unwieldy metaphor to talk about how people react to change. Don't buy it, wait for someone to give it to you too. Mmm cheese.
LibraryThing member Carolyn18
As always, it is easier said than done.
LibraryThing member phoenixcomet
An excellent allegory for change in the workplace, and in life in general. A simple tale that people of all ages can follow and understand.
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
An interesting look at how change affects us and those around us, somewhat simplistic but it does emphasise embracing the new and leaving what's not working behind, whether that's in life or work.
It doesn't really look at some of the complicated reasons people don't move with change and it paints
It doesn't really look at some of the complicated reasons people don't move with change and it paints
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anyone who doesn't as backward and not embracing change, but sometimes change for change's sake isn't necessarily a good thing. Show Less
LibraryThing member pictou
It's cheese. Every wants cheese, be prepared to look for better cheese. The end. There's a good 1000 word essay hidden in this book somewhere.
LibraryThing member abcarroll
Great little short book about change and how we adapt. Reminds us that change is happening all the time and if we pay attention and learn to adapt, change can be a good thing and isn't so traumatic after all.
LibraryThing member Dennisjim
The book basically tells the reader not to fear change, because change is always in ones best interest, although we often avoid it. Although far from all change in working organisations is bad, this normative and overly simplistic way of thinking about it, is a big problem.
If an employee follows
If an employee follows
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this to the letter, that basically means that whatever the management says should be done, the employee should just blindly do. Change is apparently always good, even if it means working a lot more, taking on too many tasks and having very little influence on how the tasks are fulfilled. Show Less
LibraryThing member dreamvin
this is a great book wich ispired me more than any other book.
Subjects
Publication
G. P. Putnam's Sons
Original publication date
1998
ISBN
0399144463 / 9780399144462
Similar in this library
Language
Original language
English