Are you going through big life changes at work or at home? “Who Moved My Cheese?” is an amazing book about change that is an easy read, short, and has great value! I have been going through lots of changes with starting a new business; I am embracing major changes in my personal life, along with changes in the local mental health center I have worked for, for the last several years.
This book involves a short story about two mice, two little people, and cheese. Cheese represents the “goods”, the things that people want or need in order to be fulfilled, happy, or content. At the start of the story there is plenty of cheese, plenty of “good stuff”. But slowly the cheese is disappearing, and the mice and the little people in the end need to adapt into to realizing that they will need to look in new places and change their attitudes and behaviors in order to gain access to the “goods” again. Each character represents different personality styles in people in the work place or in families. Their names are “Sniff”, “Scurry”, “Hem” and “Haw”. “Sniff” represents the personality that is ahead of the game and senses that change is coming and takes the bull by the horns. “Scurry” scurries fast to catch up with the changes, and “Haw” eventually makes changes better late than never, but…”Hem” we are not sure what happens to him or her.
I feel this would be a great book for companies to read together when they are going through big changes. It would also be a great book when families are dealing with lots of changes. For instance the changes may be getting married, retiring, a new baby is coming, joining two families together, or re-locating to a new state due to a job transfer. (They added a teen version of “Who Moved My Cheese?” therefore it is also available to the younger audience.)
For me this book encouraged me to look at how I go about change. Do I resist? Do I embrace it? Am I ahead of the game? One thing I realized is that I definitely did not want to be “Hem”! What role do I play in change? Well it depends. What I loved about this story is that you can embrace what role you want to play. Do you want to be the person that gets left in the dust? Do you want to be the person that will change but grudgingly? Or would you like to become the person that goes with the changes and adapts quickly, efficiently, and masterfully?! We have all heard the saying, “The only constant is change.” In this book the handwriting on the wall is
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
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 the Taste of New Cheese!
Be Ready to Quickly Change Again and Again – They Keep Moving the Cheese
The only constant is change!
