Moved My Cheese? Change Is Not an

¶ … Moved My Cheese? Change is not an easy thing to do for many individuals, in life and in work. Change means moving away from your comfortable routine and accepting something new and different, a new chapter in your personal or professional life -- and that, for some people, can be scary. Spencer Johnson has written a clever, entertaining book about change and the challenges it presents, titled Who Moved My Cheese.

This is a motivational book with mice characters named "Sniff" and "Scurry" and two small human people named "Hem" and "Haw." Johnson has a clever way of introducing the fictional characters to the reader; he creates a high school reunion scenario and the day after the event, old classmates sit down together and get caught up on their lives.

They discuss change, and Michael, one of the classmates, tells the others in the group that he has heard "a funny little story that changed everything," including the way he looks at change, from fearing he was losing something to recognizing that he is gaining something. Hence, the theme of the book is believing that you gain something through change. The four characters live in a kind of maze, which for Johnson's book symbolizes the environment one lives in, and the cheese is a symbol for happiness.

Probably 99.9% of the people on the planet are in search of happiness from some position or angle, and so Johnson chose cheese as the symbol of happiness, and when someone takes that cheese away or hides it, a person can become very upset. "For some, finding Cheese was having material things. For others, it was enjoying good health, or developing a spiritual sense of well-being" (Johnson, p. 34).

As the story unfolds readers see that the mice are instinctive and know where to find happiness; the humans fuss and strain to locate their happiness once things change for them. When employees go to work each day and encounter a maze, it is reasonable to assume that some will likely behave like Sniff and Scurry. The employees who are like Sniff and Scurry employees will thoughtfully go in several directions according to where they think they smell "cheese" (happiness).

When they find a reliable source of cheese, they will return to that particular place every day, knowing they can find their cheese. That is what Sniff and Scurry do. They return each day to the place where they know there is cheese. If by chance one day they show up at the normal source of cheese and it has been moved, disappeared, the employees like Sniff and Scurry will hustle off through the maze to find more cheese. Sniff and Scurry are the kinds of employees that accept change.

But then there are the employees will behave like Hem and Haw, they will shout loudly and be emotionally unstable in response to the fact that their cheese is gone. Their anger is because they were not expecting to run out of cheese. Sniff and Scurry had in fact been expecting to run out of cheese, so they were not befuddled and outraged as much as Hem and Haw were. "Who moved my cheese?" Hem wants to know.

They will "rant and rave at the injustice of it all" (Johnson, p. 35). Hoping to find the cheese in the same place on day two, employees will still not find it and they might stand there "immobilized like two statues" (Johnson, p. 37). After a bit of a search, the Sniff and Scurry characters locate "Cheese Station N," a fresh supply of happiness (cheese). But Hem and Haw are still back at Cheese Station C. And they are in denial for days. Their old routine was taken away from them.

Finally, after being in denial about their situation, Haw starts laughing at the situation, and in the process begins taking himself a little less seriously. Haw writes on the Cheese Station C. wall, "If You Do Not Change, You Can Become Extinct." This of course is Johnson's use of psychology. Haw also writes "What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?" On the wall, and begins seeking out his new source of cheese.

Haw eventually finds crumbs enough to keep him alive, although he is still full of worry and doubt, as many humans are when moved from one work assignment to another, or when relocating in a place they have never been before. When Haw returns to Hem (with a few crumbs of cheese for survival) but Hem is still uptight about the need to search, and he is left behind.

Johnson leaves his mark on the whole situation about change by having Hem write the scripted lessons for everyone reading the book. He writes things that of course readers should take to heart: "Change Happens: They Keep moving the Cheese"; "Anticipate Change: Get Ready For The Cheese To Move"; "Monitor Change: Smell The cheese Often.