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Summary: Simple and insiteful
Review: The best thing about this book is how easy it is to read. The messages are important and complex, yet anyone could read this and understand what the author is trying to get across. The message of the book is how you can deal with change at work but I found that the message can be applied to changes in life as well. This really is an amazing book.
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Summary: People always underestimate the control they have
Review: The greatest lesson of my professional life was this: everyone underestimates their ability to change their situation. It's a human tendency to think "others" are in charge: your boss, the CEO, the board. Truth is, even people you perceive as being above you think others control their fate. (CEO, for example, thinks: if I don't perform, investors will revolt and the board will fire me.)This simple, undemanding book basically offers the same message. Instead of being victimized by change, take control of it. If you don't like your situation, change it. What Johnson does well is to provide us with a common language and a simple framework to talk about the forces of change. That the book is doing so well reinforces the strong need people have to regain control over their lives. As an author, I recognize that most people don't like to read, and that it takes a great deal of work to engage them and keep their attention. This book is short enough, but valuable enough, to wrestle an hour's work of your time. One last point: I'd recommend this book if you need to work with others to bring about change. But if you work alone, or are simply focused on changing your own life, there are better and more comprehensive resources.
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Summary: Save your money
Review: This book was neither entertaining nor insightful. It tried unsuccessfully to use mice and cheese as an analogy to life's bigger challenges. As other readers have stated, the authors trivialized a very serious subject and thus neglected the deeper issues surrounding life's changes. It did nothing to enlighten me or even to make me look at my life from a different perspective...all it did was provide me with a some stories on mice and cheese.
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Summary: Sure it's short -
Review: Sure it's short - the concept, somewhat interesting despite its overuse of "simplified", stiltifying prose - "The Celestine Prophecy" for corporate America. After 3 rows of library shelves full of "self-help" books, books like this should be short. The company for which I work as a contractor, handed it out as an incentive or encouragement to its employees who are very concerned about the mass layoffs and salary reductions experienced over the last couple of years. So, forgive me, for being turned off by a corporate employer's perception of altruism. Other than that it, is a simple idea, one that everyone should understand and definitely experience. And, it would be nice if it was that simple. Kudo's to the authors and those that believe they are "above the principles" of this little gem. Just think (...) book tours, lectures... corporate America buy-in... Ain't capitalism great?
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Summary: Or It Could Be Called ... "Of Mice And Little Men"
Review: "Who Moved My Cheese" is something of a modern day fable, but certainly nothing like Aesop's stories. Contained within these pages is interwoven a message about ourselves, our lives, and the way in which we live; and we are meant to see ourselves represented in one of the four characters: Hem and Haw, who are little people; and Sniff and Scurry, who are mice. The basic premise of "Who Moved My Cheese" is that things never remain the same; that changes are ever constant; that we either change with the times, or remain stuck in the same rut. If we change with the times, the story tells us, we have a better chance of succeeding. However, if we do not change with the times, the story warns, we are in fear of failing. Think of "Who Moved My Cheese" as a laboratory experiment. Hem and Haw (the little people) and Sniff and Scurry (the mice) live within a maze, constantly on the lookout for cheese, their only source of food. Who puts the cheese in the maze they never know, nor do they care. Cheese Station C is a promising area within the maze where cheese seems to be plentiful, and all four characters have gotten into a routine of visiting the area each day. However, while Sniff and Scurry look for subtle changes in the station, Hem and Haw never pay attention, taking for granted the cheese will always be there for them. One day, Sniff and Scurry visit the station only to find out the cheese is gone. Neither mouse is surprised, having noticed that the cheese supply had been dwindling little by little. When Hem and Haw arrive, they are both in shock. They had not been expecting this to happen. Hem even shouts out, "It's not fair!". Sniff and Scurry have already left Cheese Station C in search of another station somewhere within the maze that might contain cheese. Haw is reluctant to go, fearing the change, and what might be out there in the maze. Hem refuses altogether to leave Cheese Station C, believing that the cheese will soon be put back. By this point in the story we are meant to have discerned which of the four characters we are, and what they represent. 1. Have you become so safe and secure living your life one particular way that you fear change, as does Haw? In the story, Haw is happy in cheese Station C. With an ample supply of cheese, there is no reason for him to leave and venture further out in the maze. Once the cheese is gone, however, he must make that decision, knowing that without the cheese he will die. 2. Although you are content and happy, is your life so predictable that you completely ignore change, and refuse to believe that any change will ever happen, as does Hem? In the story, Hem never notices the dwindling cheese. All he sees is that there is cheese, and he is happy. Once the cheese is gone, however, he refuses to accept the change, believing the cheese will be put back. He has no desire to go out into the maze to find new cheese, content to remain in Cheese Station C as long as it takes for new cheese to appear. What will happen to him if cheese never comes? 3. Are you Sniff, who is contanstanly on the lookout for change, and willing to makes changes in his life in order to survive and stay ahead of the game? In the story, Sniff notices how, on a daily basis, the cheese supply is dwindling, and knows that one day it will be all gone. While the cheese is still available, he prepares himself for when he must leave Cheese Station C in search of new cheese. 4. Are you Scurry, who, although he notices the cheese is dwindling does not prepare in advance for the day it is not there, yet can easily make and accept the change? In the story, Scurry is not surprised when the cheese is gone, but he has not been preparing for it as has Sniff. Still, Scurry does not fear the change, nor does he ignore it. He leaves Cheese Station C with Sniff is search of new cheese, willing to change in order to survive. This is the basic premise of "Who Moved My cheese", and the questions we are faced with. The story is entertaining. It is not magnificent, and only somewhat compelling. But with so much change occurring in the world so rapidly, it does force us to think about our own lives, where we are in our lives, and how we would react to change. That initself makes "Who Moved My Cheese" worth reading.
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Summary: Waste of Money - Even Real Mice Aren't This Dumb!
Review: If you need this book to tell you that you must adjust to change in today's workplace, then you have a bigger problem than the one described in this book. Basically, the book uses the analogy of mice afraid to change where they look for food. The mice that accept change and look for food elsewhere survive. The ones that don't, don't! That's it, folks. Change or die. Real mice don't need this book to tell them how to survive, and you probably don't either. This is more conceptual and psychological baloney from the ivory tower MD/Phd, "I don't work living" crowd, described in a pedantic, childish, fairy-tale manner that should offend any working professional in today's demanding job market. I know of a fortune 500 company that actually recommended its employees should read this book. They even went out and bought copies of it for distribution among the workforce! That company is having major financial problems and laid off more than 30 thousand people last year. If this book is their idea of a workforce enabler, I can see why they are failing. Don't waste your money on this trash. Instead, get ready for change by buying a book on Javascript or HTML or whatever technical subject interests you and improve your skills.
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Summary: Good Concepts, but...
Review: My boss recently gave me this book to read along with another motivational book (Fish!) as a way to boost morale in our small business. However, the book made me realize that our office is "old and moldy cheese" and that I should probably get past my fear of failure and go in search of "new cheese." The simple story was easy to relate to and I could find myself (and other coworkers) in the characters. Too bad for my boss, but the book has given me a new confidence in myself. If I could sum it up in one phrase, it would be "What would you do if you weren't afraid?"
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Summary: Grasp the MEANING; Don't JUST read the words.
Review: My advice is simple: Try this book. Its a one-hour read. However, don't undertake this task while your brain is relaxing. Those that don't take something away from this book are either unfocused or require that a book meet the "weight test" to measure up. Don't allow yourself to be fooled. Sure, this book's "story" is about 4 rodents, a maze and their quest for cheese. But the concept is much, much deeper. Personally and professionally, the concept rings true. Those looking for the easy path, the "tried-and-true" path, the concrete path, will never reach new heights. The book's parable leads the reader through the maze that is life, again, your personal or professional life. I'll not go any further with the concept or the story as I believe each reader should experience the book and decide unilaterally. A warning: be prepared to THINK and focus on the concept. You'll not be disappointed. I'm buying the calendar for each one of my employees in the same fashion that I bought a copy of the book for each of them.
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Summary: Everyone should read this book. Period.
Review: This is a very short book, less than 100 pages in very large type. I was able to read it in about an hour. The message contained therein is very simple and direct - Change comes into all our lives, whether we like it or not. If you don't change, you will be left behind. In order to succeed at whatever it is we want to succeed at, you have to anticipate change and be prepared to make changes to your own life to keep up. You'd think a message like this would be a no-brainer, and for some people it is. But it's amazing how many people resist change. You all know what I'm talking about - we have all met people who absolutely refuse to do things a new way because "We've always done it this way." Never mind that the new way is faster, easier, and cheaper, they want to do it the old way no matter what. The author could have made this point in one page, but it would have not have had the impact that this book has. The author cleverly has turned his point into a small story concerning four small characters, stuck in a maze. These four characters live off a supply of cheese in the maze. One day, suddenly, the cheese is gone. The reactions of the four characters to this unexpected change in their lives is what makes up the lesson of the book. (...) We've all known people like these four, and I think another reason for the author writing the story in the way he has is to use arcetypal examples that we can all relate to real people in our lives. It's an effective device, and makes the book translate to our own lives that much better. Overall, a first-rate book. It should be required reading for all young people. Don't listen to all the "Hem"s out there. Pick this one up!
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Summary: Premise flaw dooms this book...
Review: The fatal flaw of "Who Moved My Cheese" consists in the fact that at no time is the maze in which the characters run viewed as being dangerous. Without this factored into the allegory, it bears no resemblance to real life. Therefore, it cannot be applied effectively. People are often hurt in the maze of life attempting to get from one point to another. If that element of life could be removed, then life becomes as simple as the story in Johnson & Blanchard's book.
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