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45 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
Entertaining Lesson.
A short story about 2 mice and 2 'little people' in a maze looking for cheese.
Of course 'cheese' is just a metaphor for what you want in life (such as money, the ideal job), and the 'maze' represents where you are looking for what you want (such as your family, an organization). As the story goes, one of the characters (Haw) learns to deal with change...
Published 13 months ago by a reviewer
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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Trite and irritating
I found this book incredibly trite and irritating. Essentially the book's message to employees is that change happens, so get used to it. No wonder then that some large corporations have distributed copies of this to their staff - before dumping their employees in yet another 'right-sizing' programme. I'd advise people to buy a grown-up's book on managing change!
Published on 10 Jul 2001
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45 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
Entertaining Lesson., 2 Oct 2008
A short story about 2 mice and 2 'little people' in a maze looking for cheese.
Of course 'cheese' is just a metaphor for what you want in life (such as money, the ideal job), and the 'maze' represents where you are looking for what you want (such as your family, an organization). As the story goes, one of the characters (Haw) learns to deal with change successfully and writes what he has learned on the maze wall. In this way, the reader gets the main points in the book and can learn too how to deal with life's changes.
A little book that is big on wisdom, many should find it entertaining and useful. Also recommended The Sixty-Second Motivator -another short story that is to the point and practical.
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14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Trite and irritating, 10 Jul 2001
By A Customer
I found this book incredibly trite and irritating. Essentially the book's message to employees is that change happens, so get used to it. No wonder then that some large corporations have distributed copies of this to their staff - before dumping their employees in yet another 'right-sizing' programme. I'd advise people to buy a grown-up's book on managing change!
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Pointless, 27 April 2001
By A Customer
It's a bit like the kings new clothes, there's nothing there but few are brave enough to say so. If senior company officials believe that ALL change is good irrespective of what it is and that they should let it happen without a fight then there is little hope for them.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
A parable that rings as true as a plastic bell, 23 Feb 2001
This book attempts to be a metaphor for understanding and embracing change, which it attempts to illustrate using an invented story of some little creatures who have a handy supply of cheese that - guess what - gets moved. Some of the creatures move on in search of new cheese, some keep coming back in the forlorn hope that the cheese will reappear. I'm sure you get the picture, and the point. It can be summed up in a sentence and I'm afraid that plodding through this book does little to enhance the point. Metaphors can be powerful tools for illustrating great truths and teachings - just think of the parables and myths in the world's great religions. And maybe the author has hit on a metaphor that works for a lot of people, judging by the sales figures. But after... reading the book in the half hour between fasten seat belts and the meal service, I was left feeling a mixture of disappointment, outrage and bafflement. Disappointment because I had been told that this was a wonderful, moving tale. Different strokes for different folks, but I've felt more touched and involved by weather forecasts. At no point did any of this book connect with me. In fact, the attempted metaphor is so embarrassingly clunky and transparently contrived that I ended up feeling outrage. What I now feel is bewilderment. There are loads of huge media successes that I may not like - Springer, the Die Hard movies, Gangsta Rap etc - but I can imagine what people get out of them. They are tongue-in-cheek, hammed up gut-level stuff. Whereas "Who Moved my Cheese" is ponderous, tedious, moralising and rings as true as a plastic bell. I hesitate to say that it's the worst book I've ever read, but I can't think of any worse. Still, at least it's short. Try comparing it with "The man who planted trees" by Jean Giono.
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39 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
Critically examine it. Purely for HR departments. Drivel!, 23 Feb 2006
A concise, simple, and immediately persuasive text, however examine it a little closer and the ‘argument’, if it can be called that, is so full of holes it resembles a piece of Swiss cheese (appropriate as cheese with holes in is used in the illustrations!) Be forewarned – You are ordered to suspend Descartes ‘Cogito ergo sum’, read the text, absorb it, and follow it unquestioningly! I say this as its defence against those who disagree with it is simple – ‘You are resistant to change!’ This has all the hallmarks of those fringe religious sects who suspend rational thought and unquestioningly follow the admonitions of their leader. Not a wise course of action!A synopsis There are two ‘teams’, Sniff and Scurry, the Mice, who rush about in search of cheese, entirely oblivious to how or why they do what they do, but aware that circumstances could change at a moments notice; and, Hem and Haw, the Littlepeople, who frequently think over what they have done, and why they did it, but are content to stay with what is familiar. They all live in a maze containing stores of cheese. Upon discovering a particularly bountiful store, Cheese Station C, they cease to explore new parts of the maze. However, they are forced to set out on an adventure when the supply of cheese runs out. Clever Sniff and Scurry embrace the fact that when the cheese runs out they must change and seek out a new supply. They rush blindly about the maze till they discover a new source, Station N, the Garden of Eden for cheese lovers. As such they could be termed ‘experimenters’. That is to say, they never accept that what happens today will always happen tomorrow. The suckers, Hem and Haw, prevaricate ‘needlessly’ on their new circumstances resisting the change that they interpret as being ‘unfairly’ imposed upon them. Perhaps they could be termed ‘associationist philosophers’, who, when something happens believe that it will always happen in the same fashion, ad infinitum. Eventually Hem, tired of this ‘negativity’ to the increasingly dire situation they find themselves in (by now they are starving), abandons Haw, and sets out alone to seek a new supply of cheese. During his journey he discovers the wonderful lessons of change. Every so often he writes his discoveries on the wall, just in case Haw decides to follow in his footsteps. After many wrong turns he finds Station N and two chubby mice. Poor little Haw remains alone with his ‘negativity’ and probably starves to death! (We are encouraged to abandon those who persistently resist change, as their minds are un-malleable.) Critique 1. We must unquestionly embrace change as a positive process and get on with making it work. Purile nonsense! This brings to mind ‘The Emperors New Clothes’ where everyone is so ‘positive’ about his new clothes (of which there aren’t any as ‘he’s in the buff’). If no one questions the change, or challenges it, then how can we validate it. Or are we expected to be unquestioning drones? 2. As soon as change occurs we must engage with the new modus operandi. Because Spencer spends so little time on Sniff and Scurry’s pursuit for the new source of cheese we cannot put a time frame on it. Therefore it is very easy to assert that both ‘teams’ spent exactly the same amount of time in their pursuits. However in taking that premise Sniff and Scurry actually learnt nothing about change in their mindless dash around the maze, whereas Hem learnt much, and poor Haw, nothing. Maybe that’s the point. But I wouldn’t be happy with a quarter of my people embracing change, and the initial embracers, a half, possibly harbouring the same thoughts as Haw, waiting to air them at a later date. The upshot will be that you won’t have many staff left after a series of changes. Perhaps this too is the point of the book! 3. That this book is simple probably appeals to the mindsets of the managers who slavishly promote it. They hope that the workforce swallows its ‘entertaining’ storyline without questioning their motives for change too closely. It is, as one reviewer has remarked, a lazy managers device. It is much better if practically everyone embraces change - ‘ Think of all the time we can save.’ 4. One can’t help thinking that the book has a limited life span. After people have gone through repeated changes, noticed very little has changed, and are disheartened, whose book do they turn to? Perhaps Spencer has another bestseller up his sleeve!
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18 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
An OK book that should have been an excellent pamphlet, 11 Oct 2002
This book contains a short amusing story about coping with change, about how one can achieve and maintain success by being adaptable. Unfortunately what started as a cute little story has been embellished with a very poorly written and self gratifying preamble with characters so wooden they squeek when they sit down, as well as a closing discussion designed to make you believe that if you don't recommend the book to all your friends you must live with your head in a bucket of dung. The one line I found thought provoking was "Do what you would do if you weren't afraid". At the other extreme I resented beeing constabtly told to "buy this book for everyone in my organisation". In order to fill 100 pages the book is printed in the largest type I've ever seen, apart from in my daughters pop-up book "Every one Hide From Wibbly Pig", also available at Amazon. Borrow this "book", enough fools have bought it.
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29 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
This Cheese will give you constipation!, 22 Nov 2004
I thought I had seen it all with the One-Minute Manager School of BS Management but 'Who Moved my Cheese' sets new levels. A reality is created where mice/rats represent people and cheese represents salary and wages. Management feed on the anxiety of the rats by taking away their cheese (No wonder the Dilbert HR character is represented by a cat) but the rats who respond most positively to managements psychological 'game', are rewarded with chesse. It's very cheesy, very American, very condescending and very well stacked in favor of management. Dreadful, American, overhyped but well marketed BS - AVOID
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43 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
The one star is awarded because it's blessedly short., 9 Sep 2005
Throughout life everyone has to deal with change be it a family tragedy or an unexpected windfall. Most people deal with it at their own pace using common sense and intuition. So at the basic level a book about dealing with change looked a good idea.The reality is a crass, appallingly written HR tool for softening up the workforce in the name of those great gods "Shareholder Value" and "The Market". The message of the book seems to be that anyone who genuinely questions a change in circumstance imposed from above is inflexible and unimaginative - a dinosaur who deserves to become extinct. So here's some fresh thinking advice of my own to Hem and Haw (as well as Pixie and Dixie or whatever the mice are called): Hem and Haw, stop looking for new cheese stations and listen up! Find out who's moving the cheese, string them up from the nearest lamppost and take control of the cheese. That way you can put an end to this silly rat race once and for all. A moronic book written to underpin a moronic creed.
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15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
Easy to read, simple take away messages, 4 Oct 2001
By A Customer
This book deals with 4 characters who react differently to change.
The stereotypes are well known but the book succeeds by highlighting the way people react to change in a memorable and easy to read way.For me the value of the book is that it acts as a good 'ice-breaker' when discussing with coleagues how we can best deal with the constant change we all face as part of our daily lives. 'Who Moved My Cheese' is not amazing; it's amusing and useful - well worth a read.
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51 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
Too biased towards the managements perspective, 20 Sep 2001
By A Customer
This book seems to have received a lot of hype for some reason - lots of it within its own covers. It covers a very basic story that could be conveyed in a few hundred words but the authors have padded it out very skilfully into a book of nearly 100 pages long. It starts with a chapter describing how he came up with the story, then there is the story then there is some self-promoting marketing hype stuff where he invents some people who discuss the story. The book is written in quite a patronising way and is full of references to how good the book is that winds me up the wrong way.The story is about four mice (or little people) that are in a maze. They scurry around looking for cheese and when they find it they are content and think that all is good in the world. Before the cheese is all gone two of the mice move on and start looking for new cheeses elsewhere in the maze. The two remaining mice stay where they are, they find the environment familiar and comfortable. One day these two mice find that the cheese is gone, they feel disorientated, feel that it isn't fair, they become very disorientated and unhappy. One of these two mice eventually sees the light and leaves and the other one stays behind. The book is supposed to be a parable for 'managing change' and obviously suggests that you embrace change completely. I do not have a problem with this, so maybe that is why I did not get much out of the book. Looking at the reviews from other people (below) not everyone is the same. I find this very encouraging, if the majority of people find this book useful and find it that hard to adapt then the amount of competition I will have for new jobs is going to be small. There are so many people stuck in their ways that I shouldn't have much trouble getting on. The main problem I had with the book was that it assumed that some great power moves your cheese and that you are helpless to do anything about it. You seem to be powerless to prevent the cheese from being moved if you read this book. In the analogy this means he is giving all the power to the company and management and none to the employee. Instead of the employer moving my cheese, I should be proactive and start making my own little nest of cheese hidden away in a corner of the maze somewhere. I am not a powerless little person, like he suggests in this book, but instead able to manage my own changes in life. I am able to study for management courses without my employers consent or knowledge, I am also able take other jobs if my employer does not keep my supply of cheese fresh and plentiful. This empowerment isn't covered in this book, which is probably why HR departments like distributing this "Let us keep our employees down" propaganda to their employees.
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