Book Review - Dealing with change successfully

Title: Who Moved My Cheese?
Author: Spencer Johnson, MD
Reviewed By: Balford Henry

THIS book is about moving goal posts.

It would be so much more comfortable for all of us if, once we have mastered a skill, a job, a hobby, a relationship, etcetera, we could safely outlast the experience. But, life is a lot more complex.

We really didn't need Marx to tell us how dynamic it is, either, because the Bible told us centuries earlier that knowledge increaseth.

Dr. Kenneth Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager, suggests in his preface to this book, that even when re-reading it, you realise that you need an open mind to be able to continually revise your comprehension each time.

"I hope each time you re-read Who Moved My Cheese? you will find something new and useful in it," he said.

Dr. Blanchard and Dr. Spencer Johnson, doctors of philosophy and of medicine, respectively, co-authored The One Minute Manager, as well as a number of other books in the successful One Minute series. These books have guided numerous persons in various fields and professions in coping with obstacles in the way of progress and satisfaction.

This is a solo effort from Dr. Johnson, often referred to as the best in taking complex subjects and providing simple solution.

This is probably the best example of how he does this. He removes the complications of courage and inspiration and makes adjustment seem so simple even pre-teens can understand it.

The book is based on the need of four characters, living in a maze, to manage change.

Cheese becomes a metaphor for their ambitions and the maze is the environment in which they seek to achieve their objectives.

The reader is guided by their successes and failures, often triggered by their attitudes to change, as well as through the anachronistic disorder caused by the objection to handle transition.

There are Sniff, who sniffs out early change; Scurry, who always scurries into action; Hem, who denies and resists change as he fears it will lead to something worse; and Haw, who learns to adapt in time when he sees that change leads to better things.

The book is guided by Cronin's suggestion that "life is no straight and easy corridor" allowing for "free and unhampered" travel, but is really a "maze of passages, through which we must seek our way, lost and confused, now and again checked in a blind alley".

But, always if we have faith, a door will open for us, not perhaps one that we ourselves would ever have thought of, but one that will ultimately prove good for us" (A.J. Cronin).

The four imaginary characters were selected to represent the simple and complex aspects of our lives, regardless of age, colour or creed: "Whatever parts of us we choose to use, we all share something in common: a need to find our way in the maze and succeed in changing times."

Dr. Johnson credits Dr. Blanchard with inspiring him to write the book.

Dr. Blanchard tells us in a preview titled The Story Behind The Story, that ever since he first heard Dr. Johnson tell the "Cheese" story, years ago before they had written their first successful collaborative work The One Minute Manager, he had wanted to see it in print.

"Each of us has our own idea of what Cheese is, and we pursue it because we believe it makes us happy. If we get it, we often become attached to it. And if we lose it, or it's taken away, it can be traumatic," Dr. Blanchard explains.

Who Moved My Cheese? could also be interpreted as an anti-conservative idea. It basically encourages us to not only to prepare and adjust to change, but that it is mandatory and that we should also make changes ourselves.

Letting go

As one of Haw's signposts read: "If you do not change, you can become extinct."

The amazing thing about this book is that with all that it offers it reminds us of the children's books which we depended on in our pre-teen days B.I. (Before the Internet).

It has just 94 pages, nearly half of which are illustrations of Haw's signs and can easily be read and digested in a hour. But, the effect is invaluable.

It reminds me too of that Biblical parable of the talents and how we used what we have to achieve what we want.

It really helps us to understand the importance of moving out from under the umbrella of tradition and face changes.

As another of Haw's helpful signposts tells us: "The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you can enjoy new cheese."

Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons

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