Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
Book Review: Beating the cheese out of a simple idea
Summary: 2 Stars
Here's the book in a nutshell (or a Swiss Cheese hole, as it were): some people like change and seek it out while some people don't and resist it. There you go -- just saved you 20 bucks.
The center of "Who Moved My Cheese" involves a parable about two mice (Scurry and Sniff) and two "Littlepeople" (what?) called Hem and Haw, who live in a maze. Their lives center around a bit of cheese in the maze. But when one day, the cheese moves. The mice scurry (!) off to sniff (!) out its new location while the littlepeople hem and haw (!) and try to make sense of their newly cheeseless world. Will Hem and Haw ever get off the dime and look for the new cheese? Or will they eventually wither and die from lack of gumption?
The book offers a simplistic analysis of an obviously difficult human dilemma. Clearly, some people dislike change and will do anything to cleave to the status quo, even when the status quo is unproductive or even life-threatening. Clearly (as anyone who has suffered through a corporate reorganization has experienced) others love change and will seek it or create it -- even when the change creates chaos and makes things demonstrably worse. But "Who Moved My Cheese" simplifies the complexity of dealing with change by assuming that all change is good, that those who follow the change are smart and that those resisting it are dull and stupid.
Fine. When change happens, it is not a brilliant strategy to pretend it's not. But is blindly "following the cheese" a smarter strategy? Wouldn't it be smart to find out who is moving the cheese and why? And what if the folks moving the cheese don't let you follow it? Hideous examples from history abound -- don't make me quote them. But these lessons are not forthcoming from this book.
"Who Moved My Cheese" is one in a long line of fad books about business that don't solve any problems. It has undoubtedly sold millions of copies and spawned a fun catch-phrase. But millions of us will continue to be caught in the business change cycle imposed by (mostly) well-meaning nitwits, in which good nutritious cheese is deemed moldy by those who have no agenda but to sell their own brand of cheese. Sometimes, waiting for the cheese to return (in the form of sensible management and proven business strategies) is smarter and more ethical.
Book Review: Excellent Lessons to Learn
Summary: 5 Stars
This is simply the most powerful little book you'll ever read. It's simple to read and understand, and its messages are helpful to people of all ages.
Anyone who doesn't like this book probably prefers being a victim that is stuck in life, anyway.
Book Review: This book is not very helpful!
Summary: 2 Stars
Not only am I in no ways closer to finding out who keeps moving my cheese, but this dang book doesn't give me any good ideas as to how to find out or what to do to detour people from taking my cheese! Not a very helpful book. It does not deliver what it sets out to do. Book Review: Awesome book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the greatest books I have ever read. At first one will think this is a childs book. However after completing this book you will began searching your deepest, enter thoughts as to who you are and where you are going in life. Great Book for the people who are simply living life as handed to you.Book Review: Who moved your brain?
Summary: 1 Stars
I find it amazing that this book is still distributed by managers who obviously feel that employees are not capable of reasonable communication and/or evolution in the working environment. I am among the victims that were selected to be "enlightened" in my work place. The specific method of torture chosen was death by supreme stupidity, AKA, "You will read `Who moved my cheese'." It definitely made an impact on my outlook. For instance, before I read this book, I was not afraid to use words composed of more than two syllables when communicating with my superiors. After reading this book, however, I have come to realize that there are those whom you communicate and build with throughout your life, and those you smile at while moving on quickly and politely.
Of course, I have sat in the meetings that drip with praise for this cheesy little creation and despite the numerous inefficient arguments in its favor, I chose not to subject my employees to this mind-numbing experience. It seems that there are those among us who truly require a book that does not exceed a third grade reading level while assisting in the mastering of pre-school concepts. Those people do not work for me, since I need people who can think. For the sake of employees who work for managers who struggle with this concept, I am grateful that there is a book with small words and pictures to inspire their leadership...after all, the real management books are so complex...kind of like real managers.
In all fairness, I suppose if everyone that works for you is so old that they are the next potential oil supply for the nation, this book may be of some value to you...and the print is really big...a definite plus for the blind. But if your workforce is made of a variety of cultures, generations, perspectives, and ideas, because you avoided hiring your clones, it is likely that change is something that managers have to manage as a constant resource rather than a scary little maze of ill fated rats.
I am hard pressed to be arrogant when presented with a true literary attempt, however, this particular work exceeds even my tolerance for degrading insult to the workforce. If your business is so deficient that you require a book that has little or no meaning, created around figures that risk associating your employees with the intelligence of vermin, you may need more than a book distribution plan to fix your ails.