Has anyone read Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson?
What do you think of it?
I haven’t read it myself, I want to know if it is worth doing so.
The bitch handed it to us during her first week in the department and “requested” that we read it.
Honestly, it had a couple of decent points, but overall I thought it was kind of a useless book. It seems to have the easy morality lesson that is so popular today, but that fades quickly.
I haven’t read it, but I used to work for a very large company that inflicted a two-hour seminar based on it upon all its employees. This was about a year ago. The lesson we learned was that there are three types of employee:
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The one who refuses to adapt to changes in the work environment. The cheese moves, he starves.
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The one who will adapt to changes, but thinks for himself how to find the new cheese.
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The one who will easily adapt, but only with direction from management. He scurries mindlessly all over the place looking for new cheese, until told where to find it.
Guess which employee the company was encouraging everyone to emulate? That’s right, they wanted all their enployees to be mindless mice, adaptable, pliable, and easily led by management. This did not play well to us, a room full of professional aerospace engineers.
I think it’s a load of crap.
All hail Christopher Livingston:
http://www.notmydesk.com/archives/cheese_week.html
For some reason the page reads bottom to top.
-Myron
My boss had a copy of it laying around, so I borrowed it. He advised me that it was fairly simple material. I’ve only read the first chapter, but despite all of the glowing accolades, this book is a BGO*.
*[sub]BLINDING GLIMPSE of the OBVIOUS.[/SUB]
It’s not a must-read. It’s not even a recomended read. On the other hand, reading the entire book will take at most ohalf an hour. I’ve done more useless things with my time than reading it.
Having said this, SDMB members are probably not the intended audience.
Just don’t spend any money on it.
I hated “Who Moved My Cheese,” passionately.
I hated it because the parts that were valid were so damned OBVIOUS. If you’re an adult, you should already know that life can be tough, that things don’t always turn out the way we’d like, and that we sometimes have to change our lives drastically.
The book, on the other hand, seemed to suggest we should not only COPE with hardships, but REVEL in them. And it scoffed at the idea that anybody owes us loyalty.
The “cheese” pretty clearly represents our jobs and the monetary benefits our jobs provide. If we’re lucky, we find jobs that we like and that pay us reasonably well. So, what does the missing cheese represent? Well, the loss of our jobs!
Hem and Haw represent guys who worked hard for a company, gave their all, helped build the company into what it is. They’ve reached a level of success, are proud of what they’ve accomplished, and are beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Suddenly, the company starts “downsizing,” and they’re fired.
The book presents Hem as an idiot and a crybaby, because he’s ANGRY at losing what he earned. Haw, on the other hand, is supposed to be admirable, because he sees his misfortune as a great opportunity to find other cheese elsewhere!
In short, the book is telling you that you’re LUCKY to get axed, that losing everything you’ve worked for is a good thing, and that only a dopey whiner expects loyalty from a firm he’s served well. (Suppose THAT’s why so many big companies made employees read the book?)
If Spencer Johnson had spelled out his thesis THAT way, think anyone would have bought the book?
Hey look, we ALL have to deal with terrible things in life. Small example: my wife divorced me, out of the blue, no reason given, nine years ago. I was devastated, and my life was in shambles a long time. EVENTUALLY, I recovered, put my life together, and am now happily re-married to another woman.
So, am I an admirable “Hem,” who put the loss of Cheese #1 behind me, and went on a great adventure to find CHeese #2?
NO! There is NO upside to my divorce. The fact that I eventually moved on and coped and found another life is irrelevant. The pain and devastation was REAL, and there is NO way to put a positive spin on it.
In the same way, a loyal employee who gets downsized may eventually find another job- but it is cruel and stupid to suggest that his firing was a positive thing, a chance for him to grow and expand.
I read the book, it took me 10 minutes while i was in the bathroom, full of obvious junk.
BTW, there are at least 2 parody books, both entitled “Who cut the cheese?”
Wow, a lot of vitriol directed at a book that really is helpful.
Sure, it’s obvious stuff:
[quote]
[li]Old Beliefs Do Not Lead You To New Cheese[/li][li]Change Happens []Anticipate Change[]Monitor Change[]Adapt to Change[]Change[]Enjoy Change[]Be Ready To Change Again[/li]
In today’s apathetic, give-me-more, work-me-less work place, I guess I’m not surprised to hear that you guys rail against the ideas in here. I’m not saying any of you are lazy or that you are just trying to skim by with minimum effort, but if you expect a static system, you’re fooling yourself and doing yourself a grave disservice.
The point of the book is not that you have to constantly find a new job or wife or home or car, it is that you should not expect everything to maintain a comfortable situation for you. If you wait until something happens and live a reactive life, then you aren’t really living, you’re being lived. You aren’t taking action, you’re being acted upon. You have no freedom of choice or action, as the decision to act is thrust upon you. Keeping an eye open, looking for the changes, the opportunities for improvement, allows you the decision, gives you the latitude of choice and provides you time to adapt rather than scramble when change smacks you in the face.
astorians example, I hate to say, probably isn’t a good one. This is not directed at you, astorian, as I certainly have no idea of all the details, but: there almost certainly was some reason somewhere and you (hypothetical you), believing that your course was firm and safe and set, figured that you could keep doing was you’ve always done and expect the same results. Personal interaction doesn’t work that way and neither does corporate success. Granted, I’m not saying that knowing about a downsizing (or whatever) will fill you with a great sense of joy that you can go and change your life around, I am saying that by constantly improving yourself, your work, your life and focus, you will be part of the making of the change, rather than a part that is changed.
It’s not about sniffing around blindly, it’s about being aware of your environment, noticing and tracking changes so that you are not blindsided by them, but can anticipate them and move with them. Nothing ever improves without change and change is hard. Obvious? Sure, but so many people are rooted in what they find comfortable, what the know, that they fear change and pay for it by having their options removed for them.
Yes, I have the book sitting in front of me. Yes, my background is process and systems improvement, so I’ve been learning and teaching this sort of thing for years. And yes, I have had change forced upon me and it sucked, but I was aware enough that though I saw it coming, I thought that since things were still good, I would not be affected. I know better now and I take measures to ensure my happiness.
i meant the book was full of obvious junk, not I…
thinksnow, I, for one, did not have a problem with the obvious message that change in life is inevitable and we must be prepared for it and adapt. I hated the condescending manner in which it was presented.
If you were in the bathroom for 10 minutes, you probably were full of junk which did not become obvious until in the bowl. 
The people I’ve dealt with that felt it was condescending or found themselves offended for some other reason, were often the ones least observant to change. My take on it was that they felt almost personally insulted, as though it was an affront to their practices, because, as many have said, it is all fairly obvious. Why get offended over the obvious unless you realize, somewhere deep inside, that you are in fact part of the problem? Again, just my take on the people I’ve actually dealt with over this and I mean no disrespect to any here.
To the OP, it’s a worthwhile read as long as you take it as words of advice, not a guide and not a lecture.
Well, some of the junk was still not obvious even then. And some of it was, heh heh heh!
I’m sorry, but I found the book insulting to my intelligence, along with every other book this man has put his hand to (he is co-author of Big Bucks!, Raving Fans! etc.) Each of them is set in HUGE type, and fluffed up with a stupid parable storyline, thus disguising that there is at most 15 pages of actual information contained therein. Talk about give-me-more/work-less attitude! If anything, this book teaches us (by example) that we can do exceptionally well by doing the bare minimum and aiming for resounding medicority. There are legitimate books on doing business out there, but apparently they take too long to write. (or read.)
And, BTW, I am extremely amenable to change, I’ve been at my current job about 2 years and my job description has changed 180 degrees approx. every 3 months, which I enjoy. I do not enjoy management spouting claptrap jargon out of every orifice or telling me how to think about “my cheese” (gag). I’m a 20-something and I certainly don’t expect my or any employer to give a rat’s ass about me. Nor, in turn, do I offer them anything but my brain power while I am working. Not my loyalty, not my heart, etc.
In sum, this book is not an affront to my “practices,” but to my intelligence.
I just want to reiterate that I was not making comment about or toward anyone in particular and mean no offense to those that find the book lacking or insulting, I just don’t happen to agree.
Add me to the list of those who found it a) condescending; b) self-serving (if you’re management); and c) a BGO (love that!). I wish I had thought of the idea, of taking the bromide “learn to deal with change”, padding it to minimal book-length, and selling it to gullible executives looking to rationalize their management style.
I am 40-something, and have dealt with corporate life for 25 years. Occasionally, change occurs because the world changes–technology being the prime example. This accounts for very few instances of organizational change. Most change is pointless managerial dithering, attempting to cover the mistakes made in the last change.
This really is a worthless bit of information. And by “bit” I mean…well…BIT. As another poster said, it’s clearly an attempt by the author to take some simple parable and stretch it out to sell books.
A friend of mine bought an audio version of it while he was standing in line at Kinko’s. He keeps forcing me to listen to it in the car as a joke. It’s like listening to someone read a child a bedtime story in a whiney, sing-song voice. It’s funny for about five minutes, but lame children’s stories hold little interest for adults. There’s no useful information on how to change anything here. Just a little story about how NOT to behave. You’d probably learn more by watching Barney.
-L
I’ve not read it, but once while I was in the bookstore with Ramoth I noticed it, and read the title out loud, quite loudly.
Everyone just looked at me funny. 
Just thought I’d share. I’m an odd creature.
I read it. Nothing new
Just thinking of it, its pretty much says what I thought in the first place. I guess a self help in a goofy example was mind blowing to a few.
Personally, I am all for the Conan self help in job, life, and everything
“Crush yer enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of der wimmin.”
Makes a darn good new years resolution too