It’s Time to Find a New Cheese

Who Moved My Cheese, a 1998 bestseller by Spencer Johnson, is a parable about the inevitability of change, the ways in which we typically deal with it, and how revising our attitude toward change can reduce stress and increase success. Like all parables, it’s told as a story that you can relate clearly to your life.

In the book, “cheese” represents happiness or satisfaction in its various forms — for instance, security, prestige, wealth.

Many of us are now in the position to be on the hunt for new “cheese.” What we recently took for granted may have been turned upside down, reduced or even taken away completely. How we deal with this proverbial “writing on the wall” will inevitably create a lasting impact on our own happiness and satisfaction.

People, just like the four characters in the book, respond to life-changing events differently.  While some become paralyzed, sullen and even stubborn, others see the writing on the wall faster and begin to hunt for new avenues of opportunity faster. Some even have already been on the hunt for new cheese as they stay in a constant state of opportunity search.

No matter your style, in times of disruption and uncertainty, it is a requirement that you eventually act. And that, in those actions, you must make it clear to your team how you will lead through the hunt for new cheese. Whether your style is one of test fast-fail fast-adjust fast or more of an analytical and measured test-measure-tweak-proceed type, your team needs to understand the way you think so that they can help with the search for new cheese. As Ken Blanchard says, “all of us are smarter than one of us.”

Who Moved My Cheese is a quick and easy read. It’s a book that can serve as a fast catalyst for you and your team as you search for your new cheese.

You are likely already in the maze and on the hunt for new cheese already. If you are not, you will be soon.  Use Who Moved My Cheese as a tool to get your team thinking, accepting and excited for the journey ahead.