Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard, Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and Life. Putnam, 1998.
Referenced in: Leading Change and Transition
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This humorous tale, though not a primary source on facilitating congregational change, may provide an excellent image for communicating about change and equipping others to let go of the old and adjust to the new. It is written in the same narrative style of Kenneth Blanchard’s One-Minute Manager series. I have encountered few who have read it and did not enjoy it. I have used quotes and images from it for several years. It is an easy read, after which you can choose the pieces you find most helpful.
From the Publisher
From one of the world’s most recognized experts on management comes a charming parable filled with insights designed to help readers manage change quickly and prevail in changing times.
From the Author
My five year old son told me a cheese joke: “What do you call cheese that’s not yours?” When I gave up, he laughed and said, “Nacho Cheese!” It made me smile and reminded me to keep having fun with Cheese. I’ve just seen a new software product that also made me smile. It’s called the “Who Moved My Cheese?” Change Survival Kit. It has an electronic game with animated prompts and reminders showing the characters running around inside a maze, reminding us to laugh at ourselves and discover how to do well in changing times. Many years ago, when I was struggling with a difficult change in my life, I created the story of Who Moved My Cheese? to help me take my changing situation seriously, but not take myself so seriously. When my friends noticed how much better life had become for me and asked why, I told them about the “Cheese” story. Several friends said, sometimes years later, how hearing the story helped them to keep their sense of humor, change, and gain something better themselves. Two decades after the story was created, it was published as a book, and to my amazement and almost everyone else’s, within two years of publication, more than three million people had read it. Many have reported that what they discovered in the story has saved their careers, businesses, health and marriages. It has spread around the world in many foreign languages. It’s appeal seems universal. Critics on the other hand think the story is too cheesy and do not understand how so many people could find it so valuable. They say it is so simple a child could understand it and it insults their intelligence, as it is just obvious common sense. They get nothing out of the story. Some even fear it suggests all change is good and that people should mindlessly conform to unnecessary changes imposed by others, although that is not in the story. It seems to me that both fans and critics are “right” in their own way. It is not what is in the story of “Who Moved My Cheese?” but how you interpret it and apply it to your own situation that gives it value. The challenge however is to remember to use what you discover in the story. So I thought it was great when I learned that the new entertaining piece of software has animated characters from the book prompting and reminding us to use what we find most valuable in the story to change and win and enjoy it. Some people who have seen the “Change Survival Kit” say that it is “better than cheddar!” Let’s hope the way you interpret the story of “Who Moves My Cheese?” and act on it, will help you find and enjoy the “New Cheese” you deserve.
About the Authors
Bestselling books by Spencer Johnson, M.D.,include the The One Minute Manager(tm), written with Kenneth Blanchard.
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Related Areas
See Other Resources on Change and Transition in Churches:
- Change and Transition in Churches, Intro
- Change Concepts and Theories
- Overcoming Change Resistance, Creating Change Receptiveness
See Resource Guides on Over 100 Areas of Ministry Leadership: