Who Moved my cheese?

[DonaCatalina]

By Jon Carrol
THERE ARE TWO kinds of people in this nation: those who know about "Who Moved My Cheese?" and those who don't. The people who know can produce long and sometimes angry monologues about it; the people who don't know are totally bewildered. "This is real?" they ask.
I aim to bridge the gap. "Who Moved My Cheese?" is a 97-page book with large type and big margins. It was written by Spencer Johnson, M.D., in 1998. It costs $19.95 retail, indicating that Dr. Johnson, at least, has some notion as to the location of his cheese.

"Who Moved My Cheese?" is much used in corporate settings. Employees are ordered to read the book, to write reports about the book, to break into groups and discuss the book. The principles of the book are referred to in meetings. It is a huge hit among managers, and a huge pain for employees.
The heart of "Who Moved My Cheese" is a lengthy fable. It concerns four characters, two mice named "Sniff" and "Scurry" and two "little people" named "Hem" and "Haw." These "little people" are just scaled-down humans.
All four of these characters operate in the same maze. They seek cheese. Then someone, some unseen hand, moves the cheese. The mice sniff and scurry, you see, and find where the cheese has gotten to. The little people hem and haw,
and therefore find themselves way behind in the search for the cheese. Slowly,
they learn how to find the cheese.
The author seems to think that "cheese" is a metaphor for "success in business," but the employees forced to read the book know the truth: "Cheese" is a metaphor for "continued employment." Indeed, anecdotal evidence suggests that a flurry of cheese sessions often precedes layoffs.
So iconic has the book become, employees are judged on how well they handle the cheese seminars.
THERE IS A perfectly good life lesson inside the cheese story: "All life is change." That's four words, and they did not cost you $19.95. The problem with the book lies elsewhere.
Employees are encouraged to emulate the mice and/or learn from the travails of the little people. These are interesting choices of role models -- small and powerless things who forever run around a maze because they need cheese.
"Whining" and "complaining" are not encouraged. They are taken as signs of a lack of spiritual growth. The good mice sniff out the new location of the cheese and scurry toward it; the bad little people ask pointless questions and fail to seek the cheese aggressively.

- My manager just handed out a copy of this book.

[Auryn]

I was handed a copy of that book when I was in college by my 'advisor'.

I always thought it was a onerous way of explaining ordinary themes.

[mehan]

Yep - required reading, PIA that it was... the humorous thing...

This "little person" had to place the order for all the books because the big cheese doesn't know how to fill out an expense report or complete a PO, (nor apparently make a hotel reservation, get his car serviced, or a myriad of other things).