`Who Moved My Cheese`

Who Moved My Cheese

Change is the main theme in Who Moved My Cheese ' The book focuses on change , how people react to it , how some of us are crippled by it and how to effectively deal with it . The cheese ' is merely a symbol of the many decisions we have to make in our lives and in business . The maze is symbolic of the road or path we must travel to reach our destination . For most of us the road is not straight and well defined rather it is full of turns

, dead-ends and road blocks , similar to the maze . Life was not meant to be easy and change free or it would be boring . Instead , life is a maze and should be seen as a challenge and an opportunity for growth

The characters in the book represent different aspects of our lives different business situations , and even different people in society . As individuals we sometimes look at change differently , depending on the situation . At times we may sniff ' out opportunities without hesitation , and on other occasions may reject change for various reasons . Each character in the book had different ways of dealing with change . Sniff was able to sniff out the opportunities for change , while Scurry ran around looking for it . These two characters were mice , with very simple thought patterns . They were very successful in dealing with change because they constantly reviewed their status and reacted whenever they had to . They did not get comfortable with their current status and did not assume that their cheese ' was always going to be there . They did not over-analyze the situation they were in . They saw the situation changing , so they changed with it . One of the most influential statements in the book was when Haw stated , They 're just simple mice , they just respond to what happens (Johnson , 1998 Sometimes analyzing the situation turns into a road block or barrier and we start to act like the other two characters . Hem and Haw were little people with much more intelligence than the mice . Their intelligence allowed them to analyze things and come to logical conclusions . The problem here is they over-analyzed things to the point of creating fear Change inherently brings fear : fear of failing , fear of the unknown and fear of succeeding . Hem was in constant fear of failing and of the unknown to the point that he chose to do nothing but sit and wait to see if the situation would resolve itself . This is a common scenario in corporations with older generation workers resisting changes in the current work environment . They are comfortable with the same , familiar routine , and change , even for the better , disrupts their comfort level Haw resisted change initially , which is what many of us do . His lack of action was due to fear also . He was not sure what he would find if he ventured into the maze , but he soon realized he had to do something in to survive . It...