Moving With Change: Reflections from the

book “Who Moved My Cheese?”

by Nicholas Sinclair in The Accounting Blog No Comments
Share on: Facebook Twitter Linkedin

We constantly deal with unexpected changes in our lives, be it in our career or relationship,
among other things. It’s especially hard to move on to a new path when you are already settled
with your present situation.

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change In Your Work and In Your
Life is a book about Moving with change, written in the style of a business fable. It is written by
motivational speaker and management consultant, Dr Spencer Johnson, and became a New York
Times’ bestseller in 1998.

There are four primary characters in the story: the two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and the two
littlepeople, Hem and Haw. The story follows their hunt for cheese, the representation of what
we want in life (career, relationship, money, etc.). The maze symbolises the place where we
spend time looking for it.

The characters are relatable because each represents our common attitude toward change: Sniff
has the ability to sense change, while Scurry is quick and mentally acute. The two mice represent
the part of us that is simple. On the other hand, the two littlepeople embody our complex parts.
Hem and Haw are hesitant with change, but Haw eventually realises that he needs to move with
change.

Upon discovering “new cheese”, he left a trail for Hem through the “handwritings on the wall”
as he reflects upon his discoveries:
 Change Happens: They Keep Moving the Cheese

John Maxwell once said that change is inevitable, and growth is optional. We have to
acknowledge the fact that the things we want in life are constantly changing. Acceptance is
the first step in moving forward.
 Anticipate Change: Get Ready for the Cheese to Move
Sniff and Scurry were not surprised when they found out there are no cheese left in Cheese
Station C because they already expected that the cheese will soon run out. One thing we
learned from these mice is that we should not succumb to complacency even if we are doing
well. We should always have a Plan B. Better be prepared than regret later.

 Monitor Change: Smell the Cheese Often So You Know When It Is

Getting Old

You should be receptive to your environment in order to observe the changes around you.
Sniff already noticed that the cheese supply in Station C is decreasing so he and Scurry
looked for another source in the maze.

 Adapt To Change Quickly: The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese,

the Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese

As soon as Sniff and Scurry noticed that there is no cheese left in Station C, they didn’t
waste any time, and left in search of a new cheese, unlike the two littlepeople who tend to
overanalyse things.
So what do you do when change happens? Just go with it. Nothing good will happen if you
deny it or just complain about it. Just like what the book says, “It is safer to search in the
maze than to remain in a cheeseless situation.”
 Change: Move with the Cheese
Hem was hesitant to leave Cheese Station C because that was his comfort zone. What is
holding Hem back? Fear. He was frightened of the unknown that’s why he refused to move
on. On the other hand, Haw realises that he has to overcome this fear in order to find a new
cheese.

 Enjoy Change! : Savour the Adventure and Enjoy the Taste Of New
Cheese!
 Now that you accepted change, enjoy the new cheese! In the story, Haw soon appreciated
the change of pace and the thrill of the hunt. Now, he’s ready to embark on a new journey in
his life, and he couldn’t wait for his friend Haw to follow his path.

 Be Ready To Change Quickly and Enjoy It Again: They Keep

Moving the Cheese

Again, as you enjoy the new cheese, be wary of your surroundings because another one will
come soon. You’ll encounter success and failure along the way, but the learnings and
experience will be all worth it.

Like the characters in the backstory, we will learn that these lessons are applicable to the
circumstances we encounter in our personal life and in our career. It will change your thinking
and attitude towards change. It’s ideal to be like Sniff and Scurry who are always ready and
adaptive, but it’s not too late to be like Hem who learned embraced change.

https://theoutsourcedaccountant.com/blog/moving-with-change-who-moved-my-cheese/

As I read through Dr. Spencer Johnson's book, Who Moved My Cheese?, (admittedly, I'm
a bit behind on my reading list) I understood why people either seem to love it or hate it.
Depending on your reasons for picking up this book, it can hold all of the answers you're looking
for, or it can seem as if it doesn't address any of your questions.

Today I want to look at how we can take some of the concepts in Who Moved My
Cheese?and apply them in a practical manner to the development and execution of a Change
Management program in a corporate setting.

Below are five key lessons we can take away from the book, as well as a response to the one
major question Dr. Johnson left unanswered.

Know your Stakeholders

Who Moved My Cheese? focuses on four main characters. There are two mice, Sniff and
Scurry. "Sniff would smell out the general direction of the cheese...and Scurry would race
ahead." (p. 27) There were also two littlepeople. Haw eventually learns to move with the cheese,
while Hem remains locked in the old way of doing things, waiting fruitlessly for his cheese to be
returned to him.

While these four characters in no way illustrate the full range of "change personalities" you will
meet during a corporate change, they do highlight the fact that in order to build a successful
Change Management program, you have to know and understand your stakeholders.

The methods that will help a "Haw" adopt a change are very different from the methods that will
help a "Hem" make the adjustment. If you walk blindly onto a project and put together a Change
program based solely on a standard methodology or research, without first analyzing the
personalities of your stakeholders, you are likely to find that your Change Management activities
only meet the needs of a small portion of your audience. If this happens, many people will never
move on to the "New Cheese" that awaits them at the end of the project.

Burn the Platform

Although the impending loss of cheese was described as a gradual change in the book, only two
of the characters realized it was coming, and none of them made a change until they considered it
absolutely necessary. This is why, in Change Management books and methodologies, you'll often
hear the term "Burning Platform."

The burning platform provides the reason why the change is necessary. As Who Moved My
Cheese? illustrates, it's important to burn the platform early and mercilessly. Most people will
not change unless the need to change is compelling and imminent. Consider these two examples
that could be used for the same IT system implementation:

1. We need to change our sales systems because IT says the new system is
better.
2. We need to change our sales systems because our current system is out-
of-date, and will no longer be supported as of next month. Using an
unsupported system will slow our ability to find and attain new
customers, allowing our competitors to take away business and
overshadow our best-in-class products.
Which statement is more likely to make people run after that New Cheese? As long as there is an
old platform left to stand on, there will be some people who just refuse to move.

Paint a Picture
One of the main points highlighted in the book is, "Imagining myself enjoying New Cheese even
before I find it, leads me to it." (p. 58) This is an excellent strategy for individuals trying to make
a change.

Your job as a Change Manager is to paint the picture that individuals imagine. Help them picture
what the New Cheese looks like, whether that means providing demonstrations of the new
system, holding role-playing sessions of new business processes, or simply sending
communications describing the end state of the change.

If you don't paint the picture for them, people will create their own picture. If they create their
own picture, you can't be sure that what they're imagining matches the reality of the change that
is coming. This can lead to:

1. People imagining a New Cheese that is so wonderful, the real thing will
disappoint them.
2. People imagining the New Cheese will taste awful, causing them to
fight the change.
3. People having no imagination at all and ignoring the need for change.
Once you've painted the picture, make sure that anyone else who talks about the change is
describing the same picture. And don't be afraid to add details to the picture as they become
available.

Provide Quick Wins

As Haw navigates the maze looking for his New Cheese, he finds himself getting weak. He
hasn't had any cheese since he left the Cheeseless Station, and as his hunger grows, his
commitment to finding New Cheese diminishes. Luckily, as Haw is reaching the end of his
resolve, "He found little bits of Cheese here and there and began to regain his strength and
confidence." (p. 67) This leads him to make the statement, "When you see that you can find and
enjoy New Cheese, you change course." (p. 66)

This revelation is the concept behind building "quick wins" into your project. The theory is that
as people trudge along on the path to change, a path that can take months or years to complete,
they will get overwhelmed and discouraged. This can cause them to eventually walk slower, stop
walking, or even turn around and go back. To help keep people motivated, you need to break the
path into smaller increments and celebrate each time you successfully navigate a portion. This
helps people see that they can be successful and encourages them to tackle the next part of the
change in a positive manner.

These quick wins should be:

1. Close together: Don't expect people to go a year between success and

encouragement.
2. Manageable: If people fail at the small pieces of the change, they will
be convinced the larger change will fail, as well.
3. Real achievements: Don't create a win just for the sake of having a win.
It must be a real and meaningful accomplishment.
4. Celebrated: Allow people to celebrate their achievement in making a
small change, so that they have positive reinforcement for making the
larger change.
Reward the Right Behavior
I often see rewards and recognition programs at organizations that actually reward people for
stubbornly staying with the Old Cheese, rather than encouraging them to embrace the New
Cheese. In effect, the Haws of the organization, who work to find New Cheese, get to the new
Cheese Station and find it empty. Meanwhile, the Hems of the organization remain in the
Cheeseless Station (often making loud and belligerent comments about the futility of the New
Cheese to anyone who will listen) and the organization eventually gives in and hands them some
more cheese.

Not only does this derail the current change effort, it also discourages people from embracing
future changes. They have seen that if they just wait long enough they can be rewarded for
maintaining the status quo. Here are a few reward and recognition Do's and Don'ts based on my
project experience:

 Do guarantee that anyone who joins a special project will still have
their old job to return to when the project is done.
 Don't pay out project bonuses based on hitting deadlines. This only
encourages people to do things fast, not right.
 Do recognize that people are going above and beyond their normal
duties and are gaining new skills that can position them for better jobs
and promotions.
 Don't cause people to miss out on the benefits of their old job. If you
ask a commission-based sales person to join a project, but don't
supplement their income to make up for the commissions they'll lose,
they have no incentive to become a member of the team.

And the unanswered question...Who moved my cheese?

Dr. Johnson never answers this question in the book. The point he seems to make is, it doesn't
matter who moved your cheese. Just get up and start looking for New Cheese. I would argue,
however, that in a corporate Change Management program, answering this question is very
important. Are we making the change because the customer is asking for it? Is the CEO
decreeing the change? Is this based on a grass roots effort among employees?

Understanding who moved the cheese can greatly impact people's emotional reaction to a
change, which in turn will influence the type of Change Management program you create.

Let me know: Have you read Who Moved My Cheese? What did you think of it?
So, to conclude, change is always around, but our responses to change can be reflected upon. How you
see the change is the point at which you can make the greatest difference because it will affect how you
respond to it and what you get as a result, which affects how you see the change and respond.