I read Who Moved My Cheese? this morning over coffee (it’s a short 95 page book) after Joanne Spain suggested that it was similar to some patterns I have been talking about lately.

It is a magnificent story written in plain English of how there are different types of people in this world, and how they all think differently about finding cheese in the maze. The book covers the change process of how we adapt from finding the old cheese to finding the new cheese – in four different ways:

* Some sniff out the new cheese quickly, without holding onto much of the past
* Some scurry around with simple and good instincts
* Some are slower to adopt but do when they sense enough of the need
* Some will resist change at all costs, even if it leads to crisis

The only thing I would add is that we don’t find the new cheese in the same old maze. The maze gets more complex each time to go back through the change process, so using the methods that used to work probably won’t work the next time – you need to evolve (and include) the traditional methods to form new coping systems that can deal with the increased complexity of the maze.

Which one am I? I like to sniff out new ideas and new ways of doing things – then take the tasty new bits of cheese and share them with the other characters so that they can learn how to improve what they do.

I would really recommend this book for anyone who is thinking about change. Order a copy of Who Moved My Cheese? at Amazon for you and a friend.

By Ross Hill - December 4th, 2009 at 3:23pm with 438 views