EXPERIENCING THE POSITIVE SIDE OF CHANGE
My curiosity was piqued when I came across an advertisement in the newspapers entitled
Who Moved My Cheese? I though it was a funny name for a seminar that planned to
expound on new management methods.
I mentioned it to a few people and I got the same response, “Who moved your what?” I
was dying to attend this talk. So, I signed myself up as a participant for the full-day
programme.
I made my way to Hyatt Saujana, Subang Jaya, and was ushered into a room filled with
bright-eyed executives – a far cry from bleary eyed crowd I usually meet on the first day
of a seminar. This was a refreshing change.
Mounted on all four corners of the room were huge boards bearing the caricatures of two
mice and two men. Placed in front of each participant were go-getter one-liners such as
“enjoy change, savour the adventure, and enjoy the taste of new cheese”. Mine read
“change – move with the cheese”. There the word appeared again. Was it supposed to
symbolize something?
I’ll admit to the fact that I have nor heard of Spencer Johnson’s book and didn’t have an
inkling that it topped the bestsellers lists. Thus, I breathed a sign of relief when Jimmy
Goh, our facilitator announced that it was time to get cracking. I soon found out that there
were two important words that kept surfacing throughout that day – “cheese” and “maze”
“Cheese” represents what is important to each of us. It is a metaphor for what we want to
have in life – be it a loving relationship, money, health, or peace of mind. The “maze”, on
the other hand, represents the place we look for what we want. For example, the
organization we work in, or the community we live in.
Who Moved My Cheese? Is a simple light-hearted parable that reveals the profound truth
about change. It is an amusing story of four characters who lived in a “maze” and looked
for “cheese” to nourish themselves. These characters represent the simple and complex
parts of ourselves and the ways in which we can react to chang