So who the hell did move my cheese?

who moved my cheese

One of the best books on the subject of how we react to change is "who moved my cheese" by Spencer Johnson. I recommend it.

It's a simple story of four characters who live in a maze and look for cheese to nourish them and make them happy. Cheese, in this case, is a metaphor for what we want/need. The maze is where you look for it. The problem is that the cheese unexpectedly moves.

The characters are faced with an unforseen and unknown change in the location of the cheese. The story illustrates how we all react differently to change. It teaches how to anticipate, adapt to and enjoy change and be ready to change quickly whenever we need to.

These are valuable lessons: Firstly, because human beings are not always wired to intuitively or instinctively react to or embrace change: Secondly, because the extent and speed of change in life and work is growing to the point of becoming continuous.

Change is something that is often described as an organisational capability; a culture. Something to be engineered, executed, and embedded. Managing it is a skill-set using techniques designed to enact change and make it effective. It's often in the context that sees a business want to morph into a better, faster and more capable form to address the challenges it faces. It's endless.

Change may be conceived in a corporate or organisational setting, but is essentially also very personal and individual to the hundreds or thousands of people affected by it. Success is about managing the anticipation and reactions of each of those people. Change their outlook or reaction: Change the world .... Or not, as the case may be.

That's why understanding the lessons of cheese moving is so, so important.

When confronted by change in business, some folk will initially simply want to keep using the old processes, methods and ways - even reinvigorating them to keep them alive, or covertly hiding them out of sight. More so if they were part of inventing them in the first place. It's comfortable and reassuring. And easy to do.

Some will eventually understand that this behaviour will not work in the future and see how they can make the new ways work for them. They will learn and adapt.

Others will immediately drop the old and embrace the new. No questions. JFDI. Enjoy it!

In mananging change, success lies in how people react. For individuals, understanding their reaction to change will ultimately decide their future. Survival of the most agile and flexible.

The only thing that we cannot stop is change itself. So don't spend time worrying about "who the hell did move the cheese" and get with the programme.