Motivation in Spencer Johnsons Who Moved My Cheese?

Table of Contents

Introduction
Characters
Humorous side
Corporate world
Relations with management
Conclusion
Works cited

Introduction

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and Your Life is a book about motivation enhancement by the author Spencer Johnson published in 1998. According to the New York Times, it has been a best seller ever since. The general message of the book deals with the description that in a parabolic way enumerates the scenario of change in an individuals life, including work, and the logical and formulated manner that the individual reacts to the situation. For this, the author Spencer Johnson presents four major reaction modes that are observed. The formulation of the conception and realization is dependent on the verbal communication of a couple of little people Hem and Haw and Sniff and Scurry, who are in actuality two little mice and are on missions to hunt down cheese. These four characters in the book Who Moved My Cheese? try to identify problems relating to the cheese hunt and the possible solutions. Their basic principles and system are formulated around cheese and the conditions to achieve the cheese within common sense related to our personal life as individual goals of possessions.

Characters

The most identifiable character in the book, on a personal ground is Hew. He is the most adaptable character in the middle of change, which is the most important aspect of this book. Change Happens as They Keep Moving the Cheese therefore it is essential to Anticipate Change because it is better to Get Ready for the Cheese to Move. Moreover, it is prescribed to Monitor Change as the Haw depicts Smell the Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old therefore it is extremely indispensable to Adapt to Change Quickly. This is because The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese and thus one should always incur Change and Move with the Cheese all along. The finest point in this respect is to Enjoy Change! and Savor the Adventure and Enjoy the Taste of New Cheese! thus according to Haw, and the author, it is necessary to Be Ready to Change Quickly and Enjoy It Again & Again as because They Keep Moving The Cheese. (Johnson, 86) These principals could be directly translated into the context of services management where the limitations of a corporate sector can overcome its problem and enhance the serviceable potential of an employee by motivating him into submission of these ideologies. In the context of marketing, these same principles can be used to motivate the clients to bring them into submission. Thus, Hew is the most identifiable character without a doubt.

Humorous side

According to a personal view, the cheese of the book is the belief that it is better to take the situation seriously rather than taking oneself seriously. In other words, it is the perspective of life where the beholder sees the humorous side of a problem, in this case, change. Spencer Johnsons perception of life is based on the personal turmoil he faced and overcame. To him changes are obvious and therefore there is no need to get frustrated or carried away by its force. According to him the best way to counter the stress of change is to take it lightly in the sense that one should not lose the virtue of humor in these conditions and it is better to structuralize the aspects of change in a formulated manner.

Corporate world

In my observation, this book corresponds well with the corporate world. Therefore, quite logically, it should be mentioned and well remembered that the corporate world has found this book Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life to be extremely motivating and there are reports that managers use a mass distribution policy for it among the employees as they find it to be a highly effective means of making the personnel aware of the management principals. This is because the characters of the book follow a distinct format of principles that are highly effective in day-to-day life forms in the context of problem-solving methods. Most of the formulations used in this book could be directly used from the perspective of the services management sector. The basic principle indicating that change can both be positive and negative but the only way to deal with it is to face it in the assertive context by following logical conclusions immediately makes the book aligned with the principles of the management gurus.

Relations with management

When relating the book to management, or obtaining the basic lesson, it is possible to emphasize more on the aspect of the market than any other aspect. This is because this book is wonderful too to formulate solutions that would help to structuralized solutions just by following the principal or path mentioned in the book. If looked closely we would find out that this book is all about how to please a customer, customer services, service recovery, service marketing, and so on. The best possible way of relating this book in the context of services management is considering how fast the market changes and to be competitive the companies need to change constantly. That means new ways of doing things or improving them or always remaining updated. From the management point of view, this book is completely essential as being well written it could work at a better pace than any management principal volume in the sense that this book does not tell what to do but tells stories whereby one is to ascertain the follow-ups.

Conclusion

On a personal note, however simplistic it may be there are still debates about the parables present in the book. Whatever it is to the critics or the ardent followers, on a personal level and in a general sense it would be very safe to mention that though this is criticized apparently from various territories in the ultimate sense it is a well-written book which has been a great success in the context selling and making business worldwide. I feel that this book is more worthy than sending spending $20. To me the context where the book, Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and Your Life could be best applicable is when one corporate house is going through a complete change or reconstruction and there is an immediate need for a morale-boosting tool. This book serves the purpose and not only that this book serves the purpose with a spoon full of sugar to get the needed medicine go down and yes- it is in the most delightful way. Sure, I would recommend such a book to all my friends, known and semi-known persons.