I Moved Your Cheese

I MOVED YOUR CHEESE

ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

Negotiation Genius:
How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results
at the Bargaining Table and Beyond
(with Max H. Bazerman)

For those who refuse to live as mice in someone else's maze

Deepak Malhotra

HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL

I Moved Your Cheese

Copyright © 2011 by Deepak Malhotra

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First Edition

Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-60994-065-2

PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-066-9

IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-60994-067-6

2011-1

Designed and produced by Seventeenth Street Studios

Copy editing by Karen Seriguchi

Cover designed by Leslie Waltzer/Crowfoot Design

To Aria and Jai …
here is what I most want you to know
.

Preface

I MOVED YOUR CHEESE

The Good Book

Max

Zed

Why

Even the “Impossible”

Up

Big

Out

Who Moved My Cheese?

I Moved Your Cheese

Walls

The Maze in the Mouse

A Mouse Like No Other

Some Mice Are Big

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Reflection Questions for Individuals

Discussion Questions for Groups and Book Clubs

Discussion Questions for Your Organization (or Team)

A Note to Educators

A Note to Managers and Executives

Questions to the Author

Acknowledgments

About the Author

When a book has sold over twenty million copies, due respect for the opinion of its readers creates an obligation to explain why someone would seek to challenge its central message. I hope to do that, briefly, in these opening pages. The real answer, however, lies in the fable itself.

This book was written—and is meant to be read—as a stand-alone entity. Not surprisingly, however, I've been asked whether it was crafted as a rebuttal to
Who Moved My Cheese?
(
WMMC
), or as an extension of it. Or, to put it another way: Am I saying that the message of
WMMC
is incorrect, or simply incomplete? The answer is both.

For those who are having a hard time dealing with big (or even small) changes in life,
WMMC
is a compelling read. The book is a useful reminder that we need to accept that change happens, that it may be beyond our control, and that we need to find the strength to move on and adapt. This message is neither incorrect nor trivial. But it
is
incomplete. Even when adaptation appears to be the only viable option, we should do more than blindly accept—and eagerly adapt to—change. We should seek to understand why the change has been forced on us, how we might exert greater control over our lives in the future, whether the goals we are chasing are the correct ones, and what it would take to escape the kinds of mazes in which we are always subject to the designs of others. In other words, effective adaptation is not enough for success or happiness.

Then there are the ways in which the message of
WMMC
is not simply incomplete, but
dangerous. Perhaps we should think twice before telling others that they would be wise to immediately embrace their limitations. Perhaps we should not suggest to would-be innovators, problem solvers, entrepreneurs, and leaders that instead of wasting their time wondering why things are the way they are, they should simply accept their world as given. Perhaps we should stop telling people that they are simply mice, chasing cheese, in someone else's maze. I know those are not the messages
WMMC
set out to promote, but to many readers, they are powerfully conveyed.

I Moved Your Cheese
aims to help readers question their assumptions about what limitations they really face and to encourage them to take the steps necessary to change not only their behavior but also their circumstances. In the face of long-standing precedent, strong
social norms, resource scarcity, and the powerful expectations of others, individuals may underestimate their ability to control their own destiny, to reshape their environment, and to overcome the constraints they face. Success in areas such as career development, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, problem solving, and business growth—and also personal growth—often depends on exactly that: the ability to challenge assumptions, reshape the environment, and play by a different set of rules … your own.

Like
WMMC
, this book tells the story of mice who live in a maze. In this case, the main characters are three unique and adventurous mice: Max, Zed, and Big. As we watch their lives unfold and intersect, we discover that instead of just reacting to change and chasing the cheese, each of us has the ability to escape
the maze or even reconfigure the maze to our liking. We can create the new circumstances and realities we want, but first we must discard the often deeply ingrained notion that we are nothing more than mice in someone else's maze. As Zed explains, “You see, Max, the problem is not that the mouse is in the maze, but that the maze is in the mouse.”

This book is intended for people and organizations who feel trapped in their current circumstances; for people who are working hard and maybe even finding success in their life and work, but who struggle to find meaning or fulfillment in what they are doing; for those who are playing (perhaps very well) a game that is not of their choosing; for those whose view of success is not simply predicated on changing the old ways of doing things but on reimagining them; and for those who seek
inspiration as they consider what they can and should do with the rest of their lives. (And if you're unsure whether you fit any such description, just read the book—it's short!)

Max, Zed, and Big have been with me for a long time now. And yet every time I revisit their adventures, I find myself inspired anew. I hope you will be inspired as well. And more than anything else, I hope that reading this book will put a smile on your face—and that you will be left wondering exactly why you are smiling.

They called it a revolution. The lesson—the insight—had spread throughout the maze. Scarcely a mouse remained who had not heard what was contained in the good book.

The insight was profound. More importantly, it did not rely too much on one's ability to reason. And any mouse will tell you that this attribute is the hallmark of all great truths. So it was accepted as perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most important, truth. And it was all so simple.

The book made it clear: Change happens. You can sit there and complain about it, or you can change with the times. Do not fear change. Accept change. What happens in the maze is
beyond your control. What you
can
control is your reaction.

Now, just because every mouse had come to understand this insight does not mean that every one of them was able to adopt it in practice. Some succeeded fully. They learned that change is inevitable and uncontrollable. They accepted that they were helpless to control the workings of the maze—fate, they called it—and they pledged to adapt.

Many others succeeded to a lesser degree. They still had moments of fear, immobility, depression, and despair. But such moments were less frequent than in the past. These mice improved their lot in the maze considerably.

To be sure, there were also mice who rarely thought about what the good book taught
them. They agreed with it in principle but did not have the time or energy to change their ways. After all, habits are hard to break. They would work on it later—maybe next week, maybe next year.

Overall, life in the maze was now quite different. In the past, when cheese moved from one location to another, all the mice were in despair. They could not understand what happened. They cursed their luck. They sat and waited in the cheese corner of the past and prayed for its return. They got agitated and lost their temper. They got angry and made an already difficult life even worse.

Now, after reading the good book, the mice reacted differently. The disappearance of the cheese was still traumatic, and it was still impossible to understand why the cheese had
moved. But now the mice began to go in search of new cheese depots. Those who had fully adopted the good book's philosophy were the first to set about in search of the new cheese.

Those who struggled with the philosophy, who found it difficult to break old habits, were slower to move. But they, too, understood that they had to change with changing times. They, too, eventually went to look for more cheese.

By learning to change with changing times, the mice succeeded in finding more cheese. They found it more quickly than they had ever done in the past. The good book was right! They had cheese … more cheese, and sooner than ever before. It does not get much better than that if you are a mouse.