Who_Moved_My_Cheese

Running Head: Who moved my Cheese Who Moved My Cheese [name of the writer] [name of the institution ] [name of the Professor] [Course] . Who Moved My Cheese Who moved my cheese is a fictional story by Dr. Stephen Johnson about how people deal with change and how they manage it. It describes a fictional story which demonstrates how there are four different kinds of attitudes to deal with change. Each attitude leads to different advantages or disadvantages. In this story, Dr. Johnson uses cheese as a metaphor for anything that makes us happy and satisfied with our life e.g. money. There are four characters, two mice (i.e. Sniff and Scurry) and two ‘little’ people (i.e. Hem and Haw). All these four live in a maze chasing cheese. The maze represents anything in the environment that is subjected to change like employment, home, family, etc. One day they found abundant cheese available at the Cheese Station. The ‘change’ starts when all the four show up to the Cheese Station and find no cheese there. The cheese station that was once abundant with cheese is now empty. Each of these characters reacts differently to the situation, which basically signifies the four different kinds of attitudes of dealing with change. Sniff and Scurry showed no resistance. They were ready for it as they had seen the cheese supply running low. Hence, they immediately moved on in search of some new cheese. On the other hand, Hem and Haw weren’t ready. Haw took a lot of time in analyzing the situation, while Hem refused to accept the change. He ignored everything and pretended it wasn’t happening. At one point he puts his hands over his eyes and ears to ignore the change. I think all of these characters have some attribute that reflects in my personality, but if I’ve to name a specific one, I believe that would be Sniff. I think I’ve an eye for detecting change, both in my personal and work life. I’ve observed a lot of people in my surrounding and judged them based on their appearance and attitude. My instincts generally lead me to the right direction. I believe that to be successful you need to be aware of your surroundings and try to control it. I believe that you need to modify your conduct based on the situation or environment. I find that this attitude has given me enormous success my workplace i.e. the government contract area. In my industry, the contracts are awarded in multiple years, with only the first year guaranteed, and the rest of the years might be rebidded. During the rebidding process, all companies can submit a formal proposal as to how they will fulfill the contract requirements. Part of the proposal is to find people to do the job outlined in the contract. To determine whether a competitor has submitted a bid on your contract we just need to check the job posting currently required by the competitor. Similarly, if a competitor has contacted your workforce to join them, this means that they might win the bid and you might lose your current job. Most companies don’t let their workers know that the contract is being rebid. Hence, many employees are in a false sense of security (like Hem and Haw). Other employees (like Sniff and Scurry) including me keep a look out for the contracts being rebid, and new opportunities in the market. I’ve observed that most companies don’t realize that they are in danger of losing the contract. A contract doesn’t get usually rebidded unless there is problem in the management or the workforce. I watch out for such companies as this means I should get a job there as the future of this company is unreliable. To maintain a proactive approach in searching for jobs, whenever there is a job posting, I submit a feeler resume. When the HR department contacts me, I ask a few questions that help me in analyzing the situation. In addition, I periodically check with local companies so as to what position they are currently looking for. I also monitor what is happening with other employees in the market. Through this approach, I’ve been able to figure out what going on in the market. All of these points signify that my personality matches with Sniff. Before I met my wife, I think I was more of a Hem type. Although my job history was noteworthy, and I’m a genuinely good person, but I feel that it would have taken a major event to happen to make shift in my job. I believed in myself so much that I always believed that the contract will be renewed. No matter what the evidence in front of me told me, I refused to make a move and wait for the situation to turn to worse. I even got to know that the competitor had contacted my workforce, but I refused to make a move. In the end, I literally lost my job. My wife counseled me and recommended this book to me. After reading this book I’ve become more of a sniff type person. A lot of my current friends resemble the character Scurry from the story. They are always looking for opportunities to grab. This can sometimes be detrimental in some situations. For example, my friend Dave switched his employers five times in less than a year. After looking at his resume, you can see that one of his employers just kept him for two months. The problem was that when he re-entered the job market again, most employers got wary and refused to employ him. He wasn’t exactly black listed, but he wasn’t considered as a potential employee due to his job hopping. This is to say that Scurry types are rewarded, but they need to analyze the situation, rather than just accepting every opportunity that comes their way. This book is full of ideas that can be applied to our everyday life. The lesson that I learnt after reading this book is that change is inevitable, and sooner or later it will happen. It could be a changing career, change in relationship, new job or a new house. I now realize the fact that I need to analyze and anticipate change before it’s over my head. By anticipating change before hand, I can prepare myself ad my family. Another important lesson that I learnt is that there are four different ways we can deal with the change, and it is actually up to us how to tackle it. The way we choose to portray our attitude will determine our success or failure in life. We must choose what character we wish to resemble, Scurry, Sniff, Hem or Haw. Being adaptable to the change and the environment around us will make us happy.