Synopses & Reviews
If you were a mouse trapped in a maze and someone kept moving the cheese, what would you do?
Over a decade ago the bestselling business fable Who Moved My Cheese? offered its answer to this question: accept that change is inevitable and beyond your control, don’t waste your time wondering why things are the way they are, keep your head down and start looking for the cheese.
But success in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, leadership, and business growth—as well as personal growth—depends on the ability to push the boundaries, reshape the environment, and play by a different set of rules: our own. With that in mind, Harvard Business School professor Deepak Malhotra offers a radically different answer to this question.?Malhotra tells an inspiring story about three unique and adventurous mice—Max, Big, and Zed—who refuse to accept their reality as given. As we watch their lives unfold and intersect, we discover that instead of just blindly chasing after the cheese, each of us has the ability to escape the maze or even reconfigure it to our liking.
In the face of established practices, traditional ideas, scarce resources, and the powerful demands or expectations of others, we often underestimate our ability to control our own destiny and overcome the constraints we face—or think we face. I Moved Your Cheese reminds us that 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.”
“Every once in a while a book comes along that makes you question the way things are. This is the book. Deepak Malhotra allows you to glimpse a world of your own making without the limits and barriers that others create. An excellent read.”
—Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Leader in Me
“A magnificent story with a powerful message. As someone who has encouraged scores of professionals into breaking through the maze and defining their own pursuits, I find this to be a gem of a book. A must-read.”
—Vinod Khosla, cofounder and former CEO and Chairman, Sun Microsystems, and founder, Khosla Ventures
“Deepak Malhotra tackles our assumptions about business and life with humor, zest, and wisdom in this delightful fable. If you’ve ever rankled at the thought of being just another mouse in the maze, this is the book for you.”
—Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind
“Deepak Malhotra’s lucid fable, I Moved Your Cheese, is a brilliant counterpoint to Spencer Johnson’s earlier work. The messages of empowerment and taking control of your destiny ring loud and clear for the new generation of authentic leaders. You won’t be able to put it down.”?
—Bill George, Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School; former CEO, Medtronic; and author of True North, Authentic Leadership, and True North Groups
“A book that will inspire the imagination of mice and managers. A formula for breaking out of the maze and creating new realities in life and in business.”
—Barry Nalebuff, Milton Steinbach Professor, Yale School of Management; cofounder, Honest Tea; and coauthor of Thinking Strategically, The Art of Strategy, and Why Not?
“An excellent book with sound lessons on how to change our circumstance and create new realities in our personal and professional lives.”?
—Deepak Chopra, Adjunct Professor, Kellogg School of Management, and coauthor of War of the Worldviews
Review
""Every once in a while a book comes along that makes you question the way things are. This is the book. Deepak Malhotra allows you to glimpse a world of your own making without the limits and barriers that others create. An excellent read.""
--Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and The Leader in Me
""A magnificent story with a powerful message. As someone who has encouraged scores of professionals into breaking through the maze and defining their own pursuits, I find this to be a gem of a book. A must-read.""
--Vinod Khosla, cofounder and former CEO and Chairman, Sun Microsystems, and founder, Khosla Ventures
""Deepak Malhotra tackles our assumptions about business and life with humor, zest, and wisdom in this delightful fable. If you've ever rankled at the thought of being just another mouse in the maze, this is the book for you.""
--Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind
""An excellent book with sound lessons on how to change our circumstance and create new realities in our personal and professional lives.""
--Deepak Chopra, Adjunct Professor, Kellogg School of Management, and coauthor of War of the Worldviews
""A book that will inspire the imagination of mice and managers. A formula for breaking out of the maze and creating new realities in life and in business.""
--Barry Nalebuff, Milton Steinbach Professor, Yale School of Management; cofounder, Honest Tea; and coauthor of Thinking Strategically, The Art of Strategy, and Why Not?
Synopsis
For all its good intentions, Who Moved My Cheese? basically reduces us to mice in a maze sniffing after cheese. Don’t ask why you’re in a maze, don’t ask what makes the cheese move, just keep your head down and find it. And yet, success in areas such as innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, problem solving, and business growth often depends on the ability to challenge assumptions, reshape the environment, and play by a different set of rules (your own!).
Harvard Business School professor Deepak Malhorta uses a fable involving a different set of mice in a maze—mice who question everything—to help readers see how they underestimate their ability change the rules, overcome the constraints they face, and control their own destiny. I Moved Your Cheese encourages readers to audit their assumptions about what limitations they really face and which are self-imposed or unthinkingly accepted. We can create the circumstances and realities we want –we can go beyond simply changing our behavior (find that new cheese!) to changing the game itself. But to do so we need to understand the ways we’re holding ourselves back. As one of the characters in the book says, “the problem is not that the mouse is in the maze, but that the maze is in the mouse.”
Synopsis
If you were a mouse trapped in a maze and someone kept moving the cheese, what would you do? In a world where most mice dutifully accept their circumstances, ask no questions, and keep chasing the cheese, Deepak Malhotra tells an inspiring story about three unique and adventurous mice--Max, Big, and Zed--who refuse to accept their reality as given.
I Moved Your Cheese reveals what is possible when we finally discard long-held and widely accepted assumptions about how we should live our lives. After all, achieving extraordinary success, personal or professional, has always depended on the ability to challenge assumptions, reshape the environment, and play by a different set of rules--our own. But rejecting deeply ingrained beliefs is not easy. 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."
Synopsis
If you were a mouse trapped in a maze and someone kept moving the cheese, what would you do?
Over a decade ago the bestselling business fable Who Moved My Cheese? offered its answer to this question: accept that change is inevitable and beyond your control, dont waste your time wondering why things are the way they are, keep your head down and start looking for the cheese.
But success in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, leadership, and business growth—as well as personal growth—depends on the ability to push the boundaries, reshape the environment, and play by a different set of rules: our own. With that in mind, Harvard Business School professor Deepak Malhotra offers a radically different answer to this question.
Malhotra tells an inspiring story about three unique and adventurous mice—Max, Big, and Zed—who refuse to accept their reality as given. As we watch their lives unfold and intersect, we discover that instead of just blindly chasing after the cheese, each of us has the ability to escape the maze or even reconfigure it to our liking.
In the face of established practices, traditional ideas, scarce resources, and the powerful demands or expectations of others, we often underestimate our ability to control our own destiny and overcome the constraints we face—or think we face. I Moved Your Cheese reminds us that 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 elses 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.”
About the Author
Deepak Malhotra is a Professor in the Negotiations, Organizations, and Markets Unit at the Harvard Business School. He teaches Negotiation in the MBA program and in a wide variety of executive programs including the Advanced Management Program (AMP), the Owner/President Management Program (OPM), Changing the Game, Strategic Negotiation, and Families in Business. He has been published in top journals in the fields of management, psychology, and conflict resolution and has won numerous awards for both his teaching and his research. Malhotra has also been widely cited and quoted in the mainstream media and is a regular guest on CNBC's nightly program, "The Big Idea".
Table of Contents
1. The Good Book
2. Max
3. Zed
4. Why
5. Even the “Impossible”
6. Up
7. Big
8. Out
9. Who Moved My Cheese?
10. I Moved Your Cheese
11. Walls
12. The Maze in the Mouse
13. A Mouse Like No Other
14. Some Mice Are Big
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