When it Comes to Change, Are You a Hem or Haw?
Do you know the book Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, MD?
It’s a short, easy to read allegory about change. It reminds us of our need to find our way in the maze and to succeed in changing times.
In it are four imaginary characters: The mice, Sniff and Scurry, and the little people, Hem and Haw.
Together, they represent the simple and the complex parts of ourselves.
Sniff - sniffs out change early.
Scurry - scurries into action.
Hem - denies and resists change, as he fears it will lead to something worse.
Haw - learns to adapt in time when he sees that changing leads to something better.
Finding cheese meant a great deal more to the little people than just having enough of it to eat every day. Finding cheese was the little people’s way of getting what they thought they needed to be happy.They had their own ideas what cheese meant to them, depending on their taste.
For some, finding cheese was having material things. For others it was enjoying good health, or developing a spiritual sense of well being. For Haw, cheese just meant feeling safe, having a loving family some day, and living in a cozy cottage on Cheddar Lane. To Hem, cheese was becoming a Big Cheese in charge of others and owning a big house on Camembert Hill.
The main activity in Who Moved My Cheese? is looking for and finding cheese. Sniff and Scurry work as a team, as do Hem and Haw. Eventually, they all find a large cheese supply in Cheese Station C and enjoy it for quite some time. Then, one day when they arrive at Cheese Station C, the cheese is gone! Responding quickly to the situation, Sniff and Scurry immediately take off in search of new cheese, while Hem and Haw stay and try to figure out what happened.
Hem wasn't about to go out in search of new cheese. He felt entitled to have the cheese and “wasn’t going to change until they put the cheese back.” Haw, meanwhile, was processing everything that had happened and concluded that he needed to go back out into the maze to search of a new Cheese Station.
Here are the 12 realizations Hem came to while searching through the
maze for new cheese. Each of these gems are valuable to keep in mind
for the Accidental Pren-her™ in the midst of change.
- The more important your cheese is to you, the more you want to hold on to it.
- If you do not change, you can become extinct.
- What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
- Smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old.
- Movement in a new direction helps you find new cheese.
- When you move beyond fear, you feel free.
- Imagining yourself enjoying new cheese even before finding it, leads you to it.
- The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you will find new cheese.
- Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese.
- When you see that you can find and enjoy new cheese, you change course.
- Noticing small changes early, helps you adapt to the bigger changes that are to come.
- Move with the cheese and enjoy it.
If you want to read more before you buy the book, Scott Watermasysk does a nice job of further sumarizing Haw's big picture conclusions.
Anyone else read the book Who Moved My Cheese?
Which character did you relate to the most? Are you a Hem, who resists change, or a Haw who adapts and changes?
Susan L. Reid, The original Accidental Pren-her™
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