Who Moved My Cheese? explains its ideas through a fable with four characters, two mice named Sniff and Scurry and two “Littlepeople” named Hem and Haw. These characters allegorically “represent the simple and the complex parts of ourselves, regardless of our age, gender, race or nationality” (12). Sniff smells change coming, Scurry responds quickly to change, Hem fears change, and Haw learns to welcome the opportunity of change.

Kenneth Blanchard, PhD, explains that, before he and Johnson wrote The One Minute Manager, Johnson told him a story about “Cheese,” or what people want in life, and how to get it. Ever since, Blanchard has wished that the story be made available to the general public. Who Moved My Cheese? is the result.

Blanchard mentions Charlie Jones, an NBC-TV sportscaster who covered track and field at the Olympics and learned later that he’d been moved to swimming and diving. Jones was angry until he heard the Cheese story; thereafter, he learned to deal effectively with change, improved his skills, and did so well that he was inducted into the Broadcaster division of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.