I Moved Your Cheese ─ For Those Who Refuse to Live As Mice in Someone Else's Maze

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.'

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".

"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