Many years ago, I read Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson. It is a simple story about change, told through characters searching for cheese in a maze. The cheese represents things we value or depend upon- our jobs, relationships, health, opportunities, security or familiar routines. When the cheese disappears, the characters respond differently. Some recognise what is happening and begin searching for something new. Others remain where they are, hoping what has disappeared will somehow return.
I have been thinking about that little book recently. If we live long enough, most of us will experience a moment when something familiar changes significantly or comes to an end. It may happen in our personal lives, our health, our spiritual journey or professionally. A job ends. An organisation closes. An industry changes. Technology disrupts something once considered secure. A relationship changes. Our bodies require something different from us. Suddenly, we are standing where the cheese used to be.
But change is not always as sudden as the moment in which we finally experience its consequences. Environments are always reflecting. They are always speaking. Long before some outcomes become impossible to ignore, there are often patterns, shifts in behaviour, changing customer preferences, declining numbers, new competitors, emerging technologies, repeated complaints, unusual silence or ways of working gradually losing relevance. The final event may happen on a particular day, but sometimes the story began years before.
That is why pattern recognition matters. It is not about predicting the future with certainty. It is about remaining curious enough to notice what is changing while we are still comfortable. Familiarity can convince us that tomorrow will resemble today. When something has worked for years, we assume it will continue working. When customers have always come, we expect them to keep coming. When an organisation has survived previous difficulties, we may believe it will survive the next in much the same form.
Perhaps the real lesson of the moving cheese is therefore not simply that we must adapt after change occurs. It is that we should keep looking around the room while the cheese is still there. What is changing around us? What are people doing differently? What are customers no longer doing? What new behaviours are emerging? What assumptions are we protecting because they once served us well? What have we become so accustomed to seeing that we no longer really see it?
This applies to individuals as much as organisations. We should never become so comfortable in a position, profession or season that we stop developing ourselves. The qualification that opened yesterday’s door may not open tomorrow’s. The expertise for which we are known today may need to evolve. The platform through which we express our purpose may change. Adaptability does not require abandoning who we are whenever circumstances shift. Sometimes it requires recognising that what we carry may remain valuable even when the vehicle carrying it changes.
There is also something to be said for gratitude. Recognising that seasons change should not make us anxious about everything we enjoy. It should make us more present. We can appreciate the work, relationships, opportunities and platforms available today without assuming they are guaranteed indefinitely. There is wisdom in holding gratitude in one hand and adaptability in the other, valuing what is while remaining attentive to what is becoming.
Maybe the most dangerous moment is not when the cheese moves. By then, reality has made the change visible. Perhaps the more consequential moment comes earlier, when the cheese is still there but the environment around it has begun to change. That is when curiosity matters. That is when patterns matter. That is when we must resist allowing familiarity to become blindness.
The Workplace Mirror Reflection: The workplace is always reflecting. The environment is always speaking. Change rarely begins on the day we finally notice its consequences. So while the cheese is still there, look around. What patterns are emerging? What assumptions need revisiting? What is changing quietly around you? The best time to become curious about change may be before change forces us to pay attention.
Karen James is a Strategic Leadership Advisor, author, speaker, and founder of The Workplace Mirror, where she helps leaders and organisations uncover blind spots, expand perspective, and strengthen organisational effectiveness. She is also the founder of The Wise Professional, helping individuals and organisations make wiser workplace decisions.
Visit us at www.searchlight.vc or https://www.facebook.com/Searchlight1.We’ll help you get noticed.
