The other book about cheese

Many of you will have heard of the fabulous change management book "Who Moved My Cheese" by Dr Spencer Johnson. But have you heard of the other book about cheese by Nancy and Eric Gurney published in 1965? "The King the Mice and the Cheese" is aimed at 3- to 5-year-olds and it may just be one of the best leadership books I have read. It captures the essence of The Law of Unintended Consequences (which is apparently difficult to do) and speaks to the importance of effectively managing relationships.

In summary, the protagonist is a King who simply adores cheese. His palace is overflowing with cheese and the aroma wafts out into the countryside and soon attracts the attention of mice, lots of mice. The mice descend on the palace and proceed to wreak havoc. The King calls in his wisemen to solve the mice problem and they decide the answer is cats, lots of cats. The cat strategy is successful, and the mice are eradicated from the palace but now the cats are wreaking havoc. The wisemen are called back to solve the cat problem and they decide the answer is dogs, lots of dogs.

You can see where this is heading! So, jumping to the end, it gets to the point where the palace is virtually destroyed by elephants and in despair the wisemen decide there is only one thing for it, they must bring back the mice! However, this time, The King takes a different approach with the mice; he negotiates a deal that enables them to co-exist in the palace and happily share the thing they love the most - cheese!

Click here to have the story read to you

Thanks to Nancy and Eric we have some substantial takeaways from this delightful book:

1. When considering options for solving a problem we need to ensure we consider the risks of each option, what could go wrong? What haven't we thought about? What are the longer-term implications of a particular solution even though it may address the immediate situation?

2. Big, bold solutions are often unnecessary and costly and may be a long and winding road back to "square one'. We need to peel back the layers to understand the root underlying cause of an issue so we can appropriately scale our solution.

3. Problems can often be solved by simply engaging with others, forging a relationship based on mutual understanding and agreed parameters and perhaps a healthy dose of compromise. How big is the issue really? Or are we just avoiding a difficult conversation because we don't trust ourselves to be effective in that conversation?

4. Avoid group think - make sure there is diversity among our "wise people".

"Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful." - Margaret J. Wheatley