Chapter 9

The Importance of Understanding Your Organizational Culture in Building Effective Teams

See what you’re doing wrong, laugh at it, change and do better.

Spencer JohnsonWho Moved My Cheese?1

Organizational culture is a complex subject. Just ask Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw, the four characters in the infamous book Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. The four characters, two mice and two little people, traverse a maze to find cheese that keeps moving. How each responds to the moving cheese and how each character helps the other navigate change is a lesson in organizational culture we should all learn. The parable is a great example of how personnel in an organization develop behaviors, sometimes conflicting, in performing ...

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