When the Cheese Is Moved: Listening That Acts
In Who Moved My Cheese? , Johnson (1998) describes employees keep returning to the place where the cheese used to be — the familiar, the safe, the predictable. They grieve the loss of what worked before. They wait for someone to put the cheese back. That’s where actionable listening comes in. Most managers practice active listening : they nod, they empathize, they take notes. But when the cheese has moved, empathy alone doesn’t help people find the new path. Actionable listening means hearing with the intent to act on what’s heard — to translate insight into change. When employees keep going back to the old cheese, leaders who employ actionable listening ask (formally through a reverse evaluation and informally through management by walking about or incidental conversations): Do you know where the cheese is now? Why do you keep going back to the old place? (Is it habit? Do you forget where the cheese is now? Do you not like where it is -- why? Do you feel unsafe in the new spa...