Spencer Johnson Biography Partners

“If what I believe and do today is positive, I help create a better tomorrow! ” – Spencer Johnson The more important your cheese is to you, the more you want to hold on to it. About Spencer Johnson M. D. Spencer Johnson, M. D. , is one of the world’s most respected thinkers and beloved authors. His eleven international bestselling books include the #1 titles: Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change, the most widely read book on change, and The One Minute Manager®, the world’s most popular management method for more than two decades, coauthored with Kenneth Blanchard.

Dr. Johnson is often referred to as “the best there is at taking complex subjects and presenting simple solutions that work. ” He received a B. A. degree in Psychology from the University of Southern California and an M. D. degree from the Royal College of Surgeons, and completed medical clerkships at the Mayo Clinic and the Harvard Medical School.

He has served as Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Business School, and is currently Advisor to the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. His work has captured the attention of major media, including The Associated Press, the BBC, CNN, Fortune, the New York Times, the Today show, Time magazine, USA Today, and United Press International. More than forty-six million copies of Spencer Johnson’s books are in print worldwide in more than forty-seven languages. Dr.

Johnson’s newest book, The Present, was a #1 New York Times Business Best-seller, and #1 book of the year in 2004 in South Korea with over 500,000 copies of the Korean edition in print.

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The New York Times Book Review, in a 2005 article on Chinese publishing, reports that Spencer Johnson’s book Who Moved My Cheese? has become China’s all time bestselling translated work with official sales of over two million copies to date. In Japan, Who Moved My Cheese? has sold over 4,500,000 copies to become the #1 bestselling book in Japan’s history by a non-Japanese author.

Dr. Johnson earned a B. A. egree in Psychology from the University of Southern California, an M. D. degree from the Royal College of Surgeons, and medical clerkships at The Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School. He has served as Medical Director of Communications for Medtronic, the original innovators of cardiac pacemakers; Research Physician at the Institute for Inter-Disciplinary Studies, a medical-social think tank; Consultant to the Center for the Study of the Person, and to the School of Medicine, University of California; Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Business School and is an Advisor to Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership.

Spencer Johnson is an M. D. who has become better known for fixing ailing corporations than healing the sick, first with his 1982 business classic The One Minute Manager (coauthored with psychiatrist Kenneth Blanchard) and then, unforgettably, with Who Moved My Cheese? , a word-of-mouth sensation that eventually remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years and has been translated into 11 languages. Word had slowly built up about Cheese, based on the strength of recommendations from heavy-hitter executives at Procter & Gamble, GE, Hewlett-Packard and others.

Businesses, hit by the downshifting economy, began ordering copies by the thousands; by 2000, it was a national bestseller. The book sets up a story about four characters who live in a maze: Hem and Haw, who are little people; and Sniff and Scurry, who are mice. Johnson, who based the story on the fact that mice rarely go back to the same place to look for cheese and felt that humans might benefit from the example, created the story for himself as a way of helping himself get through a divorce.

Urged by former writing partner Blanchard to set the story down in book form, Johnson finally did and nothing happened, at first. But over two years, the book picked up momentum, not only among companies who were trying to deal with everything from sales downturns to massive layoffs, but among individuals who found the book helped them gain a new perspective on personal situations as well. Johnson s forte is to create allegorical stories that present simple, digestible solutions (or paths to solutions) for seemingly huge challenges.

The approach is far from immune to criticism from those who complain that Who Moved My Cheese? is simplistic and silly; Johnson doesn t argue with either barb (though he might prefer “simple” over “simplistic”). His message is that being simpler and sillier makes us better adapters and decision-makers, and all of his books boil down to opening oneself to possibility and better communication. The ideas aren t revolutionary: As Johnson said in an ABC News chat, The challenge always for me and for others is to live the story and not just read about it. Author, Professional speaker, Consultant Occupation