Product Description

"The Oz Principle describes what we’ve all suspected —

that it isn’t just America in crisis, but the American

character. The good news is that Connors, Smith, and

Hickman also describe the ‘yellow brick road’ we must follow

to rebuild the dominant qualities required to achieve

success." — Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven

Habits of Highly Successful People

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1349127 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12
• Format: Abridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio Cassette

From Booklist
The "Land of Oz" has come to stand as a symbol for things not being as they seem. The three authors here, though, go to the basic theme of L. Frank Baum's classic: the trip to see the wizard is a journey of self-awareness and discovery, wherein the characters learn that only they themselves possess the power to fully realize or change their lives. The authors extend the metaphor of Dorothy, the tin man, the scarecrow, and the lion by describing the heart, courage, and wisdom needed to acknowledge, accept, and deal with circumstances and events as they are. The result is a willingness to accept responsibility, which leads to individual (and organizational) accountability. Connors and Smith head Partners in Leadership, a management consulting business that conducts seminars based on the Oz characterizations, and Hickman has written several management books, most recently Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader (1990). David Rouse

About the Author
Roger Connors and Tom Smith are co-founders of Partners in Leadership, an international management consulting firm whose clients include Eli Lilly and Amoco. They both live in Temecula, California. Craig R. Hickman is co-author of the international bestseller, Creating Excellence, and author of Mind of a Manager and other business books. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Preface

We think that most people would agree that the need for more accountable organizations, teams, and individuals has done nothing but grow since The Oz Principle® was first published ten years ago. Who can deny the business case for making accountability a core ingredient in any corporate culture? People who take accountability and operate Above The Line® always make things happen in organizations. With a company full of accountable people, extraordinary things, even the entirely unexpected, tend to happen.

We have been gratified to see and experience the impact of The Oz Principle over the last ten years. Time and time again, we have been reminded that accountability produces results as we have added up the shareholder value, increased profits, decreased costs, and productivity gains from clients and others who have successfully implemented greater accountability in their organizations. In addition to increased financial performance we have also witnessed improved morale as people come to love their jobs more, learn to cope more capably with daily obstacles, and get the results they want.

The way The Oz Principle has influenced the personal lives of our readers and clients has moved us deeply. Their unsolicited testimonials demonstrate that The Oz Principle works as much magic in our personal life as in our business life. While greater accountability may not cure all the world’s ills, it does provide a sturdy foundation on which you can build long-lasting solutions.

Businesses all over the world have moved to new ground—downsizing, flattening, empowering, team working, liberating, knowledge basing, networking, quality imbuing, continuously improving, process mapping, transforming, and reengineering. For some companies the gains have proved remarkable. For many others, however, the bewildering array of current success formulas, both theoretical and practical, seem overwhelming or foolish as they fail to accomplish the promised results. To our minds, what all the fads and bandwagon programs fail to address is that one essential ingredient is missing from the mix: the fact that results come from people who accept accountability for achieving them. Accountability. Without it, no program can succeed; with it, any program can accomplish even more than its promoters promise.

We’ve seen it over and over again. Whether it is a company on the most-admired list or an organization languishing and on the brink of failure, performance invariably improves when people take greater accountability and ownership for results. Why do they do it? We believe people want to be accountable. Accountability makes them feel better. It empowers them to get amazing results. That is why so many people around the world have so enthusiastically embraced The Oz Principle.

Only when people in organizations escape the deadly trap of victimization and begin to ascend the steps to individual accountability can they claim their own destinies and the future of their enterprises.

We wrote The Oz Principle to help people become more accountable for their thoughts, feelings, actions, and results; and so that they can move their organizations to even greater heights. And, as they move along this always difficult and often frightening path, we hope that they, like Dorothy and her companions, discover that they really do possess the skills they need to do whatever their hearts desire.

Please join us on this new journey through Oz.

Roger Connors
Thomas Smith
Craig Hickman

Chapter 1

OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD:
SEARCHING FOR GREATER
ACCOUNTABILITY
IN BUSINESS

“Who are you?” asked the Scarecrow when he had stretched himself and yawned, “and where are you going?”

“My name is Dorothy,” said the girl, “and I am going to the Emerald City, to ask the great Oz to send me back to Kansas.”

“Where is the Emerald City?” he inquired; “and who is Oz?”

“Why, don’t you know?” she returned, in surprise.

“No, indeed; I don’t know anything. You see, I am stuffed, so I have no brains at all,” he answered sadly.

“Oh,” said Dorothy; “I’m awfully sorry for you.”

“Do you think,” he asked, “if I go to the Emerald City with you that Oz would give me some brains?”

“I cannot tell,” she returned; “but you may come with me, if you like. If Oz will not give you any brains you will be no worse off than you are now.”

“That is true,” said the Scarecrow.
—The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

Like all powerful literature, The Wizard of Oz continues to enthrall audiences because its plot strikes a nerve. The book recounts a journey toward awareness; and from the beginning of their journey, the story’s main characters gradually learn that they possess the power within themselves to get the results they want. Until the end, they think of themselves as victims of circumstance, skipping down the yellow brick road to the Emerald City where the supposedly all-powerful Wizard will grant them the courage, heart, wisdom, and means to succeed. The journey itself empowers them, and even Dorothy, who could have clicked her red slippers and returned home at any time, must travel the yellow brick road to gain full awareness that only she herself can achieve her desires. People relate to the theme of a journey from ignorance to knowledge, from fear to courage, from paralysis to powerfulness, from victimization to accountability, because everyone has taken this same journey himself. Unfortunately, even the most ardent admirers of the story often fail to learn its simple lessons: Don’t get stuck on the yellow brick road; don’t blame others for your circumstances; don’t wait for wizards to wave their magic wands; and never expect all your problems to disappear. In today’s complex environment, the temptation to feel and act like victims has become so pervasive that it has created a very real crisis.

BUSINESS CHARACTER IN CRISIS
Most companies fail because of managerial error, but not many CEOs and senior executives involved will admit that fact. Instead of taking responsibility for shortfalls and failures, far too many of today’s business leaders offer every conceivable excuse from a shortage of resources to inept staff to competitor sabotage. From presidents in the Oval Office to entrepreneurs in the garage, no one wants to take responsibility for their misjudgments and mistakes. Yes, shortfalls and failures occur every day. This is a natural part of business and life, part of the human experience, but attempting to duck responsibility for such shortfalls and failures serves only to prolong suffering, retard correction, and prevent learning. Only acceptance of greater accountability for results can get a person, a team, or an organization back on the path to success.

Unfortunately, no one wants to hear the brutal facts associated with bad news, especially Wall Street. No wonder the public’s confidence in the economy, the stock market, business in general, and CEOs in particular, has plummeted to new lows. After Lucent’s stock price dropped in value by more than 80 percent, CEO Rich McGinn was replaced because he had listened and responded to Wall Street rather than to his own company’s scientists and salespeople. Lucent scientists were telling him that the company was losing its position in new optical technology; his salespeople were telling him that sales were being propped up by deep discounting. But that wasn’t the sort of news that Wall Street wanted to hear, and McGinn knew it. McGinn had gotten very good at delivering unwavering growth, and stock analysts loved it. As a result, Wall Street glorified McGinn and his executive team. McGinn and Wall Street, it was a match made in economic heaven. Sadly, however, it was a fool’s match made in a temporary heaven. Lucent’s scientists and salespeople were eventually proven right. Competitor Nortel eclipsed Lucent by introducing improved voice and data transmission technology with huge market success, leaving Lucent lagging far behind, and the deep discounting eventually devastated the bottom line. McGinn was finally replaced by Henry Schacht, who spent his first few months on the job reminding Lucent shareholders and the rest of the world that a company’s stock price is a byproduct, not a driver, of success. When the entire global economic system seems to favor rhetoric and excuses over results and accountability, the problem threatens us all.

It threatened Xerox, even though Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy finally faced reality and told Wall Street analysts that the company had an “unsustainable business model.” Her acceptance of that reality came too late, as Xerox teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. For years, Xerox executives had been blaming the company’s poor performance on everything from international politics to economic fluctuations to market upheavals, never facing the bad news of the company’s deeply flawed business model. Management wizard Jim Collins, best-selling author of Good to Great and Built to Last, argues that what must glaringly separate great companies from mediocre ones is the latter’s tendency “to explain away the brutal facts rather than to confront the brutal facts head-on.” Companies such as Lucent and Xerox sank into mediocrity because they attempted to avoid accountability for the underlying causes of their bad news. They’re not alone. The list of well-known companies that encounter problems, fail to face bad news and deal with it, and waste time justifying and explaining inadequate performance continues to grow. Enron, Arthur Andersen, Global Crossing, Kmart, Sunbeam, Tyco, WorldCom, AT&T, Polaroid, and Qwest all became slaves to Wall Street, turned a deaf ear to bad news, oversold their strategies, dumbed down their cultures, glorified their bosses, and made countless other mistakes that destroyed value.

Even though Wall Street sends its share of wrong messages and certainly needs revamping, that’s no excuse for any company to sit back and wait for the government ...

Customer Reviews

Elevate with Accountability
The authors' central metaphor is eminently appropriate. They correlate L. Frank Baum's plot and characters with situations in the contemporary business world inorder to answer this question: How can accountability enable individuals and thereby their organizations to achieve the results they seek? The metaphor is developed as follows: The Yellow-Brick Road: "Getting Stuck in the Victim Cycle"; There's No Place Like Home: "Focusing on Results"; The Lion: "Mustering the Courage to Accept Accountability" The Tin Woodsman: "Finding the Heart to `Own' Accountability for One's Self"; The Scarecrow: "Obtaining the Wisdom to Assume Full Responsibility for Solving One's Problems"; and Dorothy: "Exercising the Means Needed to Solve Those Problems."

Granted, Dorothy and her three companions (four if counting Toto) proceed together on the journey to the Emerald City and, along the way, depend upon each other to overcome all manner of obstacles. However, keep in mind that the Emerald City is not the ultimate objective for any of them. Dorothy's, for example, is to return home to Kansas. The purpose of that journey, Baum suggests, is to learn what they do not know inorder to recognize what they already have.

The authors suggest that the same is true of most (if not all) of those who comprise a "cult" of victimization which ducks responsibility while telling everyone else what to do. According to Charles Sykes, "Crisscrossing the trip wires of emotional, racial, sexual, and psychological grievance, American life is increasingly characterized by the plaintive insistence, I am a victim." (Those with any direct and extensive experience with 4-7 year olds immediately recognize this as the adult version of "the blame game.") Connors, Smith, and Hickman examine what they characterize as "the destructive force of victimization" and suggest a step-by-step process by which to overcome it. Specifically, they explain HOW to proceed from consciously or unconsciously avoiding accountability for individual or collective results "Below the Line" to accepting accountability for individual and collective performance "Above the Line." I agree with the authors that a majority of workers choose to believe that they have no control over their jobs. They view themselves -- and justify themselves -- as "victims of circumstance."

This book can be invaluable both to individuals and to teams because it will help them to understand how and why "the destructive force of victimization" results in low productivity, customer dissatisfaction, ineffectiveness, wasted talent, and dysfunctional teams. Those who saw the film no doubt recall the scene in which Dorothy and her companions learn that the Wizard of Oz has no magical powers whatsoever. Only then do they grasp the meaning and importance of the Oz Principle: Assume full responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, actions, and results inorder to direct and control your destiny. Most of those who see themselves as victims have a choice: remain "Below the Line" and suffer while blaming others for that suffering, or, rise "Above the Line" to fulfill what Maslow describes as "self-actualization." In this thought-provoking as well as eloquent book, the authors explain HOW to rise above denial, self-pity, and recrimination; better yet, HOW to to draw upon sources of wisdom and strength within to achieve health, happiness, and prosperity. To paraphrase Pogo, "We have met the Wizard and he is us."

If at all possible, read this book in combination with Bossidy and Charan's Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done; Hammer's The Agenda: What Every Business Must Do to Dominate the Decade; and Canfield, Hansen, and Hewitt's The Power of Focus: How to Hit Your Business, Personal and Financial Targets with Absolute Certainty.

Revised, Updated, and Invaluable
In this revised and updated edition, the co-authors share with their reader what they have learned since their book was first published in 1994. Then and now, their objectives are the same: "...to help people become more accountable for their thoughts, feelings, actions, and results; and so that they can move their organizations to even greater heights. And, as they move along this always difficult and often frightening path, we hope that they, like Dorothy and her companions, discover that they really do possess the skills they need to do whatever their hearts desire."

In this volume, Connors, Smith, and Hickman invoke once again a core concept of a "Line" below which many (most?) people live much (most?) of the time. Theirs is the attitude of victimization: They get stuck on a "yellow brick road" by blaming others for their circumstances; they wait for "wizards" to wave their magic wands; and they expect all of their problems to disappear through little (if any) effort of their own.

What to do? Connors, Smith, and Hickman explain (step-by-step) how to Live Above the Line by assuming much greater accountability for whatever results one may desire. This can be achieved through a four-step process:

"See It": Recognize and acknowledge the full reality of a situation

"Own It": Accept full responsibility for one's current experiences and realities as well as others'

"Solve It": Change those realities by finding and implementing solutions to problems (often solutions not previously considered) while avoiding the "trap" of dropping back Below the Line when obstacles present themselves

"Do It": Summon the commitment and courage to follow through with the solutions identified, especially when there is great risk in doing so

How easy it is to summarize this four-step process...and how difficult it is to follow it to a satisfactory conclusion. (When composing brief commentaries such as this, I always fear trivializing important points.) Connors, Smith, and Hickman have absolutely no illusions about the barriers, threats, and challenges which await those who embark on this "journey" to accountability.

As they indicate in this new edition of their book, they have accumulated a wealth of information during the past decade which both illustrates and reconfirms the importance of making a personal choice to rise above one's circumstances and assume the ownership of what is required to achieve desired results. This is precisely what Theodore Roosevelt had in mind when praising "the man in the arena" and what W.E. Henley asserts in the final stanza of "Invictus":

"It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

Organizations are human communities within which everyone involved must somehow balance personal obligations to themselves with obligations to others. For me, the interdependence of these obligations best illustrates the importance of the Oz Principle: "Accountability for results at the very core of continuous improvement, innovation, customer satisfaction, team performance, talent development and corporate governance movements so popular today." Connors, Smith, and Hickman go on to observe, "Interestingly, the essence of these programs boils down to getting people to rise above their circumstances and do whatever it takes (of course, within the bounds of ethical behavior) to get the results they want," not only for themselves but also for everyone else involved in the given enterprise.

Connors, Smith, and Hickman cite Winston Churchill's admonition, "First we shape our structures, and then our structures shape us." Were the Steps to Accountability easy to take, if everyone lived and labored Above the Line, there would be no need for this book. There is much of value to be learned from L. Frank Baum's account of the perilous journey which Dorothy and her companions share. What they finally realized -- and so must we -- is that, to paraphrase Pogo, "We have met the Wizard and he is us."

Reversing cultures of fear, blame, avoidance and dependency.
Using the Wizard or Oz as a metaphor, the authors convey the idea that a culture of victimization weakens people. The power to overcome victimization and achieve success lies within oneself. For an organization to succeed, employees must become willing to accept individual accountability. The book provides an approach to changing individual attitudes and shows how individuals can implement leadership and a culture of accountability in their own organization. Key action steps of the principle in taking accountability are: see it (the issue); decide to own it; personally work to solve it; and individually commit to do it. This book zeros in on a crucial issue offering a pragmatic approach that links individual and organizational success. The idea of a culture of accountability can be seen as the flip side of the all-to-common cultures of fear, blame, risk avoidance and dependency.