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Title: The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual & Organizational Accountability by Roger Connors, Tom Smith, Craig R. Hickman, Thomas Smith ISBN: 0-7352-0043-2 Publisher: Prentice Hall Press Pub. Date: 15 October, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Personal Accountability = Moving Beyond Excuses
Comment: The book is written for you, the individual, to read and to contemplate. The intent is to help break the reader of the malaise of inaction, which often follows when obstacles to success abound in any endeavor. I found it enlightening and reinvigorating. Through a clever use of analogies to the Wizard of Oz characters, the book leads you to the conclusion that the ability and the authority required to achieve your goals are already within your grasp, just as the Oz characters already possessed their heart, courage, and brain prior to seeking the Wizard. Whether you are a contributor or manager, this book acknowledges that real obstacles exist to accomplishing any worthwhile goal, but points out that successful people and successful teams move beyond excuses and take action to solve their problems. In that regard, I must respectfully disagree with Mr. David Morgan's characterization that this book is a contradiction. The chapters guide you through a structured thinking process that helps you to separate real obstacles from perceived obstacles and to identify actions that will overcome the challenges you face. It also helps dissipate the feeling of powerlessness which inevitably accompanies a lack of progress towards a goal. That is, perhaps, the most empowering facet of the book. I highly recommend reading it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Doing the job and getting results should be the same thing
Comment: When asked what their job is, most people will define it in terms of their title or as the list of activities they perform day by day. Never mind that despite all of their honest efforts, they may not be hitting their targeted results. Or worse yet, they may think that as long as they did their part, it doesn't matter that the team may have failed to achieve its goal.
The OZ Principle encourages the reader to challenges that old belief and to take accountability not only for one's individual results, but for the the results of the team. It suggests that "reasons" become "excuses" when we stop trying to overcome obstacles and find solutions. The operative question becomes a mantra of sorts for the truly accountable person as he/she continues to ask, regardless of one's circumstances, "What Else Can I Do?" (to acheive the desired result).
For those who habitually fall "Below the Line", and play the proverbial "Blame Game", this shift in attitude may be a hard pill to swallow. Coupled with the reality that those managers who play the wizards may either be expected to solve all of their people's problems, or may make the mistake of reliquishing their responsibility as coaches in the performance equation. Through a series of real life corporate case studies, The Oz Principle presupposes that, although it may be natural to point fingers, make excuses; to avoid or procrastinate, it is simply not productive. When an individual and/or a team achieves results, it is because they are operating most of the time "Above the Line", climbing the "Steps to Accountability" by finding ways to SEE IT, OWN IT, SOLVE IT, and DO IT. For those who need a dose of motiviation, the awareness of our "joint accountability" for results and the consequences for our accomplishments, or lack thereof, is enough to keep this reader striving to stay "Above the Line"
I highly recommend this book for any front line employee, supervisor, manager, director, Vice President or CEO who cares
about not just doing the job, but getting the results.
Rating: 5
Summary: Revised, Updated, and Invaluable
Comment: 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."
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Title: Journey to the Emerald City: Implement the Oz Principle to Achieve a Competitive Edge Through a Culture of Accountability by Roger Connors, Tom Smith ISBN: 073520358X Publisher: Prentice Hall Press Pub. Date: 25 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Journey to the Emerald City: Achieve A Competitive Edge by Creating A Culture of Accountability by Roger Connors, Tom Smith, Thomas Smith ISBN: 0735200521 Publisher: Prentice Hall Press Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Personal Accountability : Powerful and Practical Ideas for You and Your Organization by John G. Miller ISBN: 0966583213 Publisher: Denver Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: QBQ! The Question Behind the Question by John G. Miller ISBN: 0966583299 Publisher: Denver Press Pub. Date: 14 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.50 |
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Title: Accountability by Rob Lebow, Randy Spitzer ISBN: 157675183X Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Pub Pub. Date: 15 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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