THE OZ PRINCIPLE Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability Roger Connors • Tom Smith • Craig Hickman Prentice Hall Direct Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Connors, Roger. The Oz principle : Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability / Roger Connors, Tom Smith, Craig Hickman. p. cm. ISBN 0-7865-8728-8 1. Management - United States. 2. Responsibility. 3. Success in business - United States. I. Smith, Tom (Thomas A.) II. Hickman, Craig R. III. Title. HD70.U5C59 1994 93-38720 658 - dc20 CIP © 1994 by Roger Connors, Tom Smith, Craig Hickman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher. Partners in Leadership, LLC, has given permission to Prentice Hall to use the following materials in the book The Oz Principle: Steps to Accountability Chart, The Victim Cycle Chart, The Commitment Process diagram, A List of Clues That Indicate Accountable Attitudes and Behaviors, See It self assessment, Own It self assessment, Six Key Questions to Help You See Your Accountability, Solve It self assessment, Do It self assessment, List of Clues to Know When You’re in the Victim Cycle, Victim Cycle Self Examination, The Twenty Tired Excuses, Ways in Which You Can Demonstrate Your Accountability, List of Keys to Accounting for Progress, Differences Between Above and Below The Line Reporting, The Above The Line Leadership Checklist (Do’s and Don’ts), The Organizational Accountability Assessment, Ten More Above The Line Questions. Copyright on these materials is by Partners In Leadership, LLC, 1989-1993. Selected quotations were taken from the book The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by Frank Baum. The authors of The Oz Principle have no affiliation with or connection to the producers or owners of the movie The Wizard Of Oz. “Partners In Leadership,” “The Oz Principle,” “Creating A Culture Of Accountability,” “Above The Line,” “Below The Line,” “The Results Pyramid,” “Steps To Accountability,” “See It,” “Own It,” “Solve It,” “Do It,” and “Culture Of Accountability” are servicemarks of Partners In Leadership, LLC. ISBN 0-7865-8728-8 Prentice-Hall International (UK) Limited, London Prentice-Hall of Australia Pty. Limited, Sydney Prentice-Hall Canada Inc., Toronto Prentice-Hall Hispanoamericana, S.A., Mexico Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited, New Delhi Prentice-Hall of Japan, Inc., Tokyo Simon & Schuster Asia Pte. Ltd., Singapore Editora Prentice-Hall do Brasil, Ltda., Rio de Janeiro “It will help you approach any new idea or problem and impact your ability to be successful…The Oz Principle hit the punchline early and then supported it. It introduces a global concept right away, and then the components of each chapter give you a better understanding of that global concept…. After our clients’ reorganization, we had the worst month we’ve ever had leading into January (typically a low recruiting month in our industry). We required everyone to submit an Accountability Plan and we beat our projected hires by 20% - a direct result of implementing The Oz Principle in our organization.” - Mark Wortley President, Beverly Care Alliance “The Oz Principle has really made accountability very easy to understand and has improved our effectiveness in obvious ways. Our entire organization has not only embraced the concept, but has also made it our culture to operate Above The Line. Most importantly, The Oz Principle made it very easy for a new representative joining the organization to quickly understand what Pfizer Pratt Pharmaceuticals is all about, both in terms of our culture and how we operate as a group.” - Dick Reggio Vice President, Sales Pratt Pharmaceuticals, A Division of Pfizer Inc. “The Oz Principle is very easy reading, practical in its content. The message is so straightforward that it is many times overlooked…. We are totally accountable for making things happen. It was extremely well received.” - David Grimes Vice President, Sales, AT&T “The concepts in the book are practical and are the things we are living day-to-day. It is well written; in plain talk like a face-to-face discussion. Less theory and more examples and approaches that are immediately usable. We have applied The Oz Principle concepts and empowered the people in our whole facility towards the objectives we need to accomplish. The concepts have really served as motivation tools and closed the gap between management and the line workers.” - Vincente Trellis Vice President, Surgical Operations, Allergan “Our success rests in our strong culture developed over the years. Our recent addition of new cultural language, i.e., “Above The Line, Below The Line” from The Oz Principle Accountability Training has enabled our company to be more aligned and riveted us on the targeted results.” - Richard Methany Director, Human Resources Friday’s Hospitality Worldwide “The Oz Principle eloquently captures the secret to overcoming obstacles and achieving success. It is filled with practical insights essential to the personal and organizational journey of getting results. The book explains an enduring principle that will long outlive the supposed wizardry of the many management fads that melt away with time. I would personally recommend this book to everyone who has tired of wizards and who is anxious to get results.” - Dorothy Browning of Kansas ABOUT THE AUTHORS Roger Connors and Thomas Smith are the principals and founders of Partners In Leadership, LLC, a leadership and management consult- ing firm that has implemented The Oz PrincipleSM in organizations of all sizes, including Fortune 500 companies and small “start-ups.” After receiving their MBAs from Brigham Young University, they have spent the last nine years pioneering the implementation of the principles embodied in The Oz Principle in a broad array of industries ranging from health care to financial services. They have assisted over 100 clients in ten different countries in implementing The Oz Principle at all levels in their organizations. Their varied experience in assisting senior management teams in creating greater accountab- ility in organizations have made them leaders in the struggle of coming to grips with how to create empowerment, employee involve- ment, continuous improvement, and a culture that fosters accountab- ility. They are authors of the forthcoming book Journey to the Emerald City: Achieving a Competitive Edge by Creating a Culture of Account- ability. Craig Hickman is the best-selling author of The Strategy Game; Mind of a Manager, Soul of a Leader; Creating Excellence; The Future 500; and Practical Business Genius. His work has been featured in USA Today, Business Week, The New York Times, Industry Week, Nation’s Business, and Training & Development. A leading business thinker today, he holds an MBA with honors from the Harvard Busi- ness School. PREFACE In a relatively short space of time, American businesses have moved to new ground, downsizing, flattening, empowering, team-working, liberating, knowledge-basing, networking, quality-imbuing, continu- ously-improving, process-mapping, transforming, and reengineering their enterprises for the 21st century. For some companies such as General Electric and Motorola the improvements have proved remark- able. For too many others, however, the bewildering array of current success formulas, both theoretical and practical, seems overwhelming or foolish because no one has accurately identified what’s really at the core of a GE’s or a Motorola’s results. We attempt to identify that core in The Oz Principle. Whether you’re attempting to reengineer, reinvent, or revitalize your organization, one vital ingredient always determines the success or failure of such efforts: individual and joint accountability for res- ults. In the last three paragraphs of the book, Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will: How Jack Welch is Making General Electric The World’s Most Competitive Company, Jack Welch, himself, attempts a final explanation of what’s really needed for success: “I think any company that’s trying to play in the 1990s has got to find a way to engage the mind of every single employee. Whether we make our way successfully down this road is something only time will tell - but I’m sure this is the right road. “If you’re not thinking all the time about making every person more valuable, you don’t have a chance. What’s the alternative? Wasted minds? Uninvolved people? A labor force that’s angry or bored? That doesn’t make sense! “If you’ve got a better way, show me. I’d love to know what it is.” For now, we believe there is no better way. Only when people in organizations overcome the illusionary trap of victimization and en- ROGER CONNORS • TOM SMITH • CRAIG HICKMAN vision 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, so they can move their organizations to ever greater heights. We hope you enjoy and gain real value from this new journey through Oz. Roger Connors Thomas Smith Craig Hickman viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS At the outset, we must first acknowledge what may appear to some as obvious, that we are not the originators of the principle of account- ability - a principle that has been around for centuries. Through our varied experiences in business, and in life, we have gained an understanding of this universal and time-tested principle. There have been many on our continuing road to understanding that have helped shape what we have come to know as perhaps one of the most impactful principles of success. These influences include the examples of our parents, the profound questions clients ask during an engagement, the lessons taught by fellow workers, the principles learned through our faith, and the experiences gained in working to create greater accountability in organizations.