Rating: 
Summary: Keep it in the boardrooms
Review: I was interested in what this book had to say up until reading of the examples which pertain very little to me or my work. Our company started the implementation process (yes, you can buy workbooks!) and I was startled by the lack of accountability this book encourages. The process of responsibility only goes up in this book, and the examples it provides deal primarily with management. The principles of feedback and coaching are important, but I can't see myself, a wage slave, being any more accountable than I already am. So if you're thinking of buying this book, buy it for yourself and don't foist it upon your company like my bosses did.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a MUST for anyone that wants results, not excuses!
Review: I've read a lot of "how to" books on goal setting and managment, but this cuts to the chase and doesn't leave any room for whinning. It is easy to read and the examples are real life that hit very close to where you live/work! It is now required reading for all of our new employees. They might as well know what we expect from the very beginning!
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful!
Review: If you are looking for a simple guide to a complex business and career problem, preferably a guide based on children's literature, this is for you. The consultant authors believe that a "victim" culture, consisting mainly of refusal to accept accountability, is one of the gravest problems facing businesses in general and business people in particular. The victim culture stalls organizations and individual careers. Therefore, this book offers a guide to overcoming your personal victim culture through various self-help techniques, and to overcoming organizational victim cultures by related managerial practices. We understand and advocates personal and corporate accountability, the underlying theme of the book. And if the Oz metaphor is, perhaps, a little stretched here, just go with it. The advice is sound enough. Then, like Dorothy, the tin man, the lion and the scarecrow, you, too, can journey down the Yellow Brick Road to a magic kingdom where your every wish will be granted. What more can you ask for in a business book?
Rating:
Summary: Manager
Review: In my years of attempting to implement performance strategies, I've found few processes that foster consistency, buy-in, and results like the Oz Principle. This common-sense approach to achieving individual, departmental, or organizational accountability allows all employees to get on the same page in pursuing the course and ultimately arriving at full accountability. It's a must read and a must do!
Rating:
Summary: Revised, Updated, and Invaluable
Review: 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."
Rating:
Summary: Elevate with Accountability
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Personal Accountability = Moving Beyond Excuses
Review: 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:
Summary: Shows how to harness the drive human nature
Review: The collaborative work of management consulting experts Roger Connors and Tom Smith, with the assistance of author Craig Hickman, The Oz Principles: Getting Results Through Individual And Organizational Accountability is now available in a substantially revised and newly updated edition. Drawing upon concepts, characters, and scenarios from the classic "The Wizard Of Oz" authors Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman offer crucial lessons for facing the challenges of the modern business world. The importance of accountability, both individual and collective, cannot be understated; The Oz Principle shows how to harness the drive human nature to claim achievements and live up to greater heights for effective financial success.
Rating:
Summary: Accountability
Review: This book points directly at the root cause of most problems organizations have, ourselves. This book will convict those in the victim cycle to take accountability for their actions.
Rating: 
Summary: Who supports this?
Review: This would work a lot better if management supported it.
Nowadays you hear:
You have identified the problem, now go do something else.
We don't care what you think and if you don't like it you can tell my boss.
You get accused of making excuses when you don't have the support, position or authority to carry out the solution.
You get told not to question or ask why things are done this way.
You get an extreme negative reaction if you try to help define a successful process for everyone.(Someone feels threatened).
Etc...
Unless someone understands what is really going on and helps move things forward in a positive manner this just turns into a stick to hit an employee with, without positive results.
Probably a better book for this day and age is 'The Portable Coach'.
OZ may have a chance with good leadership and management. However that seems hard to find these days. Without good leadership and management, OZ is a fantasy land.
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