The Oz Principle - Deepstash
The Oz Principle

The Oz Principle

Roger Connors, Tom Smith, Craig Hickman

10 ideas

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746 reads

9

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The Oz Principle: The Premise

Itโ€™s a lot easier to preach accountability than to practice it.

Accountability is, if not a magic solution to everything, certainly a solution to many things. Business books are full of examples of companies that hit serious difficulties because people refused to take the steps to accountability.

People donโ€™t see what they donโ€™t want to see and miss the cues in the early stages, leading to million dollar fiascos later on.

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246 reads

A Self-Diagnosis

To discern when you or your organization are slipping below the line between achievement and a dead-end, ask yourself:

  • Do you feel that you have little or no control over your circumstances?
  • Do you listen when people tell you that you are not doing all you could be doing?
  • Do you blame other people? Are you defensive?
  • When discussing the problem, do you talk more about why you canโ€™t do something instead of finding solutions?
  • Do you avoid situations that require you to report on your responsibilities?

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113 reads

The Six-Stage Victim Cycle

  • Companies ignore or deny the problem.
  • They dodge responsibility.
  • They blame others.
  • They wait for some higher power to provide orders.
  • They focus on protecting themselves and โ€˜cover their tailโ€™.
  • They adopt the wait and watch approach and see if the problem will go away on its own.

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87 reads

Being Accountable

At many organizations, โ€œaccountabilityโ€ really means โ€œblame.โ€

People only hear about accountability when something sinks, blows up or crashes. When everything is great, no one asks whoโ€™s accountable for the success. It is a personal choice to rise above oneโ€™s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results. Accountability includes success, not just failure.

All too often people view unhappy circumstances as accidents of chance; yet when they find themselves in more pleasant circumstances, they automatically take credit for a job well done.

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53 reads

The Spirit Of True Accountability

People who are imbued with a spirit of accountability will:

  • Ask for constructive criticism and candid feedback.
  • Demand the truth even when it hurts and face facts, no matter how scary or nasty.
  • Donโ€™t waste time or energy on things you cannot control or influence.
  • Commit yourself 100% to what you are doing, and if your commitment begins to wane, strive to rekindle it.
  • Take full ownership of their work and its results.
  • Enjoy responsibility for what happens.
  • Always ask yourself, โ€œWhat else can I do?โ€

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49 reads

The First Step: See The Problem

When people lack courage โ€“ think of the timid lion in The Wizard of Oz โ€“ they donโ€™t fail to see problems; they deliberately refuse to see problems out of fear. What they canโ€™t see, they canโ€™t solve. Therefore, in their cowardly minds, they are not responsible or accountable. Now, think how laughable their evasions and excuses really are. Instead, do as the cowardly lion did: Get some courage.

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46 reads

The Second Step: Own The Problem

People in an organization who see a problem and take responsibility for fixing it are golden. People who reject accountability do nothing. If you have ever seen yourself as the victim of a terrible injustice, reflect on that experience and ask yourself:

  • What did you know to be true and that you simply closed your eyes to?
  • If you were in the same circumstances again, what would you change?
  • What warnings were flashing?
  • What did the experience teach you that you could have used but did not?
  • Why were you responsible? What did you commit or omit?

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35 reads

The Third Step: Solve The Problem

How do you know a problem when you see it? The most dangerous unresolved problems organizations face are:ย Poor communication, people development, empowerment, misalignment, entitlement, work and personal life imbalance, poor performance, senior management development, and cross-functional strife.

Exercise your leadership, wisdom and prudence to distinguish what needs to be done from what does not. Wasting time on unnecessary action takes away time that you need to spend acting effectively.

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33 reads

Our Solve-It Skillsets

  • โ€œStay engagedโ€ โ€“ Be awake and focus on the possible.
  • โ€œPersistโ€ โ€“ Hang in there stubbornly until you have it right.
  • โ€œThink differentlyโ€ โ€“ Look for strange and shockingly different points of view.
  • โ€œCreate new linkagesโ€ โ€“ Build new and unfamiliar relationships.
  • โ€œTake initiativeโ€ โ€“ Go first; donโ€™t wait for someone else.
  • โ€œStay consciousโ€ โ€“ Get involved and stay involved.

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40 reads

The Final Step: Do It

Leaders must apply these principles to themselves and to their organizations. Intervention, itself, is risky. Leaving the team to figure things out for itself is important, but it can also be a way of shirking leadership responsibility.ย 

Try to fulfill this checklist of leadership characteristics:

  • Act accountably, the way you want your staff members to act.
  • Tolerate occasional โ€œbelow the lineโ€ statements. Recognize that your team members sometimes have to deal with frustration.ย 
  • Know a dodge when you see it and an evasion when you hear it.
  • Make people accountable in order to empower them.

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44 reads

CURATED BY

jebarr

Copywriter in advertising

CURATOR'S NOTE

Getting Results Through Individual And Organizational Accountability

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