{"id":50936,"date":"2021-10-04T08:50:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T12:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=50936"},"modified":"2021-10-11T14:26:02","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T18:26:02","slug":"the-oz-principle-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-oz-principle-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Oz Principle: Review, Background, and Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is The Oz Principle<\/em> worth reading? What does the story of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz<\/em> have to do with leadership? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their book The Oz Principle,<\/em> authors Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman use the story of The Wizard of Oz<\/em> to show how being accountable for your successes and challenges is the key to improving results on both an individual and organizational level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This The Oz Principle<\/em> review takes a look at the book’s impact, background, and key strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

About the Authors <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Roger Connors and Tom Smith are the founders of the consulting firm Partners in Leadership<\/a>. They’ve worked with numerous companies to improve cultures and practices around accountability, and The Oz Principle<\/em> contains many anecdotes about how their clients overcame workplace issues<\/a>. They co-authored two other New York Times<\/em> bestselling management books: How Did That Happen?<\/em><\/a> and Change the Culture, Change the Game<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third author, Craig Hickman, is a prolific writer as well; his works include Creating Excellence<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Results Revolution<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>and other nonfiction titles, but he also delved into thrillers with The Insiders<\/em><\/a> <\/em>and its sequel. He’s a regional vice president at Partners in Leadership and was previously the CEO of Headwaters Technology Innovation Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Book\u2019s Publication<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Oz Principle<\/em><\/a> was first published in 1994 by Portfolio<\/a>, an imprint of Penguin Random House<\/a>. According to PRH, it has sold almost 600,000 copies; a revised version was released in 2004, 10 years after its initial publication. The updated version includes a preface and an acknowledgements page thanking the readers who helped The Oz Principle <\/em>succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Book\u2019s Impact<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to Partners in Leadership<\/a>, The Oz Principle<\/em> was a New York Times<\/em>, Wall Street Journal<\/em>, and Publisher’s Weekly<\/em> bestseller, and the president and publisher at Portfolio described it in 2009 as among their top five bestselling books in the Leadership and Performance categories, year after year, since 1994. Companies<\/a> conduct workshops based on the book\u2019s ideas, and universities<\/a> teach it in business courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Book\u2019s Strengths and Weaknesses<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Critical reviews state that the book is repetitive, and that its message is too simple. Some people feel the book could have been much shorter, that it\u2019s boring, that there are too many examples, and that its advice isn’t specific enough. Lastly, some reviews characterize The Oz Principle<\/em> as, essentially, corporate propaganda designed to convince employees to take the blame for any unhappiness they feel at work rather than criticizing the failings of their supervisors and their company\u2019s culture. However, other readers find the book’s ideas empowering, logical, and easy to understand. They like that the principles were relevant to all parts of their lives, not just work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Oz Principle<\/em> reviews do raise valid points; the book is <\/em>repetitive, but many people find its ideas clear and relevant to their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commentary on the Book\u2019s Approach<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Oz Principle <\/em>is split into three parts\u2014the first introduces the problem (having a victim mentality), the second offers guidelines for addressing it, and the third provides suggestions for applying those solutions on an organizational scale. Anecdotes about the trials and triumphs of various companies, some of which the authors worked with and others they didn\u2019t, make up the bulk of the book\u2019s content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inclusion of client anecdotes, with frequent emphasis on how The Oz Principle<\/em>\u2019s ideas enabled them to overcome their problems, at times make the book sound like an advertisement for itself. However, the anecdotes illustrate the book\u2019s sometimes abstract ideas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is The Oz Principle worth reading? What does the story of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz have to do with leadership? In their book The Oz Principle, authors Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman use the story of The Wizard of Oz to show how being accountable for your successes and challenges is the key to improving results on both an individual and organizational level. This The Oz Principle review takes a look at the book’s impact, background, and key strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,458,43],"tags":[511],"class_list":["post-50936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-review","category-self-improvement","tag-the-oz-principle","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Oz Principle: Review, Background, and Impact - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Oz Principle examines the role of accountability in business success. 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