Customer Reviews

Journey to the Emerald City: Achieve a Competitive Edge by Creating a Culture of Accountability

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Many business books are a form of utopian literature and should be treated as such. Given this premise, one would think that a book with a title like "Journey to the Emerald City" would be a top-notch business book as it suggests the authors might have a certain awareness of this genre.

Unfortunately, this in not the case here. Instead, this is yet another entry in the "book as selling tool" sweepstakes. In this sub-genre of the business book, the book is the foot-in-the-door for selling consulting services. Little more than a powerpoint presentation fleshed out with the usual miscellaneous facts and figures, these books are short on everything but jargon. They offer middle managers cozy, self-evident insights and simplistic advice that most company employees find insulting or at least insipid. (Around our office, the charts in the first chapter that show "non-aligned" and "aligned" processes and goals are considered a fine example of this facile and fallacious sub-genre as they keenly demonstrate the obvious in the most obvious fashion possible.)

Business books are not known for their sense of humor, certainly, because as we all know, business is extraordinarily serious. Yet, lack of wit and self-awareness are not virtures either. Nor is the plodding purposefulness with which the authors describe their "innovative" approach, although again, they are clearly in good company in this genre.

A shame really, especially since clearly the publishers felt strongly enough about the book to spend some extra bucks on shiny green foil on the jacket. Then again, perhaps the title is more apt than I take it to be. Like in the Wizard of Oz, we find there is no wizard behind the flashy curtain and special effects, but rather the usual seller of snake oil.

For me, the authors wrote a solid "how to" book on developing a culture within an organization that gets results. Practical and easily understood approaches to fashioning cultural change for achieving results are presented point by point within the pages of this work. For example, several issues addressed are:
-exposing the fallacy of activities for the sake of activities with no appreciable results
-recognizing that every organization has a culture and how to transition that culture into one of effective accomplishment and results-oriented accountability at every level and with every member of the organization
-conveying an agenda on how to make that transition and sustain the new results-oriented culture

It is all here in understandable and ready-to-apply form. While the authors don't pretend that this work to change culture is simple or can be accomplished overnight, they do provide a very focused and forthright view of what is important to work on and maintain as progress is made.

If your organization could be achieving better results or needs to meet promised goals, this is an easy read that contains critical ideas, notions and concepts on how to get there fast.

I am a bank manager for a large corporation. We have a great culture established so I purchased this book not to learn how to change our corporate culture but that of my banking center. I am only about half way through the book at this point but I had to get on here and say that this is one of the most impressive books I have purchased in a long time!

I would say if you are looking at ways to impact your team and develop a culture of accountability this book is exactly what you need. It does cover some things that just make sense but other things are able to be implemented immediately for improvement. My team has noticed the difference in my leadership style as a result. We have to hold them accountable but how do we do it in a way that is effective and not offensive? This is covered.

One of the first things that were an "AHA" for me was regarding how we get results out of people. I have always thought we just need to impact behaviors to get the results we were searching for. The authors suggest a more in depth model. They suggest that it has four levels - First, Experience (create experiences that will enforce the desired behaviors); Second, Beliefs (once they have an experience it creates beliefs); Third, Actions (if they believe something then they will put it into action); Finally, Results (when the actions are what is desired the desired results will follow). Too many times we increase goals to get certain results BUT we forget to move the experiences, beliefs and actions in the same direction. There is so much more!

In 1998, the authors wrote The Oz Principle around the concept that "an organization will perform at its highest potential if, and only if, each of its members assumes personal accountability for achieving its results." Thus, Conners and Smith emphasize a corporate culture that is based on personal accountability, with leaders, goals, tasks, teams, and every aspect of organizational life connected to that theme.

I will admit to being put off by the title and the cover. Wizard of Oz? Dorothy and her red shoes? The Cowardly Lion? Do I have time for fables and games? There are some mentions of Frank Baum's classic, some quotes, and some relationships like explaining that managers don't have magic. Overall, however, this book is a solid management book on changing organizational culture. And that's a vital issue for a lot of companies today.

The book is organized into three sections whose titles give good insight into the value and flow of the text: Understanding Company Culture, Shifting to a New Culture, and Accelerating Culture Change. The ten chapters explain the concepts and a process for moving forward in an organized, results-oriented fashion. The book is filled with practical approaches that can open a company to achievements that have been trapped inside by a dysfunctional culture. The key is accountability that starts at the top of the organization with an open and complete style of leadership. No games: communication.

The authors show us how to change the way people think and act. They show how to get people involved in a positive way so transformation can occur. Culture change is a journey, a journey that can be taken at an agonizingly slow pace, a normal flow (whatever that is), or moved to a higher level of velocity and enthusiasm. Graphics and an index enhance the book's value, which is far beyond the connection to the Oz story.

You'll learn from consultants who have "been there" and achieved results. The knowledge you gain will enable you to achieve some change in your organization based on what these men have learned and share in this book.

Journey to the Emerald City has been a very good read. We live in a time that no one wants to take responsibility for themselves or their work. As this book brings to light we lose so many rewards that praticing accountability brings to our lives.

Creating a culture of accountability has a whole new meaning for me, now that I have read this book, which in my mind is THE book on accountability out there. I learned a tremendous amount and through applying it to my everyday life and interations I have seen amazing results. The Oz guys know accountability!

Read the book and then had the training and really enjoyed it. The book made sense to me and taught concepts that can be applied universally. The key concept they focused on was accountability. The way they talked about accountability and the power that it can have caused me to have a personal paradigm shift, because I had always related accountability with something negative. The way they talk about accountability makes me want to be more accountable in my life and help my co-workers to become more accountable as well, because if we do this there is no doubt in my mind that we will be able to be more effective.

This book focuses so well on achieving results as a company or "Culture". The idea behind the principles in this book are so simple and have been thought out with such simplicity. Using the Results Pyramid model can change the mind set of any culture, which does help to achieve the results that are most desired! This book was incredibly easy for me to comprehend and grasp the terms presented. Too often business books can be tiring, but this one was intriguing throughout the entire book. This Book was beneficial for me to read and apply in our culture! Journey has helped our company to make the shifts necessary to achieve our true potential. It is a must read!

The concepts outlined in "Journey" have really helped the company I work for recognize where we have needed to change. It is so true that experiences create beliefs and beliefs create actions that inevitably effect the results of our organizations. When peoples' hearts and minds get involved in the cause, the sky is the limit! I've seen our sales increase this year tremendously due to the alignment of the goals and ownernership that everyone has taken. You can just feel the excitment in the air. Everyone knows what the goals are, why we have them, and when they need to be achieved.

I found Journey to the Emerald City to be a book that really gets to the nuts and bolts of shifting an organization to a performance-driven culture. There are a lot of books on organizational culture out there that are really more fluff than anything else. Most books give conceptual examples of how to improve performance, but there are no tools and real life application to make the ideas into reality, not to mention to make them sustainable. Journey to the Emerald City outlines the process of shifting an organization's culture based on experiences, beliefs and actions, instead of just focusing on telling people what to do. The book explains that an organization cannot continue with "Culture One" if it wants to produce "Results Two". This book is simple, yet powerful.