accountability

The Oz Principle: Getting Results through Individual and Organizational Accountability
$25.95
The Oz Principle chronicles the journey from victimization to accountability, a journey which is desperately needed in the work world today. For this I applaud the authors in their successful endeavors to raise this issue and bring it to light. Self-awareness is the truest path to overcoming. I have been in management for 38 years, and I have seen the victim mentality in others as well as in myself. This slavish mentality is crippling and needs to be transcended.

However, I also have a BA in philosophy, which I received at the young age of 21, and I have continued to study it. The journey of which The Oz Principle speaks is nothing new. This journey inspired and was undertaken by most philosophical, religious, and historical traditions of the West, starting with Abraham when he heard his name called. The road from victimization to emancipation, whether traveled by Moses on the exodus to the Promised Land or by Martin Luther King Jr. on the marches to civil rights, has been one manifestation of this mythical and primordial task. The road from victimization at the hands of the British Crown to political freedom, as witnessed in the writings of Thomas Payne, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, is another. The list goes on: From the victimization of mere opinion to the freedom of knowledge as described by the Allegory of the Cave in Plato's Republic. From victimization to salvation as found in the Epistles of Saint Paul. From being trapped and ruled by hidden memories and fears inside the unconscious to the bright, open expanse of self-awareness uncovered by psychoanalysis, initially heralded by Sigmund Freud. The journey becomes even more crystalized in Aristotle's portrayal of the Magnanimous Man and in Nietzsche's Overman. The Oz Principle cannot hold a candle to these great historical and literary movements.

The best summary of this hero's journey, for it is a hero who makes the leap out of victimization, is Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces." Campbell breaks down the leap from victimization to authenticity into several stages. Among them are the call to adventure, the refusal of the call, the crossing of the first threshold, the belly of the whale, the road of trials, the ultimate boon, the refusal of the return, the crossing of the return threshold, and the freedom to live.

The greatest difference, however, between The Oz Principle and these other lives and works is that none of these others attempted to copyright this universal experience. I don't recall Martin Luther King Jr. ever trying to copyright the expression "We shall overcome," or "I have a dream today." Yet The Oz Principle is embarrassingly filled with short italicized phrases with a copyright "c" after them. Examples are Steps to Accountability, Below the Line, Above the Line, See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It. It's a good thing they didn't put the word "just" in front of "do it," or Nike might be suing them.

Socrates, the greatest thinker of the West and a self proclaimed philosopher, spent inordinate time differentiating himself from the sophists, who were speakers and writers who sold their knowledge for money. The sophists claimed to have the secret to life for a fee. Socrates never took any money, but he liberated many more people, and not just in his own time either. He knew that this universal human journey did not belong to just one man. He never passed the basket around after his sermons.

Returning from my philosophical journey and re-opening my eyes within the shadows of my managerial career, I fully recognize that I live in the 21st Century where capitalism rules, and rules rightfully so. Corporations create efficiencies, and six and a half billion people could not live without those efficiencies. The authors of The Oz Principle have a right to earn a living. So I recommend that you buy the book, if you are in management. In fact, I recommend it even if you are a union worker who believes himself victimized by corporations. I also recommend you attend the authors' seminars. Just remember that their road is only a small part of the human journey, a human journey that shall one day transcend and overcome the 21st Century. If the human journey is an ocean, The Oz Principle rations it with an eye drop.

In his famous play, Shakespeare, through his character Hamlet, asks "whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" (victimization) "or to take arms against a sea of trouble and by opposing end them" (taking control of one's own life). Yet "Hamlet" is a tragedy, which shows what is really at stake in this human journey. Certainly Martin Luther King Jr. did not have a happy ending to his personal life, although his crusade continues to inspire generations. Socrates was put to death by the Athenian democracy who tired of his calling citizens to task and to responsibility. Acknowledging and consenting to one's own death is a necessary part of the hero's journey. This acknowledging and consenting is not possible for a corporation, because it is not flesh and blood. Of all the examples that exist in the history of the West, the authors of this book choose "The Wizard of Oz," a children's fantasy with a happy ending. Choosing fantasy over tragedy is not just a sign of this book. Perhaps it is a sign of our times, and points to our inability to overcome the 21st Century.

With its copyrighting and its seminars, the Oz Principle exemplifies the wizard, a sophist in his own right, more than it teaches us about Dorothy or any of her friends. The wizard plays a part but ultimately is a comical figure, trying to just hold on and find a place for himself, much like the rest of us. He refuses to confront his own death, and he refuses to deal with the scariest danger confronting his age and his dominion. He leaves it to those who take a deeper ownership of their lives, an ownership that is not possible through copyrighting.

Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise
$19.99
ISBN 1439100020 - In all fairness, I have to admit upfront that I dislike Tavis Smiley with a passion. That isn't nice and maybe isn't fair, but it's reality and I don't mention it to bash the man, but to inform anyone who reads this review in the interest of full disclosure.

Personal stories are centered around major issues of our time, from health care to the environment and everything in between. At the end of each chapter, there is a checklist of questions.

The content is timely, certainly. The personal stories are often close to home. The problems I have with the books are twofold. The first is that the style and what the book (inadvertently, perhaps) suggests is that you're an idiot. It would make an excellent tool for an eighth or ninth grade civics class, but it doesn't bring much to the table for a reasonably aware, and reasonably educated, adult. Interestingly, the book had the potential for a long, healthy shelf-life, but that was killed by the almost too-timeliness of it; in a very short period of time, the contents will be so dated as to be utterly useless other than as a historical record (a purpose already well-filled by the internet).

My second issue is with the author, though not on a personal level. I find that it strikes me as questionable that Smiley, whose first two books in this "series" were aimed strictly at a black readership, suddenly has an interest in communicating with a broader audience. While I can't prove that it means anything, Smiley has been involved in at least two instances in the past few years that might have turned a portion of the black population against him. Perhaps this is a factor in the abrupt attempt to broaden his audience. Whatever the reason, I can't help thinking that there's more to this than the apparent "we're all in this together" idea that Smiley puts forth and that I'm just not buying from a guy whose career, to this point, has been all about speaking to a single race.

- AnnaLovesBooks

Keeping Employees Accountable for Results: Quick Tips for Busy Managers
$17.95
Whenever a business author uses as an acronym for the structure of a book, I cringe, this author uses two. It is a basic primer on SMART goals and it does try to offer a step by step guide to creating effective employee goals. The book is easy to read.

However this book is too easy to read, each step is almost self-explanatory, and further explanation of the SIMPLE process is filler. There are no practical guides for determining goals. This is a book that tells you what goals should be and should not be. But if you know SMART you know this book.

QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life
$19.95
I learned a long time ago, the value of a book is not determined by it's size (QBQ is only 115 pages), nor by how long it takes to read (QBQ can be read in about an hour), and not even by the number pages where you make notes in the margins (my copy of QBQ is only marked on a few pages) but the real value of a book should be determined by what you learn from it. When I finish a book, I ask myself, Will I grow from what I've learned? Was the time I invested here well spent? How will I alter what I do because of this book? My personal creed is to be a better person today than I was yesterday, so the most important question is, will I become a better person because of this book?

QBQ: THE QUESTION BEHIND THE QUESTION, by John G. Miller passed all of my criteria for being a "must read" type book. The primary message here is two-fold; personal accountability and ask better questions to get better answers. Sounds simple right? Let me give you a real life example to expand the principle.

I recently had a store manager and her entire staff out with the flu and pulled personnel from other stores to fill in. It turned into one giant fiasco when the stores printer went down, their operating software went down. And even the fax quit working. It was a perfect storm and the mistakes that took place were colossal.

My initial questions included "Who is responsible", "Why did you do this", and "When will I ever find capable people?" Had I read this book a few weeks earlier, my questions would have been much different. What can I do to prevent something like this from ever happening again? Or, How can I use this to improve our training program?

We live in a "finger-pointing" world. We put more focus on placing blame (or protecting ourselves from it) than on finding solutions. To find those solutions without placing blame, our questions should begin with "What" or "How" (not "Why", "When", or "Who"). To reinforce personal accountability, our questions should contain "I" (not "they", "them", "we", or "you"). Finally, our question must focus on action. "What can I do" is a perfect example.

Yes, the book is small. Yes, it only takes about an hour to read. Yes, you really do need to read it.