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

by Roger Connors, Tom Smith

Connors and Smith explore the direct link between a company's culture and the results it produces, providing a program to transform entrenched patterns into potent new ways of being and doing. Getting to the core of why people work as they do is a dynamic process demanding that leaders take control of the culture to create experiences that foster beliefs, drive actions, and produce the ultimate competitive advantage. Filled with success stories, the book introduces a step by step model to help people at any level of the organization take action that will alter the company's belief system in order to produce the desired results.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Business Leadership, Reference

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

Reviews

[Bob Wallner · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can you learn about a culture of accountability from The Wizard of Oz? Apparently quite a bit!

I truly loved this audiobook.

First off I would like to start by saying Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies of all time for a host of reasons, but I never thought of it as a business parable. When I picked up this audiobook I thought it was going to be a fable loosely based on The Wizard of Oz. I could not have been more wrong. This small audiobook, only 3 hours long, uses a very well known story as a metaphor for creating a culture of accountability.

There were a couple audio glitches in editing, but other than that the narrator and the story were all excellent.

This book is definitely geared towards a high level of management. Discussing many of the strategies that will help create a culture of accountability. Anyone involved with changing a culture can glean some good from this book.

I have never read The Oz Principle but the author reviews it briefly, and it seems to be about personal accountability. l think to fully understand Journey to the Emerald City, I need to read The Oz Principle then reread Journey... I might even have to read The Wizard of Oz.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book, kind of ties all of the Oz books together to implement the necessary culture change in an organization to help it reach the results it wants. Really well written and most importantly actionable, highly recommend it.

[Julia Wood]

HD58.7 .C666 2002

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another business book cut from the same pointless cloth as all the others. The authors extol basic common sense, add the right amount of MBA terminology and tact on several phrases that they can copyright and voila - business book for the masses. The basic premise of this book is that often when companies seek new results, it will entail creating a new culture. In order to create a new culture the authors suggest that employees beliefs will have to be shifted. In order to shift beliefs, leaders will have to provide experiences through their actions that will shape those beliefs. Rocket science. I think one could have summed up this whole book by saying, "If you want to change your corporate culture, putting up a poster is not enough, you have to walk the talk and get out and show your staff that you really mean what you are saying."

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ JAN 2015

Excellent companion to The Oz Principle. Best quotes, "Clear results {lead} to clear action...murky results create failure." (pgs 64-65); "people who give or receive feedback in the context of 'perspectives being shared,' rather than 'truth being declared,' tend to manifest greater openness" (p. 155).

[Jana]

This is a book about changing cultures, which is an applicable concept in many contexts.

[Jacki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and obvious rather than trendy and gimmicky.

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on human resources for knowledge workers and entrepreneurs.

[Michael Waller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuation of the OZ series, provides more insights toward corporate improvements.

[Gatot Widayanto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on corporate culture - a culture of accountability.