By all measurements, Berkshire Hathaway’s performance has been nothing short of amazing. What’s the company’s secret? There is no doubt whatsoever about what matters most: beating the S&P index by investing in the right businesses and trusting talented management with operating decisions. Berkshire Hathaway owns a diverse range of service, manufacturing, retailing and food businesses, including property and casualty insurance, carpet, bricks and concrete blocks, clothing, retailing, diamonds, flight training, newspapers, candy, farm equipment, consumer finance, industrial coatings, restaurants, engineering software, furniture retailing and leasing, footwear and more. The company’s operating culture is simple: operating decisions are made by managers of the business units.  Berkshire Hathaway claims to have superior CEOs running its businesses, while investment decisions and all other capital allocation decisions are made by Chairman Warren Buffet in consultation with Vice Chairman Charles Munger.

Berkshire Hathaway’s investment/acquisition criteria further clarify what matters most: “1) large purchases—at least $50 million of before tax earnings; 2) demonstrated consistent earning power—future projections are of no interest to us, neither are turnaround situations; 3) businesses earning good returns on equity while employing little or no debt; 4) management in place—we can’t supply it; 5) simple businesses—if there’s lots of technology, we won’t understand it; 6) an offering price—we don’t want to waste our time or that of the seller by talking, even preliminarily, about a transaction when price is unknown.”

Yes, what matters most is perfectly clear to Berkshire Hathaway’s operating managers, acquisition candidates, and shareholders. What about your organization? Do you know what matters most? Can you write it down and get a majority of the people in your organization to agree? If not, join our Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com, to learn more about how to clarify what matters most in your organization.

Accountability Community is a registered trademark of Partners In Leadership Inc.

With millions of employees and hundreds of billions in revenue, Wal-Mart manages to share ideas of every kind at every level in its organization. At weekly merchandise meetings employees, called associates, are encouraged to share their ideas openly and with passion. Every idea counts and is taken into consideration. On Saturdays there’s more sharing of ideas, information, and knowledge, along with informal entertainment. Every day in the stores, associates are encouraged to look incessantly for ways to improve the operation. Sam Walton’s legacy of rules, ten of them, still guides the global retailer; here are two of them that address idea-sharing:

• Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners. The more they know, the more they’ll understand. The more they understand, the more they’ll care. Once they care, there’s no stopping them. If you don’t trust your Associates to know what’s going on, they’ll know you don’t really consider them partners.

• Listen to everyone in your company. Figure out ways to get them talking. The folks on the front lines—the ones who actually talk to the customer—are the only ones who really know what’s going on out there. You’d better find out what they know.

Sharing ideas of every kind at every level is a way of life at Wal-Mart and the results are obvious. Not only has Wal-Mart revolutionized the retailing industry, it has become a model of successful management throughout the world. Without question, sharing ideas openly and actively throughout an organization is one of the best ways to build accountability, commitment, and greater collaboration.

Are ideas, information, and knowledge shared actively and readily within your organization? To learn more about turbo-charging the exchange of ideas throughout your organization, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com.

Accountability Community is a registered trademark of Partners In leadership Inc.

Consider Procter & Gamble, a company that regularly graces Fortune’s most admired company list. Through ups and downs, this well-known consumer products company has maintained the respect of millions of people throughout the world. One of the main reasons is P&G’s own profound respect for individuals. Flowing from P&G’s purpose to “Provide branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s consumers” are key principles and values of the Procter & Gamble culture and work environment. These principles are as follows: 1. We show respect for all individuals; 2. The interests of the company and the individual are inseparable; 3. We are strategically focused on our work; 4. Innovation is the cornerstone of our success; 5. We are externally focused; 6. We value personal mastery; 7.We seek to be the best; and 8. Mutual interdependency is a way of life.

One of the important benefits of taking accountability for respecting individuals and their individuality is an unusually high level of trust that facilitates astonishingly open and candid discussions about mistakes, learning, failures, and how to foster improvement. Think about it. “See It” is the first step Above The Line. To learn more about how to build greater respect for individuals and individuality in your organization, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com.

On February 16, 2012, Partners In Leadership brings you a new suite of training curriculum for The Oz Principle Self Track Training, including the new Implementation Tools Website and a newly revised participant workbook that is fully integrated with the new website. Click here for a sneak peak of the newly designed workbook.

These cutting edge tools include the first-of-its-kind website designed solely for clients to enhance their skill in implementing greater accountability for results into their daily work. And the best news: every workshop participant receives free access to the new PILTools.com website.*

Sustainability just got even easier with access to guided tutorials that walk you step-by-step through the workshop curriculum. Use the tutorials when you want and as often as you want.* The tutorials will help you apply the principles and practices of greater accountability in your daily work to overcome the challenges you face and to solve the problems you encounter.

Better results are just around the corner with the new Implementation Tools website. At your fingertips are: client best practices; practical self, team and 360° assessments; expert practitioner advice; case studies; original research; celebrity interviews; relevant video content; and a wealth of other resources never before available.

We are excited to be the first in the industry to bring you this type of new offering to enhance your training experience. Now, The Oz Principle Self Track Training will be an even more powerful tool in the hands of everyone looking to create greater accountability for achieving results.

Mark the date on your calendar and schedule your workshop with a Partners In Leadership expert facilitator—February 16th will be a “Sweet 16!”

*Free access is for a 45-day period from the date of initial login to the website. Extended access is available per the pricing schedule, provided upon request.

The Oz Principle is a registered trademark of Partners In Leadership Inc.  Self Track is a trademark of Partners In Leadership Inc.

Nestlé Purina’s pet food division applied these principles to cut the market introduction of its new EZ-Open Can by more than a year. Facing multiple obstacles—such as overcoming cross-functional boundaries, getting everyone on the same page, designing the special lid, installing new handling equipment, meeting an overwhelming volume push, maintaining quality, and integrating everything into the company’s supply system—the division set a powerful example for the rest of the company and was given the prestigious Pillars of Excellence Award by Nestlé CEO Pat McGinnis. One of the division’s leaders described her experience this way: “All goals were met, and many beaten, through the hard work of a team that wouldn’t fail to overcome all obstacles.” That’s what an innovation culture looks like.

Achieving new product development and speed to market objectives is always easier when the culture of the entire organization is aligned and all business functions support developmental and commercial success. In other words, creating and sustaining a culture that supports all stages of the new product development and commercialization process should be an organization-wide priority.

To learn more about creating innovation cultures that can greatly improve new product development and speed to market, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com, where you can review actual client case studies in detail.

Accountability Community is a registered trademark of Partners In Leadership Inc.

A mid-level executive in a large industrial products company, we’ll refer to him as Michael, took his customer service division through a large-scale organizational change initiative. Six months into process, Michael became concerned about his division’s progress toward achieving the intended objectives of the initiative. He was experiencing the Accountability Gap that seems to so often accompany these efforts. The gap is the difference between what people know they should be doing and what they actually are doing. People were not executing on the initiative and Michael was ultimately responsible as the leader of the organization.

During an executive coaching session we had with Michael, he admitted that he had been fallen Below The Line in terms of leading the initiative. He saw the gap in performance, but had prioritized other things as more important than dealing with it. Unfortunately, the day of reckoning was drawing near and he wasn’t making progress. At first, he identified the problems with everyone else, but ultimately was able to see his own lack of leadership as a fundamental opportunity for personal improvement. With only this focus in mind, he went to work to fix the problem. Taking accountability for the lack of success, he visited with others who had successfully implemented similar initiatives and got their advice, he secured needed resources for the team, and he began practicing the principles of positive accountability that we cover in our book, How Did That Happen? by effectively establishing expectations with the team (FORM, communicate, align and inspect).

Michael later explained that once he decided that seeking feedback and coaching others had to become an integral part of his daily leadership, he began seeing real movement in the division. His modeling and practicing the principles of positive accountability communicated to everyone that he was serious about moving the initiative forward. He realized that he had to become the change he wanted to see in his division. By his own account, not only did he become a better leader in the process, but everyone in the division also became better and more accountable. Soon thereafter, the initiative gained traction and the division started achieving results that it had never achieved before.

To learn more about taking accountability for your personal improvement and results, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com, where you can review actual client case studies and advice from the experts.

Above The Line, Below The Line, and Accountability Community are registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership Inc.  Accountability Gap is a trademark of Partners In Leadership Inc.

Consider the following example of how greater accountability led to a crucial improvement in performance and results. After experiencing a substantial decline in profitability, a well-known hotel chain implemented the Accountability Training throughout every level of their organization. The big idea: get everyone to focus on key results in their daily work, not just on “doing” their job. As people, on a daily basis, began looking for ways that they could impact accountability for revenue, customer satisfaction and quality objectives, performance improved. In fact, at every hotel where the training and emphasis on accountability was implemented, the numbers always went up. In the months that followed, the company was not only able to significantly improve performance, but restore a full $40 million in profitability.

Before the focus on personal accountability for organizational results, no one could really tell you what the hotel performance objectives were. In fact, one employee, when asked, responded: “to make another billion dollars this next fiscal quarter!”  She had no idea what the company was trying to do. Every effort to “close the gaps” and help people at every level of the organization take personal accountability for organizational results helps people move beyond compliance and mediocrity to true personal ownership and real continuous improvement.

To learn more about how to create a Culture of Accountability at every level of the organization, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com, where you can watch videos of actual client case studies.

Accountability Training, Accountability Gap, Culture of Accountability, and Accountability Community are registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership Inc.

After a merger of two pharmaceutical giants, the post merger environment was a breeding ground for Below The Line behavior. These were some of the questions that abounded: “Why wasn’t this considered during due diligence?” “Who dropped the ball on this issue?” “How long has this been going on?” and “Why doesn’t my manager know about this?” Having already adopted Self Track training, the two companies determined that only an Above The Line approach would help everyone take accountability for improved communication and culture integration. Whenever people asked post merger questions, they were urged to ask another set of questions as well: “What else can I do about it?” and “Who else can I contact to obtain the information I need?” By placing accountability with the person who was asking the question, leaders and managers created an organization full of people working to solve problems, rather than complaining about them. The increased “Solve It” dialogue led both companies to adopt best practices from each other, resulting in a superior combination of best practices. Instead of succumbing to perpetual complaints and paralyzing confusion, these two companies helped their people take accountability for the basics of cultural integration. The results were huge cost savings, reduced turnover, improved sales performance, and increased shareholder value.

The Partners In Leadership Accountability Training and culture change processes help clients accelerate the formation and integration of post merger/acquisition cultures. With over two decades of experience working in the post merger/acquisition environment, Partners In Leadership is expert at helping leaders define and implement the right cultural transition solution for their business needs. To learn more about our post merger/acquisition cultural integration and transition services, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com, where you can review actual client case studies.

Above The Line, Below The Line, Solve It, Accountability Training, and Accountability Community are registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership Inc.  Self Track is a trademark of Partners In Leadership Inc.

A leading architectural and engineering firm asked for our help in training its leaders to cultivate greater accountability in the organization for achieving three key objectives: employee engagement, client satisfaction, and profitability. We used the Steps To Accountability and The Results Pyramid models to help their leaders learn how to change the way people think and act by changing their experiences. Here’s how one leader described the impact of our leadership training: “We now have a much greater awareness of the experiences we are creating and how those experiences shape beliefs, drive actions, and produce results. The models are thought-provoking tools in our day-to-day work and help to keep us on track.” The results: substantial improvements in employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and profitability within the first year. Now the firm is working on perfecting their ability to hold others accountable in a positive, principled way going forward.

Partners In Leadership’s Leadership Development training helps leaders identify how they can both improve their leadership skills and their leadership style to achieve their desired results. Working with the models, principles, and practices of positive accountability, leaders learn how to better facilitate a sense of ownership and buy-in in their teams and throughout the organization. To learn more about leadership development that builds greater accountability for achieving results, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com, where you can review actual client case studies.

Steps To Accountability, The Results Pyramid, and Accountability Community are registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership Inc.

The CTO of a leading beauty and skin care company was charged with implementing a new inventory accounting system that would require major changes in the organization’s IT systems worldwide. After several months, the project was struggling to show meaningful progress. It was at that point that the CTO brought us in to take his entire IT department through both the Self Track and Culture Track training to support implementation of the new inventory system. Within a matter of weeks, we were able to help the IT leadership team create new accountability and alignment around the key objective: successful implementation of the new inventory system delivered on time and under budget. In the end, changes to the company’s IT systems and implementation of the new system were completed in a manner that met this key objective.

Partners In Leadership’s training helps IT leadership teams create a workplace culture that reinforces the way people need to think and act, at every level, in order to achieve desired results that drive organizational growth and development. To learn more about how to create an IT culture that positively impacts the bottom line, we invite you to join the Accountability Community at www.ozprinciple.com, where you can review actual client case studies.

Self Track and Culture Track are trademarks of Partners In Leadership Inc.  Culture of Accountability and Accountability Community are registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership Inc.