The Oz Principle Blog

Let’s begin the year by restating our premise: when you get accountability right, everything else is likely to go right. Execution, critical communications, trust, teamwork, leadership, change… name the organizational imperative and you will find accountability at the heart of the effort. Get accountability wrong and pay the price in missed deadlines, poor delivery and bad results.

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.

When new product development and speed to market are vital to an organization’s success, people and teams must do three things very well: 1) create a collaborative environment where people stay focused on top priorities; 2) engage everyone’s inventiveness and creatively deal with obstacles whenever they arise; and 3) take personal accountability to hit deadlines and budgets. Doing so not only drives new product development from concept to launch, but also creates a culture capable of consistently turning innovation into commercial success.

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.

We often ask: who is the most important person to get Above The Line? Of course, that person is you. Why? Because you can’t help yourself or anyone else achieve your organization’s desired results if you’re not taking full accountability to achieve your desired results. Regrettably, our research reveals that a large majority of people in organizations today feel powerless over changing priorities, overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be done and frustrated over unreasonable deadlines—i.e., feeling stuck Below The Line. Consider the following story of one person who turned things around for himself and his team by taking accountability for his own personal development and impacting results.

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.