52 pages • 1 hour read
The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability
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Background
Literary Context: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz provides many of the analogies that the authors of The Oz Principle use to make their case. They chose a popular classic because that would be familiar to their audience, making their ideas more accessible. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a young girl named Dorothy is blown by a cyclone to the magical Land of Oz. A good witch tells her to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City where she can find the Wizard of Oz and ask him to help her get home. Along the road, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, who wants a brain; the Cowardly Lion, who wants courage; and the Tin Woodsman, who wants a heart. They follow her to ask the Wizard of Oz for the things they want. In exchange for his help, they must kill the Wicked Witch of the West, which they do. However, the Wizard’s powers turn out to be fake, and the characters realize that they already have their desired qualities within them. Eventually, the Good Witch of the South helps Dorothy to get home.
The authors of The Oz Principle are focused on the novel published in 1900, not the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland. There are some important plot and character-development differences between the two: The Scarecrow rules in the Wizard’s stead, the Cowardly Lion becomes the king of the forest, and the Tin Woodsman becomes the ruler of the Wicked Witch’s previously enslaved creatures. Moreover, the authors point out at the end of The Oz Principle that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the first of many books in a series. Symbolically, this means that once the characters have mastered Staying “Above The Line” by Embracing Accountability, their story has only begun, which leads the authors to end their book with “The Beginning.”
The structure of The Oz Principle relies on the interpretation of individual characters. Every chapter and every section opens with a quote from the book that speaks to the central message of that section or chapter. Dorothy and her companions come to symbolize the steps involved in getting and staying Above The Line: The Lion represents the courage to “See It”; the Tin Woodsman represents the heart to “Own It”; the Scarecrow represents the wisdom to “Solve It”; and Dorothy represents the ability to “Do It.” They largely interpret the message of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as an allegory in which the main characters get out of the victim cycle, represented by the yellow brick road, and discover that they already have the skills necessary to achieve their goals. In the novel, after completing their quest to help Dorothy return home, the other characters become leaders, which the authors take to signify that they have come to model the Oz Principle for others.
Ideological Context: Success and Systemic Bias Versus Self-Actualization
Though the authors never explicitly address it, The Oz Principle is part of a contentious ideological context that has become even more prominent since the book was first published. That issue stems from one central question: What accounts for “success,” who achieves it, and who doesn’t?
On one side, usually associated with the political and cultural left, there are those who argue that “success,” as culturally defined, isn’t achievable for most people. Factors that contribute to this are various kinds of privilege associated with class, race, gender, and sexuality that reduce barriers. Meanwhile, according to this line of thinking, various kinds of systemic and cultural bias operate along the same dimensions of identify and make it harder for those without privilege to achieve the same kind of success as those with privilege. Therefore, commentators on the left often argue that a narrow focus on “success” in such circumstances ignores the real obstacles that make it difficult to achieve. These commentators try to remove those obstacles and level the playing field.
On the other side, usually associated with the political and cultural right, are those who argue that success is available to most people who are willing to work hard and adopt the correct mindset and habits. The Oz Principle makes these arguments. Implicitly, the authors critique the arguments above for getting people stuck in what they refer to as the victim cycle. While they do acknowledge that victimization does occur, they repeat that it is important even for those that have been truly victimized to take ownership for their circumstances and move beyond them. Moreover, they believe that such thinking represents a global threat, as it leads to complacency and missed opportunities for growth and productivity. Ultimately, the authors implicitly, though never directly, critique the arguments about privilege and obstacles to success as thinking Below The Line.
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