The Oz Principle: Getting Results Through Individual and Organizational Accountability

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.