Best Accountability App Unlocks the Wisdom of The Oz Principle

Use Propeller, our accountability app for teams, to increase workplace accountability by applying tried-and-true knowledge from The Oz Principle, the bestselling book on workplace accountability.

According to the landmark Partners In Leadership Workplace Accountability Study, more than 90% of employees struggle to align their daily work around top organizational objectives. What’s more, data from Gallup suggests that fewer than half of all employees believe their supervisors actually hold them accountable for achieving performance goals. This goes to say that most organizations, regardless of how successful they may appear by the numbers, are facing a massive accountability problem — which hampers their ability to reach their full potential and maximize results.

Even companies that clarify and communicate their topline priorities to all employees, establish effective models for exchanging feedback, and champion creative problem-solving run into roadblocks created by a lack of accountability in the workplace.

But what exactly is accountability? According to the New York Times bestseller The Oz Principle, accountability is not the same thing as merely taking responsibility — rather, it is the “personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results.”

In order for an organization to make quantifiable progress toward topline priorities, all members of the organization must consistently hold themselves and one another accountable for maintaining the mindset and taking the actions necessary to deliver on those priorities.

These are fundamental principles that lay the groundwork for the elegant, proven workplace accountability models delineated in The Oz Principle, the book that transformed corporate training and leadership development 25 years ago. The Oz Principle’s models and frameworks lay the building blocks for any leader to create a flourishing culture of accountability, which leads to greater employee engagement, and improved year-over-year results.

The Challenges of Achieving Organizational Accountability

Before leaders can establish a solid culture of accountability and execute high-priority organizational goals, they must define — and communicate to their employees —  what these topline objectives are. Illuminating why even successful legacy companies struggle to maintain an accountable workforce, The Oz Principle co-author Craig Hickman explains that while “most people consider themselves to be accountable people….the issue is: Are they crystal clear about what they’re supposed to be accountable for?”

Across modern businesses, the answer is a resounding “no.” Today, one in three employees feel their priorities at work are constantly shifting — and 85% aren’t clear about what their organization is trying to accomplish. This underlines a major missed opportunity for leaders to align mindsets and actions around critical topline results.

As such, the principal step in generating higher rates of employee accountability for results is simply boiling down and clarifying the organization’s top three to five meaningful, memorable, and measurable Key Results, or desired outcomes, that all employees should be working toward.

However, maintaining alignment around topline priorities and ensuring that members are taking accountability for accomplishing them has become particularly challenging in a globalized landscape. The rise of telecommuting, digitization, when paired with demands for accelerated speed-to-market and increased organizational agility, have transformed modern workplaces. While this cultural shift comes with the benefit of increased organizational reach and operational efficiency, it can also undermine organizational cohesion and the execution of strategy, ultimately impeding both team and self-accountability for achieving results.

A New Accountability App for Implementing Workplace Accountability  

For many leaders, encouraging accountability best practices — especially while managing an increasingly decentralized, fast-paced, and digitized workforce — seems an impossible task. Luckily, leaders today can overcome the challenges of the modern workforce, connect dispersed teams, and implement ongoing accountable behaviors through Propeller™, our new digital solution for teams.

With an intuitive, user-friendly interface, Propeller’s many interactive capabilities are designed to foster higher personal and team accountability, promote honest feedback among colleagues, encourage collaborative problem-solving, and educate team members about the connections between accountability, workplace culture, and sustained organizational results.

Propeller’s Wisdom module is especially well-suited for improving accountability in the workplace. The module offers full access to our proprietary accountability models, presenting a valuable opportunity for employees to reference evidence-based knowledge to shift their mindsets, develop new beliefs, and take accountability for delivering results.

Designed to bring The Oz Principle into everyday practice, the Wisdom module makes years of Oz knowledge digitally accessible with scrollable, well-designed accountability modules — meaning leaders always have culture-changing thought leadership one click away. Here’s how leaders can keep the power of The Oz Principle in their pockets, and how employees can use this wisdom to build a culture of accountability.

Building a Culture of Accountability Through Digital Knowledge-Sharing Platform

Making our signature culture of accountability knowledge available via software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS0, and/or mobile application, Propeller provides access to pivotal definitions, concepts, and models of the 16 distinct accountability best practices that we have developed over the course of the last 30 years. These best practices have enabled us to transform the culture of multiple Fortune 500 companies and supply invaluable guidance to scale business, boost returns, and maximize profit margins for countless others.

With Propeller, there’s nowhere accountability growth, professional development, and project management cannot go. The user-oriented interface facilitates “anytime, anywhere” usage with its pleasing and functional design. On the homepage of the Wisdom module, for example, users can easily swipe through a carousel of cards, each of which is labeled with the name of a specific model for enhancing workplace accountability. Users tap the “Learn More” button to access a brief summary of each model and discover its intended application in the workplace. These well-designed units, parceled in digestible, informative segments, enable on-the-go remote employees to engage with accountability education on a mobile and desktop software application.

Access to transformative workplace models — such as the Steps To Accountability® and The Results Pyramid®, a model that illuminates the relationship between experiences, beliefs, actions, and results — empowers employees to evaluate their own attitudes and actions, to take ownership over their work, and to help achieve the team’s Key Results.

Developing a culture of accountability takes more than simply reinforcing individual employees’ roles and responsibilities and ensuring projects are completed on time. Rather, a culture of accountability arises from a dynamic, positive environment in which every employee is constantly asking themselves, What else can I do? — challenging themselves and their colleagues to rise above adversity and take proactive measures to guarantee better results. With all the resources of The Oz Principle now online, Propeller has made it possible to create and maintain this environment on one digital platform.

For even more insights, tune into our webinar on The Oz Principle’s digital debut on Thursday, May 30th, at 11:00 a.m. PST. Register here.

Ready to build a culture of accountability and maximize results? Download Propeller today.