Journey to the Emerald City

Journey to the Emerald City is a leadership and execution parable co-authored by Roger Connors and Tom Smith that builds on the accountability principles introduced in The Oz Principle. Using the familiar world of Oz as its backdrop, the book focuses on how leaders translate accountability into clear execution, alignment, and sustained results across an organization.

The book follows a leader charged with guiding a struggling organization toward success. Along the journey, the characters confront common leadership obstacles—unclear priorities, misaligned roles, inconsistent follow-through, and stalled execution. Through these challenges, the story illustrates that accountability at the leadership level is not about control or blame, but about clarity, ownership, and disciplined execution.

The central premise is that results improve when leaders create systems that make accountability visible and actionable. To accomplish this, the book introduces the Emerald City Operating System™, a practical framework that helps leaders turn vision into measurable results. Rather than focusing on personality or motivation alone, the model emphasizes defining outcomes, aligning roles, tracking progress, and engaging in ongoing accountability conversations.

At the core of the framework are five essential leadership practices:

  • Defining Results – Establishing clear, measurable outcomes that matter most

  • Clarifying Roles – Ensuring everyone understands who owns which results

  • Setting Expectations – Making commitments explicit and visible

  • Tracking Progress – Monitoring the right measures, consistently

  • Engaging in Accountability – Holding regular, results-focused conversations

As in The Oz Principle, the Oz metaphor reinforces a key theme: leaders already possess the tools needed to drive execution—what’s required is the discipline to use them consistently. The Emerald City represents an organization where expectations are clear, ownership is embraced, and results are achieved without drama or confusion.

Journey to the Emerald City is widely used by executives, leadership teams, and organizations seeking to improve execution without adding bureaucracy. Its lasting value lies in providing a shared language and operating system that helps leaders move from intention to action—and from effort to results.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Understanding Company Culture

  • Chapter 1: The Yellow Brick Road: Accelerating the Journey

  • Chapter 2: The Emerald City: Building a Culture of Accountability

Part 2: Shifting To a New Culture

  • Chapter 3: Defining Results that Lead to Sucess

  • Chapter 4: Generating Action That Get Results

  • Chapter 5: Identifying Beliefs That Produce Action

  • Chapter 6: Creating Experiences That Instill the Right Beliefs

Part 3: Accelerating Culture Change

  • Chapter 7: Using Focused Feedback to Accelerate Change

  • Chapter 8: Aligning a Culture for Rapid Progress

  • Chapter 9: Employing Leadership to Move the Change Forward

  • Chapter 10: Enrolling the Entire Organization in the Transition

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