From almost last to definitely first in Safety...

The Results: Catapulted from 27th position in their peer group on safety to number one in just twelve months.

The Story: OGE made the transition to a Culture Of Accountability^® that allowed them to execute on their safety initiative. OGE, a 109-year energy company based in Oklahoma generating electricity from natural gas, western coal, and wind. OGE, a Fortune 1000 company, has one of the largest Wind Farms in the country; its 170 megawatts of power alone generates enough electricity to take care of the needs of 51,000 homes. They currently have plans to quadruple their wind output in the next several years. The Culture Track^™ Training provided a foundation to their intentional process of building a sustainable Culture of Accountability. Jean Leger, VP of Utility Operations shared with us "they have a greater focus on accountability in their daily interactions with each other and that leaders felt better equipped to provide and receive meaningful performance coaching and feedback." After implementing the Culture Track Training, they exceeded all key results with an astounding improvement in safety from 27th position in their peer group to number 1 in twelve months. During this time, OGE's stock went from $24.57 to $50.42.

It's all about the customer!

The Results: Exceeded two key customer metrics.

The Story: USKH, was rated by Zweig White (the nation's leading source of business management services for architecture, engineering, and environmental consulting firms) as the 6th best firm to work for in the Multidiscipline Architecture and Engineering (A&E) Firm category, and the 3rd best firm to work for in the Midsized Multidiscipline A&E category. They understand their customers are the cornerstone of their business and they need them to survive, yet they were losing customers. Something needed to change.

USKH implemented the Self Track^™ Training with their entire staff at two locations to assist them with executing a strategic initiative to improve customer service and customer retention. Applying the models and practices learned in the Self Track Training, they were able to achieve and exceed their key results. Transforming Client relationships was the key result they needed to achieve to stay ahead of the game. The Two metrics used: 80% response at a 4 or 5 Rating (exceeded by 6%) and 95% agreeing to use USKH again or refer to another client (exceeded by 2%). President, Timothy Vig said, "We have also incorporated The Oz Principle concepts into our recent strategic planning efforts. Throughout our firm, we are committed to working Above The Line."

The Sweet Taste of Success...

The Results: Best safety record in 23 years, best production levels ever, named supplier of the year in a category of 15, 000 vendors!

The Story: American Sugar Refining Company (ASR) manufactures refined and specialty sugar products in the United States. Using the Culture Track^™ Training throughout the organization, including in the unionized workforce, ASR sharpened their ability to execute and achieved record production results. First, turning in a single-day performance of 5 million lbs. of sugar, up from the previous record of 4.5 million; while reducing energy usage at the same time by 10%. Since then, ASR has completed several days of 5 million lbs. of sugar produced a day. Plant Manager Phil Guglielmi states: "It takes many things working together right to accomplish this result. Having everyone in the plant aligned to the result with a common language of accountability was significant."

For twelve years ASR had a pretty stagnant culture. According to Stu Fitzgibbons, Asst. Plant Manager at the time, nothing had really changed in the first 12 years he worked there. He told us "it was still a brute force environment to get anything done." In addition, they were burdened with issues with safety, production, environmental compliance and morale. They engaged Partners In Leadership and implemented the Self Track^™ Training to assist with strategic initiatives to address their issues. Committed to their efforts, they began working Above The Line^® taking a hard look at what needed to change and taking accountability for the results they needed to achieve. ASR Manager of Corporate Training & Development, Judie Block shared "As plant refiners, production results are key to our success. Collaborating...with Partners In Leadership has helped Domino make significant head way in shifting to a more accountable culture. Our unionized workers are taking on a higher level of ownership to get key results. The Oz consultants provide Above The Line coaching to our operating managers to help make this shift happen. Domino brand identity is synonymous with quality. Partnering with PIL has helped us remain the high quality competitor we need to be in today's marketplace."

This initiative proved successful: after 22 months in the process, they now had the best safety record they had ever had in 23 years. In addition, they met a production rate never previously achieved in the history of the Baltimore Plant and were named Wal-Mart's No. 1 supplier of the year in their category of 15,000 vendors. With a warehouse once $1 million negative variance to $1 million positive variance to plan, resulting in a $2 million positive swing, they were able to achieve what was considered unachievable.

Bringing it all together to deliver...

The Results: Flawless Execution of a plant shutdown.

The Story: This client is one of the world's leading international oil and gas companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items. They employ over 80,000 people operating in over 80 countries worldwide.

The client had two plants that hadn't worked closely in the past, and now needed to work together to execute a plant shut down and make sure there were no environmental impacts. It seemed an overwhelming task to everyone involved because time constraints were tight. Competition between shifts and plants is common, but add to that the pressures of a flawless shutdown and things can get intense. Getting everyone aligned and working together was key.

Using the principles of Accountability from the Self Track^™ Training, the two teams got together and started planning. A synergy was created and there was a shared ownership and accountability of the whole problem. The teams helped each other recognize when they had dropped Below The Line^® and then do what was necessary to come back Above The Line^® and solve the problem. During the execution phase, the teams worked so well together that people close to the work remarked that you couldn't tell who worked on which team. Operators from one plant suggested ways to implement changes to solve environmental issues and vice a versa.

As a result, the teams were extremely successful and had a perfect shutdown. They were able to complete the shut down on time and with no safety violations, without putting anything into the environment, keeping costs under control, satisfying customers and engaging employees. Prior to implementing the Self Track Training, OSHA reported a rate of over 8. Today, it is under point 7. In the OSHA rating system, this was a huge improvement. Now, when you walk through their organization, people take pride in their ability to take ownership and get things done.

Accountability means "handle it!"...

The Results: Reduced handle time by 50% and brought $143 million to the company's bottom line.

The Story: Every organization wrestles from time to time with pesky problems that stand in the way of executing significant performance gains. The credit card division of one of the largest banks in the world utilized our services and implemented the Self Track^™ Training in an effort to create greater accountability and ownership at every level of the organization, particularly at the front line, so that they could better execute on important strategic initiatives. They focused in particular on the call center where turnover had been exceptionally high and results in terms of "handle time" needed improvement.

The call center handles a very high volume of calls from current and potential customers. This high volume of calls equates time to money: Every second of additional handle time equates to a million-dollar drop in profit at the end of the year. With this thought planted firmly in mind, the leadership group in the call center determined that they would create accountability for reducing the average handle time by 50 percent, no small task since they had been struggling unsuccessfully to reduce handle time for years.

Surprisingly, getting everyone to buy into this lofty objective wasn't as tough as management had anticipated. However, when it actually came down to figuring out how to bring about change, the going got a lot tougher. Still, as every member of the management team signed up and began looking for ways to improve performance, before long, they had changed the way they hired people; and they had implemented new software solutions. They also began measuring and reporting performance on a daily basis. Additionally they implemented a balanced scorecard and focused their training to impact high priority skills and behavior. The Solve It^® mentality taught in the Self Track Training flourished. Ideas poured in from everywhere as everyone from top management all the way to the front line took accountability for reducing the time needed to handle a call. The result: an increase of $143 million a year to the company's bottom line.

Worldwide They Improve the Top Five...

The Results: The only training this worldwide organization has ever authorized to go global; once a property starts with the training, within three to five months they see improvement in all 5 of their Key Result Areas.

The Story: This hotel focuses on what guests have said they need and want most while traveling, such as quality accommodations, amenities and services in a comfortable atmosphere designed for both the business and leisure traveler all at an affordable price.

The Self Track^™ Training was initially introduced to the General Managers of the Hotels as a keynote address at an annual conference and received a great response. The leadership team knew there was an opportunity to have significant impact using the training on a larger scale throughout all of their sites to improve their ability to execute their business plans. According to the Director of Brand Culture & Communications, she said "We have been working with Partners In Leadership to create a training tool that could reach all 20,000 team members in our organization and help us align our results according to the (Partners In Leadership Accountability Training) model."

The training is used in each hotel property to facilitate results improvements in 5 Key Result areas. The initial pilot hotel made what they called "tremendous increases" in performance in these areas after only 90 days of the initial training. This is a common pattern this hospitality company is experiencing throughout the worldwide implementation of the training.

Nothing Canned About These Results...

The Results: Cut market introduction of a new product by one year and achieved a 75% reduction in industrial accident rates.

The Story: Nestlé Purina PetCare, a global leader in the pet care industry, promotes responsible pet care, humane education, community involvement, and the positive bond between people and their pets. Nestlé used the Self Track^™ Training to cut market introduction of a new easy-to-open can by one year. In the Pennsylvania region, they were consistently experiencing an annual accident rate of 12 accidents for every 100 employees, without much improvement and that needed to change. The leadership team identified "Safety Improvement" as the focus of their efforts for implementing the Self Track Training. Improving the levels of personal and organizational accountability around this initiative had dramatic results. The training helped them achieve a 75% reduction in their annual industrial accident rate. Ed Vanyo, Plant Manager stated: "I can honestly say the (Self Track Training) will become part of our process and not just the next program of the month".

Filling Orders Makes Everyone Happy...

The Results: Mark-outs reduced from 3900 to just 20 a night, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction, and a 15% increase in productivity.

The Story: Office Depot is a global supplier of office products and services. April Franklin, Regional Director of Customer Service, reported that prior to the training, "Every night, 60,000 products are ordered and must be delivered the next day. Prior to the Self Track^™ Training, 3900 products were being marked out nightly. (A mark out is when a warehouse employee attempts to fill an order but doesn't have the product on the shelf so they "mark it out" on the order form)." After certifying 10 employees as facilitators of the Self Track Training and training over 500 customer service representatives and sales representatives of their Southern California Region, Office Depot got aligned around three results they needed to achieve. Improving customer satisfaction was at the top of the list. Applying the Steps To Accountability^® Model and creating greater positive accountability for achieving this key result, people throughout the warehouse were able to recognize areas of opportunities and move Above The Line^® and execute on the strategic imperative the leadership team had set out.

"After conducting the Self Track Training and applying the principles taught, mark outs decreased to 20 per night - a dramatic improvement." Franklin attributes this enormous decline in mark outs to the training. The result created a significant impact on the company goals to achieve a 25% increase in customer satisfaction. They were also able to achieve a 25% improvement in employee satisfaction and a 15% increase in product productivity.

April Franklin, Regional Director of Customer Service, goes on: "Before (the Self Track Training), we were a company adrift. We had no positive culture. Today, we have a culture based on the Steps To Accountability. For example, on the accountability plan, my 11 managers call in weekly and make the tie between what they have done this week and its impact on their performance relative to the 3 results. Our Quality Action Teams utilize what they learned from the Oz Training consistently. These cross-functional quality action teams are, today, attacking the reduction of customer returns. We expect the same results we got on the mark outs."

Even Professors Buy-In to Better Results...

The Results: Alignment of the senior team and increasing student headcount while decreasing costs.

The Story: Prairie State College implemented the Self Track^™ Training with the Cabinet and the Expanded Administrative Council of the College. Our facilitator had been warned by several Cabinet Members this would be "a very adversarial group," even before "training" is put in front of them. After the workshop, the President of the college, Dr. McCarthy, came up to our facilitator and said: "Our Administrative Council is walking away as a team with 10 clear take-a-ways that will be implemented beginning tomorrow. This has changed the direction of the College." He then said "By the way, you also had the college's harshest critic in our workshop today. She has a Ph.D. from Columbia University and taught Organizational Development there for 19 years. She just came up to me and said, 'This was the single best day of training that I have ever experienced in my academic career.'" While you don't need a Ph.D. from Columbia to understand the Partners In Leadership approach, it's the simplicity and integration focus of the process that wins over even the most educated and senior leaders. If it's complicated, people don't use it. In fact, the Accountability Training is often described as "common sense"; the problem is, it's just not "common practice."

The Oz Principle provided both concepts and a vocabulary to align an entire organization with their key results. Dr. McCarthy had struggled for six years as a president searching for an approach like this that would work. Though he had made significant progress on priorities for the college in his tenure, those advances were not uniform throughout the institution. With the assistance of the Self Track Training workshops for the Cabinet, and then the entire Administrative Council, they were able to make remarkable progress. He gave us two examples: "First, our key results focus on recruitment and retention of students. Our recruitment goal for the academic year 2006-7 is a 2% increase. Our initial data reflects a 4.2% increase in student headcount and a 3.6% increase in FTE. Second, on the See It, Own lt, Solve It, and Do lt Scorecard, my administrators gave themselves a grade of F on Overcoming Cross Functional Boundaries. Since the workshops, at least three striking examples of cross functional cooperation have occurred between our library and the computer center, between our registration office and the non-credit dean and faculty, and between the library, the business office and our computer center."

Hard To Convince, But You Can't Argue With Results...

The Results: 29% Increase in scores on annual HR survey, 13.7% improvement in favorable ratings, increased cross-functional communication.

The Story: ADP Brokerage processes over 1,000,000 financial transactions a day. The challenge: the organization needed to improve their ability to execute on important strategic initiatives that impact the bottom line. Their plans were centered in three areas: 1.) needed improvements in customer satisfaction (the lack of customer service measurements help drive an internal departmental focus, rather than an external customer-oriented focus), 2.) improved employee satisfaction (people felt leaders were sending mixed messages that confused priorities), and 3.) achieving world class quality. They implemented both the Self Track^™ Training and, then, the Culture Track^™ Training to address their needs.

Leaders in this organization used the Partners In Leadership training to change the culture and focus on achieving results in these three areas. The results were measureable: 29% improvement in scores received on an annual HR Survey. This increase occurred in each of the categories, including leadership, responsiveness, trust, and providing feedback; 13.8% improvement in favorable ratings on annual Culture Survey, increased customer satisfaction and cross functional communication and alignment created at the Senior Executive Level and driven throughout management.

Beginning with a small group, the training spread throughout the organization. Vivyen Ray, the initial sponsor of the Partners In Leadership training, was promoted over the course of the training implementation to become Vice President of Learning Resources for the company rode the wave of accountability, becoming a VP along the way.

Comments about the Accountability Training^® from letters received after the training:

Ms. Vivian Ray, Vice President of Learning Resources, said: "Partners In Leaderships (The Self Track Training) workshop is the best they had ever experienced...Over the past two years, we have held quarterly leadership development events at which we discuss ways we can improve our leadership skills. These events have varied in topics from empowerment, trust and goal setting...For the past year, we have held several (Self Track Training) seminars facilitated by Partners In Leadership. We have used the lessons from your book and Accountability sessions as guideposts during our shift to a 'culture of accountability.' For us, this has meant finding ways to be more responsive to the needs and expectations of our associates, clients and shareholders. Through the Accountability workshops and Oz Principle cultural transition model we have been able to find ways to communicate more efficiently and to put into place processes that have resulted in more alignment across department lines."

The Senior Executive Vice President of ADP in Toronto said, "This was one of the most impactful... leadership development events in my management career."

Another leader commented: "When we started the Accountability Training the first time out, people thought it was 'The Flavor of the Month Training.' Through repeated effort and consistent focus, however The Oz Principle Training has become a key mechanism that has provided the tools we needed to make significant progress in shifting to a Culture of Accountability. We have been able to measure the impact of its training through various internal mechanisms and have found the impact on our results to be significant."

Another leader commented: "There's a lot of "flashing" going on around here! The "Above The Line - Below The Line" Flash card has instantly become a tool in our culture to express to people, in a subtle way, when their behavior is Accountable or not. I've also attended 3 large meetings since your last session where people have discussed what they have done or can do to be more Accountable for results based on a new awareness developed as a result of your session. It's amazing! What an impact the (Self Track Training) program has had at the ADP Brokerage Services Group. The Accountability program ideally fits into our culture change initiative. Thank you!...Many have told me that this is the best leadership event they have attended..."

Judy Valiquette, VP Finance & Administration said, "...The session was interactive, with concepts well presented. The facilitator was professional and friendly during the presentation. Although formal comments were not requested from participants, unsolicited comments such as: "the only training session I have attended where the facilitator clearly knew their subject. The facilitator could lead us through the material without reference to notes" and "Very dynamic session - facilitator kept us involved" were received. Specific comments regarding the content of the presentation were provided directly to the facilitator the day following the workshop. Since this presentation was one of the first within our organization, the facilitator used this feedback to immediately adjust the content to avoid duplication with a previous training session. Such responsiveness is a credit to Partners In Leadership."

Zero Defects and On-time Delivery

The Results: Refurbished 240 C130 Airplanes, 24 P3 Submarine Reconnaissance Planes, Zero Defects

The Story: Lockheed Martin, the largest military contractor in the world, is the largest provider of IT services, systems integration, and training to the U.S. Government The Greenville, South Carolina site engaged Partners In Leadership and implemented the Self Track^™ Training and the Culture Track^™ Training to help them execute on achieving their key results of refurbishing 240 C130 airplanes and 24 P3 Submarine Reconnaissance planes, which represented a 20% increase in work requirements over the previous year. Not only were they able to successfully execute on this aggressive initiative, they did it while hitting their Zero Defects objective. Bob Owen, Senior VP and Site General Manager said: "We saw a notable culture change with an obvious increase in motivation, professionalism and knowledge of processes. There was a visible display of the employees' dedication and commitment with an importance of understanding and following procedures and processes, and a recognized increase in teamwork, cross-functional communication and management's commitment to process improvement and customer satisfaction. Evidence supported significant improvement as a result of Project Odyssey."