Management Goes To The Movies

The Wizard of Oz:
Finding the Magic Wand Within

WATCH AND READ IF:

You doubt your own capabilities or credentials for a job.

You expect the worst from your subordinates.

You have difficulty delegating tasks and authority.

You need to build up your personal presence.

You suffer from “paralysis by analysis.”

You've probably seen The Wizard of Oz a gazillion times. (If you haven't, what planet are you from?) The American Film Institute rated Oz the sixth-best film ever made. We think it's also one of the Top 10 leadership training films of all time, a fact recognized years ago by Lou Tice, one of the nation's top corporate trainers. Tice, a former championship high-school football coach in the state of Washington, built The Pacific Institute by counseling companies and their managers on ways to introduce positive wizards (good mentors) into their lives, while expelling negative wizards (anyone who tries to make you feel bad about yourself or, worse, tells you that you are incapable of success). Tice argued that Dorothy was a great leader because she "took a guy with no brains, one with no heart and one with no courage" and melded them into an effective team that successfully accomplished its mission.

More recently Oz's lessons were extolled in the business bestseller The Oz Principle by Roger Connors, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman. They base their analysis on L. Frank Baum's book rather than the movie it inspired. They used the Oz story as a metaphor for issues of accountability, arguing that Dorothy and her team succeeded only after they stopped blaming others for their problems, stopped waiting for someone to wave a magic wand and started taking responsibility for their own destinies. As you'll soon see, there's a lot more cake beneath Oz's icing. In fact, we think there are a dozen great lessons that will serve you well. So read on and learn why Dorothy is, indeed, one of the best managers ever to hit the screen; why the Scarecrow is the best kind of idea person; and, why Glinda the Good is the best kind of CEO a manager could have.

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THE WIZARD OF OZ US (1939): Musical/Fantasy/Dance 101 minutes. Available on videocassette and laserdisc. Audience Rating : NR CAST LIST
Performer	Character
Judy Garland	Dorothy
Ray Bolger	Hunk/The Scarecrow
Bert Lahr	Zeke/The Cowardly Lion
Jack Haley	Hickory/The Tin Woodsman
Billie Burke	Glinda
Margaret Hamilton	Miss Gulch/The Wicked Witch
Charley Grapewin	Uncle Henry
Clara Blandick	Auntie Em
Pat Walsh	Nikko
Frank Morgan	Prof. Marvel/The Wizard/ Guard/Coachman
The Singer Midgets	Munchkins
Mitchell Lewis	Monkey Officer
Terry the Dog	Toto

Produced by Mervyn LeRoy Directed by Victor Fleming (and King Vidor) Written by Noel Langley Based on the novel by L. Frank Baum

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