Our Uber-FAQ for OKRs
This is long overdue: I keep waiting for a better software solution to manage something like this instead of a blog post, but I found myself today in the few minutes before a podcast recording trying to find one of my own answers to a question I get weekly and figured: if I put the answers here, at least I can’t lose them. 😂
Many of these answers come from my forthcoming Evolutionary OKR Playbook. Click here for more information about the book, and the latest update on potential availability.
If you have a question you’d like to see answered here, please drop me a note at hello@redcurrantco.com and I’ll add it to our queue!
What are OKRs?
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a method for collaborative goal setting and alignment. In practice, well-formed OKRs can help us fill the gap between our high-level strategy and our tactical implementation decisions, so that what we do is better aligned with achieving our most important outcomes.
OKRs derived from Peter Drucker's concept of Management by Objectives and were popularized by John Doerr’s book Measure What Matters. Measure What Matters -- considered "the book" about OKRs -- was based on his work with Andy Grove and Google’s implementation of OKRs in addition to other (mostly high-tech startup) example case studies.
Based on the enthusiasm and buzz that Measure What Matters has created in the workplace, thousands of organizations worldwide have adopted OKRs. Some have succeeded; others have struggled.
What are Evolutionary OKRs®?
Evolutionary OKRs are the “flavor” of OKRs that emerged from my work mostly with high-change, innovation-oriented, system-transforming organizations where success depends on improving outcomes on human impact measures.
if you’re in an organization where improving the bottom line depends on improving performance on hard-to-influence outcome measures – like human safety, or health outcomes, or educational outcomes – then the Evolutionary OKR model you’ll learn about here is designed specifically for your organization.
Evolutionary OKRs are a method for collaborative goal setting and organizational alignment.
Evolutionary OKRs are also a thinking, deciding, and learning practice, that helps us achieve greater growth, transformation, and innovation, by aligning on our most important measures of success and progress (typically before we decide on our action or activity plans for the goal period).
Where most organizations create a durable strategic plan or annual operating plan (AOP), and then the organization divies up to decide what to do to support that strategic plan or AOP; Evolutionary organizations create that durable strategic plan and/or AOP, and then ask themselves a few additional questions before they plan their activities:
In our current goal cycle:
What might be possible (and incredible) to achieve to advance our strategy?
What would it mean to maximize our success toward our strategy for this goal phase?
How might we quantify our progress toward that maximum contribution to our strategy? How will we know when we’re on or off track?
Evolutionary organizations align on their theory of success and progress before they begin their work; and then the organization can operate based on continuous learning and improvement. Evolutionary organizations aren’t overly attached to pet projects and are aware of the cognitive biases that keep us doggedly pursuing planned activities that aren’t working (because human brains are fascinating and flawed). Evolutionary organizations have more objective data to make decisions based on, because they’re unafraid of quantifying goals, success, and progress in the pursuit of improving our outcomes. They’re able to recognize which factual truths must be known and shared for people in the organization to plan and execute (and monitor the success of) their work.
Are OKRs quarterly or yearly?
The answer varies by organization. A typical implementation includes annual company-level OKRs (with quarterly targets where needed for important progress data visibility); and then most sub-organizations and teams create OKRs quarterly (or trimesterly). This approach gives a balance so we have some steady longer-term direction at the company level, but then we’re able to shift and change at the pace of our market and changing conditions, and capitalize on near-term urgency, by focusing on progress at the quarterly level as well as our most important annual outcomes.
Are OKRs the same as goals?
Not quite. Goals are broad statements that describe what you want to achieve, like "increase sales by 20%." On the other hand, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) go a step further by setting specific objectives and measurable key results to track progress. For example, an objective could be "improve customer satisfaction" with key results such as "increase NPS score by 10 points" or "reduce customer support response time by 50%." So, while goals provide direction, OKRs provide clarity and measurability to drive success.
Can OKRs & KPIs work together?
Absolutely. In the Connected Strategic® model I work with, the Alignment Layer of our planning stack includes Objectives, Key Results, KPIs, and “Commits.”
In our alignment layer, we’re crisp about words and meanings:
Commits are our mandatory, 100% must-achieve goals or targets, on which we are not safe to fail. There may be consequences for non-achievement: therefore, the organization must prioritize and support our commits with the needed budget and resources.
KPIs are the metrics that we watch to make sure our business is healthy and headed in the right direction. If an organization had a human body, its blood pressure, pulse, and cholesterol levels might be KPIs if they’re “healthy” and we’re keeping an eye on them to make sure they stay healthy.
Objectives are our aspirational, inspired, directional statements of intent that describe what’s most important and why it matters for the goal term.
Key Results are our objectively measurable stretch goals, that describe how we’re currently quantifying our progress and/or success for the sake of achieving our most important outcomes (and learning and improving for the future).
Do OKRs really work?
They can (but that also depends on what you mean by “work”). OKRs can help organizations increase their sense of shared purpose, clarity, focus, and alignment; and depending on how they’re implemented, they can be part of cultural transformation toward greater intellectual humility, continuous learning, experimentation, innovation, and transformation. And, OKRs can also fail spectacularly. Please ping me a more specific question and I’ll answer it!
