Epic Outcomes | Coaching & Consulting

I’ve seen many organizations try to get value from Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) — that management framework used by Intel, Google, GE, and so many other organizations to keep teams focused on the results that matter most — and struggle.

On paper, OKRs are deceptively simple. In practice, they can be tough. In my experience, I’ve found that the basic idea of setting aspirational objectives and measurable, stretch results to be pretty easy for many people to grasp — but when it comes to establishing a few OKRs, and proceeding with these as the focal point for ALL work for the next, say, three months, things start to fall apart.

I want everyone to experience the kind of joy I’ve had, though, being able to post 3 OKRs on my monitor and say “no” to everything else! So, I thought I’d share my take on some common reasons why organizations struggle with OKRs — from my own experience and learnings— in the hopes that they’ll help you get better outcomes.

(Before I dive in, I’m assuming that you have the basics on OKRs and that you’ve given them a try — but if not, and you’d like some reading recommendations, some of my favorite resources are writings from Christina Wodtke, Josh Seiden and Jeff Gothelf.)

Why OKRs don’t work

OKRs tend not to work when:

• Your key results are outputs, not results
• You don’t do the work

Taking these one at a time:

1. Your key results are outputs, not results. The magic of OKRs is they force you to articulate the most important thing: the most amazing results you could deliver, next, in support of an overall mission. And results aren’t deliverables — they’re results. A few examples: Do you need an on-boarding guide for new hires, or do you need new hires productive within a week’s time? Do you need a white paper published, or do you need more leads? In both cases, you need the result — and any number of outputs or actions *could* get you there. It’s so tempting to come up with Key Results that are deliverables, because we think they’re what we need to get the actual result — and, look, maybe they are. But articulating that key result will inspire other ideas, too, that could be less work, and more effective. What we want are awesome results, as soon as possible, with the least effort. Right? So you want to unlock all that creativity in the team. Now, if you’re a leader of one or more teams, does this mean you set OKRs with the team, and then let go? Nope. Your job is to stay interested in the how — but specifically, in the evidence the team has that the approach they’ve designed to get the result will work. The “how” is, essentially, one or more experiments the team will take on to get the result you agreed on ASAP. If your OKRs are set for a three month period, I’d expect a series of experiments designed to get the result we seek.
2. You don’t do the work. I’ve seen many teams get really excited about their OKRs when they develop them — and then, they set them aside, lose focus and complain about their OKRs not working. Well… yeah. Getting the benefit from OKRs takes a lot of discipline. It IS the work! You’ve got to come back to them, weekly, and reflect on how confident you are in whether you’ll get your key results (and if you’re not confident — why, and what can we all do?). You’ve got to think creatively about ways to get those key results ASAP, and measure whether what you’re doing is working. To do that, you need to establish baselines. Coming up with OKRs feels good, but what REALLY feels good is delivering on them, and that’s going to take everything you’ve got. If you don’t feel like it’d be totally awesome if the team crushed it on the OKRs you’ve developed — at the expense of just about everything else — it’s worth revisiting your OKRs, and making sure they really do contain the results that matter most.

So now, the big question: what are the results that matter most for you in the next few months? Inspired to give OKRs a(nother) try, to get there? I’d love to know how it goes, and I’m here for support!