May 28, 2019
Goal setting like Google: What is OKR?
In this article:
One of the great things about working in digital is the exposure to a range of interesting and innovative business practices you get from organisations that are at the leading edge of organisation management best practice.Technology and digital companies lend themselves to an environment where they have the agility to try methodologies can be tried, tested, and improved over time. Leading to the quick adoption of proven techniques.- What does OKR stand for?
- Why use OKR for goal setting?
- How does Google use OKR?
- How do you select an Objective?
- How do you set a Key Results?
- An example - Thought Leadership
- OKR vs SMART goals
- Not so fast...
- Great OKR Resources
What does OKR stand for?
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. They provide a clean bridge between setting a big goal and the measurable outcomes from actions required to deliver on them.- Objective - What are we going to achieve.
- Key results - How we are going to achieve this.
Why use OKR for goal setting?
OKR is meant to replace the goal setting framework that can be too simplified, lack a sense of purpose or are uninspiring.OKR's are scalable, meaning you can apply the concept to organisations, team and individuals - however with a different set of OKR's used at each level.How does Google use OKR?
While many people reference Google as a lead example of a practitioner of OKR. The OKR concepts have its origins with Andrew Grove, a co-founder of Intel. Andrew was influential in mentoring John Doerr (a venture capitalist) that brought the concept to a very early stage Google.A significant number of companies other than Google use OKR's, such as LinkedIn and Twitter.Selecting an Objective
There are a few important tips when setting an objective.First, OKR's are usually set for a monthly or quarterly period.- Fundamentally answer - "Why?"
- It can't include a number, it's not measurable like that.
- It must be a statement that inspires people to action.
- The objective should not be easily achieved ^
Selecting the Key Results
For every objective, there should be 3-5 key results.- Must include a number
- The key results need to be able to concretely measure. Did we achieve this - yes or no.
- Based on growth, performance, revenue and engagement
An example - Thought Leadership
We recently ran some workshops with an organisation in Singapore and we used OKR to frame their work to frame their thought leadership activities.ObjectiveTo get them thinking about what an objective could be. An objective isn't to "be a thought leader".We asked the client to use phrases to describe what change they wanted to see happen in the world if it worked. We finally came to: 'We want to open people's eyes to never before seen results in [clients deep area of expertise]'This was interesting because it was compelling and inspiring.We want to open people's eyes to never before seen results in [clients deep area of expertise] |
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Have 100,000 visitors to our new thought leadership positioning content |
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Increase the number of invitations to industry events to 20 |
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OKR vs SMART goals
Everyone knows about SMART (Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals. They are attributed to management thought leader Peter Drucker in the 1950's.An overview of SMART While SMART is a good framework for setting goals, they fundamentally define a flat list of achievable goals.. eg "We will increase sales by 10% in Q4." It's meet's all five criteria of SMART, it's not particularly catchy nor would it inspire people to action.Not too fast...
OKR's are a goal setting framework. Not a solution to all of your business problems. It's very easy to get excited by the new management trend but they are not meant to be a replacement for good communication, team building, and proper planning.Our tips:- Socialise the concept internally before commanding this is The New Way, gain buy-in.
- Nothing smells worse the rotting corpses of past failed improvement activities. If you have had recently failed improvement projects, before starting another, perhaps consider a retrospective on the previous project first to see what went wrong there. It may help find additional problems that could prevent the adoption of OKR's.