I’ve worked within a goal-setting framework in almost every organization across my professional career, whether it was ad-hoc or using a pre-defined structure like MBO or OKRs.

• At their best, OKRs are the bedrock that enables a self-motivated and self-organized workforce to emerge, enabling “pushing decisions down to the lowest possible level”, “paying people for results”, and “managers should not be driven, but drive themselves” (Drucker, 1954).
• At their worst, they become a form-filling exercise (colossal waste of time), reduce speed, and cause complains that undermine faith in management. Simply not worth doing.

I’ve tried to distill, from my personal experiences, universal best practices versus conditional ones, what might be interesting for you to consider, and how I can help.

Key learnings from past experiences

• 1. Google was the only company I worked at where I could browse the OKRs of every single person in the company, from cross-department project peers to the CEO. It was transformative.

This bedrock allows them to write high-quality goals, self-organize, and execute faster.

What I can do: Set up and maintain a single repository where everyone can view each others’ OKRs as they are created, evolve, and after finalization - ideally including weekly updates after.

• 2. Muddy, low leverage, or misdirected goals are worse than no goals at all. This is truer the further up you go. If OKRs are to work, leaders must set good examples. Failing that, it’s likely better to forego the exercise entirely.

In one organization I was part of, some department heads set extremely poor examples. Their entire department followed and undermined the entire exercise.

What I can do: Talk with you and ensure your OKRs are logically sound and high leverage. Act as a ghost writer to help you express your thoughts clearly and save you time. Do the same, as necessary, with others that also need help.

• 3. While a person might have several goals, the most common mistake is not identifying the single, most important lever (goal) for each individual.

I’ve had good success using this question to identify the most important goal: “If every other area of your operation remained at its current level of performance, what is the one area where change would have the greatest impact? Why?”

What I can do: As OKRs are proposed, ensure each person has a single, most important lever that best contributes to the larger unit’s most important goal.

• 4. It’s normally considered best practice for everyone to come up with their own OKRs. However, in the interest of efficiency, have managers focus on high-impact individuals and assign OKRs top-down for staff with limited discretion or who will not or cannot.

I’ve seen a greater tendency in Asian companies for some staff to want to be told what to do; they see it as their manager’s job. This is not a hill worth dying over.

What I can do: Counsel managers on who to focus on (truly collaborative, get to insightful alignment) and who to top-down assign (just ask for feedback, get to “good enough”).

• 5. The goal is clear and effective prioritization. No need to be dogmatic about OKRs format.

• For teams focused on key projects, KRs are usually expressed in terms of timelines. These always have multiple KRs.

• For teams focused on funnels, KRs are often effectively expressed in terms of 1-2 highest leverage leading measures.
• Explaining “Why?” in the Objective is often a helpful best practice.

What I can do: Counsel departments on questions and exceptions they want to make in the process. Audit alignment by asking “Why?” for OKRs that seem less important.

• 6. KRs can be used as a forecasting tool. If you master forecasting, you master the world.

At the beginning of the quarter, each KR should have a 50% chance of being accomplished, forecast from the individual and their manager. Update this forecast every week.

What I can do: Ensure OKRs are set in a forecastable way (”A to B by when”). Collect weekly forecast updates. Optional: integration into financial model & forecast financial statements distributed every week back to management team.

FAQ

• Q: Should OKRs be tied to compensation?
• Q: Should we have weekly updates? If so, in what format?
• Q: Can people change their OKRs mid-quarter?
• Q: Any book in particular you’d recommend regarding applying an OKR framework?

Timelines

• Typical OKR Cycle

Responsibilities

Please see yellow highlights above for areas we can take charge of. Additionally, to summarize responsibilities in the timeline:

• Help ensure the OKR train runs “on-time” while making allowances for important delays.
• Provide coaching and answer questions from managers and employees, as requested, on the OKR process (prioritizing and setting impactful goals).
• Sit in on meetings to take notes and make suggestions.
• Review drafts of OKRs as they are produced and provide feedback when helpful.