Objectives and key results
Objectives and key results (OKR) is a framework for defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes.
Overview
The development of OKRs is generally attributed to Andy Grove the "Father of OKRs", who introduced the approach to Intel during his tenure there and documented this in his 1983 book High Output Management.[1] Grove's simple but effective concept is explained by John Doerr: "The key result has to be measurable. But at the end you can look, and without any arguments: Did I do that or did I not do it? Yes? No? Simple. No judgments in it."[2]
OKRs comprise an objective—a clearly defined goal—and one or more key results—specific measures used to track the achievement of that goal.[3] The goal of OKR is to define how to achieve objectives through concrete, specific and measurable actions.[4] Key results can be measured on a 0-100% scale or any numerical unit (e.g. dollar amount, %, items, etc.). Objectives should also be supported by initiatives, which are the plans and activities that help to achieve the objective and move forward the key results.[5]
In 1975, John Doerr, at the time a sales person working for Intel, attended a course within Intel taught by Andy Grove where he was introduced to the theory of OKRs[2]. In 1999, Doerr, who by then was working for Kleiner Perkins—a venture capital firm, introduced the idea of OKRs to a start-up Kleiner Perkins had invested in called Google.[6] The idea took hold and OKRs quickly became central to Google's culture as a "management methodology that helps to ensure that the company focuses efforts on the same important issues throughout the organization."[2] Doerr also published a book about the OKR framework titled "Measure What Matters".
Larry Page, the CEO of Alphabet and co-founder of Google, credited OKRs within the foreword to Doerr's book: "OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth, many times over. They’ve helped make our crazily bold mission of 'organizing the world’s information' perhaps even achievable. They’ve kept me and the rest of the company on time and on track when it mattered the most."[2]
Since becoming popular at Google, OKRs have found favour with several other similar tech start-up organisations[7] including LinkedIn,[8] Twitter,[9] Gett and Uber.[10]
OKRs may be shared across the organization with the intention of providing teams with visibility of goals with the intention to align and focus effort[3]. OKRs are typically set at the company, team, and personal levels although there is criticism[11] on this causing too much of a waterfall approach, which, OKRs, in many ways, tries to be the opposite.
OKRs overlap with other performance management frameworks, in terms of complexity, sitting somewhere between KPI and the balanced scorecard.[12]
The key benefits of OKRs are focus, alignment and engagement.
Google's OKR Playbook
Google published their OKR playbook on the webpage whatmatters.com.[13]
The Playbook explains:
- how to write effective OKRs
- Cross-team OKRs
- Committed vs. Aspirational OKRs
- Classic OKR-writing Mistakes and Traps
- Reading, Interpreting, and Acting on OKRs
- More Litmus Tests
See also
- Management by objectives
- Objectives, goals, strategies and measures (OGSM)
- Key performance indicator (KPI)
- Balanced scorecard
- SMART criteria
References
- ^ Grove, Andrew (1983). High Output Management. Random House. ISBN 0394532341.
- ^ a b c d Doerr, John (2018). Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs. Penguin Publishing Group. p. 31. ISBN 9780525536239.
- ^ a b Wodtke, Christina (2016). Introduction to OKRs. O’Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 9781491960271.
- ^ Calin, Denis (3 February 2019). "What is OKR?". Retrieved 3 February 2019.
- ^ Maasik, Alexander. Step by Step Guide to OKRs. Amazon Digital Services LLC.
- ^ Levy, Steven (2011). In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. Simon & Schuster. pp. 162–3. ISBN 978-1-4165-9658-5.
- ^ "OKR Cycle". Enterprise Gamification.
- ^ "The Management Framework that Propelled LinkedIn to a $20 Billion Company". First Round Review. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
- ^ Wagner, Kurt. "Following Frat Party, Twitter's Jack Dorsey Vows to Make Diversity a Company Goal". recode. Vox Media, Inc. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
- ^ Fowler, Susan. "Reflecting On One Very, Very Strange Year At Uber". Susan Fowler Blog. Susan Fowler. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
- ^ Formgren, Johan (15 October 2018). "Power of making a difference at work – Blog Article". Its in the Node. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
- ^ Davies, Rob (9 October 2018). "OKR vs Balanced Scorecard – Paul Niven Explains the Difference". Perdoo GmbH. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
- ^ "What Matters: OKR Google playbook: Examples & templates". Google. Retrieved 14 May 2020.