Used by teams at large companies like Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, OKRs are an effective way to organize work and optimize productivity.
We all know that working towards goals can help improve our performance. But we often overlook that when those goals are truly challenging and specific, it can further improve the engagement of all employees in achieving those goals. Some research suggests this , and companies like Google have taken the lead by using OKRs to set ambitious goals and track progress in detail.
But what exactly are OKRs?
OKR is an acronym for Objective and Key Results (ORC). The term was coined by Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, and is an effective methodology for aligning the work of an organization and getting all its members working in the same direction.
Goals are long-term, and defined qualitatively. John Doerr, a Google investor and one of the people who helped popularize OKRs in the late 1990s, argues that goals need to be meaningful, concrete, action-oriented, and, where possible, aspirational. They should answer the questions “where do we want to go?” and “what do we want to achieve?”
Key results, on the other hand, are quantitative and short-term, they can be easily measured and help us to efficiently monitor our progress towards the goal. John Doerr defines them as specific and time-bound; ambitious but realistic; measurable and verifiable.
Kevan Lee, Marketing Lead at Buffer, says that “one of the biggest china phone number benefits of OKRs is that they provide structure and clarity for an organization to work toward a common goal.” Here are five things he’s learned from working with OKRs at Buffer:
Goals should be ambitious, sometimes to the point of being uncomfortable.
Key results must be quantifiable.
You can probably only meet 70% of your OKRs. If you meet 100%, they are not ambitious enough.
Poor grades should not be penalized.
You have to be careful not to set too many OKRs. Five objectives with five key results each is more than enough.
Let's look at some examples to illustrate these definitions.