Objectives should be ambitious, inspirational, directional, and aligned with company's goals and objectives.
Key Results should be concrete, measurable, achievable, and quantifiable.
OKRs need to be formed bottom-up for it to work. OKRs can be set by different levels of management in the company, organization, and individual. Everyone and every team and every department can have OKRs and they should be shared publicly for everyone else to see.
Everyone, especially executive-level teams, should have public OKRs. This is to ensure buy-in from everyone. The employees will look to their managers to see how OKRs are set.
No longer than 3 months, aka quarterly. Longer than that and we will get distracted.
From 3 to 5, and no more than 5. The point of have key results is that so we can have focus. If we focus on everything, we would then focus on nothing.
With well-defined and publicly visible OKRs, everyone can have a sense of focus and commitment, from leaders to front-line employees. When we know what our bosses deem important, we have a better idea where to focus and commit our time.
Once we know what other teammates/teams are focusing on, we can judge and align ourselves with the organization's objectives. Who wants to duplicate work or fails to meet others' expectation because we didn't know about it? OKRs help us avoid the implicit dependencies.
How do we know that everyone in the company is working toward the same goals? Not duplicating work? By having OKRs and having them visible publicly. The accountability of having publicly visible OKRs will enable everyone to know what everyone else is working on and where their focuses are. This will help realign the purpose of the company, orgs, teams, and individuals.
Once we commit our OKRs in public, we are more likely to commit to delivering them. It also clarifies what we try to accomplish and therefore it will be easier to judge whether we deliver on our goals/promises. It is as important that we hold ourselves accountable to our words as to other people.
We always want to push ourselves and expand our limits. OKRs allow us to see where our comfort zones are and confront them. We don't want to set completely unrealistic goals, but we don't want to take it easy either. To grow is to be uncomfortable, so having stretch goals is essential to our own professional and organizational growth.
Another way to apply OKRs to annual performance review is to replace it. To enhance the effect of OKRs, we use Conversation, Feedback, and Recognition (CFR) to continuously help employees get better. This takes place as 1-1s with direct reports on a weekly basis.
- Goal settings and reflections
How best to align OKRs to organizational goals.
- On-going progress updates
What's working well and what's not working well?
- 2-way coaching
What does the manager need to improve for better decision making? How does the IC reach his/her potentials?
- Career Growth
Develop skills, recognize opportunities, expand the employee's view of the organization
- Lightweight performance review
What has the employee accomplished since the last meeting?
- How by Dov Seidman
- Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- How Google Works by Eric Schmitt
- Work Rules by Laszlo Boch
- In the Plex by Steven Levy