Good ideas with great execution are how you make magic. The book “Measure What Matters” introduces what is OKRs , why it works and how to integrate it with the process and culture.
OKRs, short for Objectives and Key Results, which is a collaborative goal-settings protocol for companies, teams, and individuals. It has been widely adopted in industry including Intel, Sun, Google and etc. Obviously it’s not a silver bullet, as we know what happened to Sun and what is happening to Intel now, but nevertheless it’s a great framework to map the ideas into concrete objectives and measurable outcomes.
What is OKR?
Objectives are WHAT is to be achieved and they should be significant, concrete, action oriented and ideally inspirational. Key results benchmark and monitor HOW we get to the objective. Most importantly they are measurable and verifiable. Either we meet the key results or not and there shouldn’t be gray areas.
Why does it work?
The book introduces four superpowers from the OKR framework. The first is Focus and Commit to priorities. OKRs forced leaders to make the hard choices to focus on the most important things needed to win. The second is Align and Connect for Teamwork. OKRs make everyone’s goals very transparent and individuals can link their objectives to the company/org’s priorities, identify the dependencies and collaborate with other teams. Top-down alignment brings meaning and motivation to work while owning their OKRs depending on people’s sense of ownership from bottom-up to boot engagement and innovations. The third is Track for Accountability. OKSs are measurement and driven by data. The periodic check-ins, objective grading and continuous reassessment trigger actions to make sure things are on track and update timely as needed. The last is Stretch for Amazing. OKRs motivates the team to excel by doing more than we’d thought possible, the challenge helps release the creative and ambitious selves.
How to integrate it with process and culture?
CFRs (Conversation, Feedback, Recognition), a framework for continuous performance management can team up together with OKRs to lift people to a whole new level. Conversation is an authentic ,richly textured exchange between manager and contributor, aimed at driving performance. Feedback is bidirectional communication among peers to evaluate progress and guide future improvement. Recognition expresses appreciation to deserving individuals for contributions of all sizes. CRFs and OKRs, champion for transparency, accountability and empowerment to encourage people to drive the excellence outcome measurement OKRs toward the objective. This will help organizations to establish a common framework for decision making and talking about the same thing with meaning, which is an important part of culture.
After reading this one, I found this framework contains principles that’s very similar with another book “The 4 Disciplines of Execution ” including Focus on the Wildly Important, Act on the Lead Measures, Keep a Compelling Scoreboard, and Create a Cadence of Accountability. They’re all about focus, measurable, tracking and accountability leading to great execution.