OKR

• How to set goals with Target (Objective, O) and “Key Results” (Key Results, KR).

In Japan, there is a book OKR(Books) with OKR written in large letters on the cover, which may be confusing, but when we refer to OKR on this page, we are referring to the OKR methodology, not the book. When referring to this book on this page, use the title of the original book Radical Focus. When referring to a book by its page number without its title, it is a reference to Measure What Matters written by John Doerr, who brought OKR to Google.

When talking about OKRs, there are two perspectives. One is from the perspective of a manager, who thinks about the benefits of having the members of his/her organization use OKR. The other is from an individual’s point of view, which is to consider what the benefits will be if he or she uses OKRs. [In the preface to Measure What Matters, Google co-founder Larry Page says that he wishes this book had existed at a time when “the only person you have to manage is yourself” (p. 2). This personal perspective should be more familiar to most people, so we will focus on that first.

What should “Target” accomplish? Goals and Intentions.

• There are a lot of people, not just at OKR, who say, “Let’s clarify our goals.”
• (Management by Objective in Drucker., MBO, etc.). OKR took it one step further and detailed how the goals should be set.

• “We want to gain a dominant position in the mid-range microcomputer component market,” is the goal.

• One of the “key results” of this quarter is “10 new orders for designs using 8085,” which is a milestone.

• p.42 Always set goals and “key results”.

Key Results” are criteria for monitoring the degree to which goals are being met.

• Must be measurable. (Related: SMART criteria)

  • It’s still often said, “Make your goals measurable.” The extent to which these “key results” are being achieved will indicate progress. Do not set goals that you think you can achieve. Instead, set goals that are “50-50” in terms of difficulty.

• (Google’s opinion) Separate committed OKRs from ambitious OKRs.

  • The grade expected for a committing OKR is 1.0, and the mean grade expected for an ambitious OKR is 0.7, but the variance is large.

• p181 You can never achieve everything.

  • Departments that achieve close to 100% results are considered to have set their goals too low and are cautioned

p183 Progress does not equal grades.

• At Google, OKR progress is for reference only, not to be used directly for self-assessment or grading.

p186 p176

(Google’s opinion) Write about the impact on the end user, not the activity.

When setting numerical targets, they must be paired with quality targets. (p.87)

• Otherwise, they will start to reduce quality and gain quantity.

If the grade for all major results is 1.0, the grade for the goal must also be 1.0 (p. 365).

• Whether this is a good idea or not remains to be seen.

p.88 What is Quality KR? Pairing inputs with outputs

• For the goal of winning the race
• Bad: Speeding up
• Normal: 2% faster average speed
• Good:
  • Increase average speed by 2
  • Conducted 10 wind tunnel tests

Separate OKR from rewards. (p.257)

• OKR is only a method to manage and motivate goals.
• The more difficult the goal, the higher the performance level. The rate of goal attainment decreases. (p.198)

Management Perspective

• OKR is “a business management technique that ensures that all organizations within a company are fully committed to the same important issues” (p. 19).
• All employees verbalize their O’s and KRs respectively and share them with all other employees

p123 conveying the will of the governing to the governed effects and harms p128 Superiors can be effective in creating cohesion in an organization in moderation, but it can be detrimental if all goals are determined by superiors. p129 Four harmful effects

• Lack of mobility
  • It takes time to get the instructions down.
  • They’ll wait for instructions to come down.
• Lack of flexibility
  • They avoid change because change is a major cost.
• Contributors are taken lightly.
  • Opinions of front-line employees are ignored.
• Organizational collaboration becomes one-dimensional.
  • Vertical connections only, horizontal collaboration across departments does not occur.

p132 Google takes a market-based approach (rather than a supercilious one). Because the company’s overall OKRs are known and each person’s OKRs are visualized, everyone’s goals converge over time.

43 Taylor and Drucker 142 The story of how each of us created OKRs for the entire company.

Four Powers of OKR - focus on priority matter and [commit - Focus and Commit to Priorities - alignment and cooperation create [teamwork - Align and Connect for Teamwork - Track progress tracking (e.g. in computer graphic) and clarify [liability - Track for Accountability

• Chapter 12: Stretch (OKR) for [phenomenal results
  • Stretch for Amazing

Four Powers of OKR

• Chapter 4 focus on priority matter and [commit
  • Chapter 5 focus.
  • Chapter 6 commit.
• Chapter 7 alignment and cooperation create [teamwork
  • It’s interesting from Cybozu’s perspective that they’re discussing ways to create teamwork.
  • Chapter 8 alignment.
    • Members of the organization should make efforts in the same direction rather than in disparate ways.
    • The same effect that the existence of company-wide groupware and the ability to search for information is beneficial will also occur in OKR. Alignment is important, but it is not the image of control for the sake of alignment, but rather the ability for each individual to verbalize his or her own objectives so that “the objectives of those around them” can be known, and collaboration will occur after the fact.
  • Chapter 9 cooperation.
    • Individuals set their own goals and share them within the company.
    • p325 Appeal to the fact that it’s not working, because if you get help, it will be beneficial for you to achieve your goals.
    • p166 Often the key results of people in other departments are relevant to your own objectives; collaboration is beneficial to achieving your own objectives
• Chapter 10: tracking (e.g., in computer graphic) progress and clarifying [liability
  • Tracking is possible to adapt to changing circumstances
  • Those who set goals and further sent weekly progress updates to friends were 43% more likely to achieve their goals than those who only set goals and did not share them with others p.176
  • Chapter 11 tracking (e.g. in computer graphic).
• Chapter 12: Stretch (OKR) for [phenomenal results - Visionary Company 2 Bold Goals for the Company’s Fortunes
  • Chapter 13, 14 Stretching

https://www.facebook.com/nishiohirokazu/posts/10216799685320998

https://www.facebook.com/nishiohirokazu/posts/10217247827164264

• I was rereading the original OKR book, and only the tracking of the four effects didn’t ring a bell, so I dug into it, but I see that having a quantitative measure creates the concept of “rate of progress” and becomes a driving force.
• p.175 “Everyone wants their progress to be shown on a ~percentage level.”

---

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/OKR using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.