Objectives and key results, or OKRs, have become one of the most popular frameworks for teams looking to plan and measure the success of their work. With this system, leaders at each level of the organization start by defining high-level, qualitative, inspirational goals, called “objectives.” They then define who will be the user or the consumer of their team’s work, and determine what behavioral changes they would expect to see in those consumers that could be used to quantify whether the team is achieving their high-level goals. These quantifiable outcomes are called “key results,” and are used to measure how successful teams are with respect to their objectives.
Use OKRs to Set Goals for Teams, Not Individuals
They’re easy to game on an individual level — and probably won’t reflect real value added.
December 17, 2020
Summary.
A popular goal-setting framework, Objectives and key results (or OKRs) are an effective method for planning and measuring success on a team level. They fall short, however, when companies attempt to apply them to individual contributors. Setting individual OKRs generally leads to goals that are either not true indications of meaningful progress or that are easily gameable. Instead, individual contributors should be assessed based on the extent to which their work contributes to team goals that add real value to the company and its customers.
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