Introduction To Objectives and Key Results – OKR

What is OKR?

OKR stands for Objective and Key Results. OKRs are goals, that through proposal and discussions, describe precisely where the biggest improvements need to be made, and a desirable future end-state that is typically hard to achieve and measurable. For example, 70% can be an acceptable success rate, depending on the difficulty grading.

OKR Format

The format or structure of an OKR is simple, which is a key reason behind why OKRs are used:

• Objective – Describe what you want and are committing to achieving.
• Key Results – This is the ‘as measured by’ part of the OKR and describes how you propose to measure and track the Objectives achievement.

Objective format guidance encourages the use of clear, succinct and motivating language. Think of each Objective as a mission statement.

Key Result format guidance makes the need for measurement clear. For most Key Results this involves a metrics or a milestone based activity. But there are no hard rules on this.

When formatting OKRs the number of Key Results also benefits from the rule ‘less is more’. You can have 6 Key Results but that comes with an overhead, so 2 or 3 is better

The history of OKRs

The history of OKR is longer that than most think. In the 1950’s, Peter Drucker introduced MBOs or Management by Objectives to focus managers and employees on results, not simply on looking busy. Andy Grove whilst at Intel to the MBO idea and evolved it to become OKRs. Under Grove and using OKRs, Intel increased its revenues from $1.9 billion to $26 billion. He later documented this journey in his 1983 book High Output Management.

Andy Grove believed that top-down management systems were broken and that every employee not only counted and that could set their own goals.

John Doer attended an Andy Grove seminar and later took the idea to Google in 1999. The rest is history. Google went on to achieve x10 growth and has over 100,000 employees. John Doer’s book ‘Measure What Matters’ is still a popular OKR book. 

Roll forward to now and Objective and Key Results (OKRs) are now a mature and established way of setting goals. Taking the best of frameworks that have come before, like MBOs, Balanced Score Card, SMART and KPIs, and evolving them, introducing ideas like ambition, alignment, and agility. All necessities for performance management and survival in modern companies.

OKRs are not just a goal setting format, they create focus, inspire ambition, accelerate innovation and encourage collaboration. It’s no surprise to those using them that they have been credited with Google’s x10 growth.

In choosing OKRs as your way of setting, communicating, and managing goals you will be benefiting from the fact the framework that has been created and refined over a long time.

As far as this OKR guide is concerned, and how it can help you today, OKR best-practices are well understood and are tried, tested, and trusted. We have shared what great OKRs and OKR management looks like in this ultimate OKR guide.