The 7 Sins of OKRs

The paradox of OKRs is that they are supposed to drive focus, productivity and results.  

But most often, they don’t.  Here is why. 

Sin #1 Confusion between OKRs and KPIs

• And therefore OKRs end up being a metrics vomit. 

• Remember this:

  • You run the business with KPIs.  

  • And build the business with OKRs.

• Tip: Use KPIs to monitor performance where it matters the most - these are your health metrics. Use OKRs to make a change if performance is falling behind or you want to reach the next level. 

Sin #2 You try to replace / automate management with OKRs

• The reality is that you can’t manage people just by setting a numeric target for them to hit. 

• Human beings are a lot more complex. And needy :)

• Tip:  OKRs is a great framework for management, but it doesn’t replace high-quality leadership meetings, effective 1:1s, consistent internal comms. Work on those in parallel and magic will happen. 

Sin #3 No focus - way too many OKRs

• Why this happens? Let’s open a can of worms. :) 

• No strategy => but nobody says anything. 

• There is strategy but it is not clear apart to the Funders => again, nobody says anything. 

• Egos - people feel the need to secure their position / or justify their hiring needs by putting an OKR on the table. 

• Misuse of OKRs => “if it’s not an OKR, it’s not going to get done” I hear often 

• Confusing activities with KRs => and so using OKRs as a project plan or to show of how much good stuff the team wil be working on 

• Tip: Aim for 1-3 Objectives x 1-3KRs but don’t get too rigid. Here is a test: Can anyone looking at your OKRs tell the story of what you are trying to build? If they can’t, you have way too many OKRs detailing activities rather than answering what impact / outcome you want to achieve.

Sin #4 Death by cascading 

• Company => Function => Team =>Sub-team / Squad => Individual

• This is when you see big dashboards, tools, alignment and update requests everywhere. 

• This is also when folks start to debate semantics “does that a KR now become an objective? Wait, what? Isn’t that an activity rather than an output?”

• Tip: Make OKRs work well at the leadership level first. You can worry about cascading later.

Sin #5 Team is OKR-d out

• Especially with cascading, all is taking 2 months and way too many “alignment” meetings. 

• Only to start all over again in a week.  

• OKR fatigue is real.  

• Tip: Here is a challenge: what would it take to constrain the cycle to 2 or max 3 weeks? Constrain people so that they don’t try to write up perfect execution plans behind KRs, get all the data possible, cascade everything up & down, etc. 

Sin #6 No real thinking behind the KRs

• No real execution plan. 

• Nobody is asking “what would it take to achieve this KR?”

• So KRs become a Christmas wishlist. 

• Tip: Your KR DRIs should come up withe the 80/20 plan behind the KR that includes:

  • Big rocks and pebbles (key deliverables incl dependencies)

  • Resourcing check

  • Risks 

Sin #7 Nobody understands the concept of cross-team goals 

• In a recent study by Quantive “The Global state of OKRs”, I was surprised to see that 41% companies surveyed don’t set company level OKRs. 

• I mean, that’s the whole point of OKRs…

• Tip: As a CEO, you use OKRs to make sure your team is executing your vision.  Not to make your leaders feel comfy about their deliverables they set for themselves in a silo.