Don’t do OKRs until your strategy is stalled

Are you plagued by a vague sense of misalignment and a wish that your group could do better and deliver more? Tempted to use OKRs to get ‘more productivity’? Don’t do it. OKRs are not what you need. OKRs are a transformation tool, and if you‘re not blocked at delivering on your strategy, they’re not going to help.

I’ve now been with a couple of companies that ‘rolled out’ OKRs as an alignment tool, with the idea that if all the groups and layers get good at goal-setting and measurement, the company will become more effective.

This is simply not the way it works.

If you don’t have a clear strategy that is stuck, people will just try to use OKRs to justify and track the work they are already doing, and your OKR system will get overloaded with vague objectives and vanity metrics that don’t actually help anyone.

“Keep the business running” is not a strategy. “Find some new customers” is not a strategy. “Help employees feel happier” is not a strategy. These are wishes, not objectives. Your operational KPIs are not key results.

What is the problem with ‘keep the business running’ as an OKR? Well, it’s the equivalent of telling the company to continue as it is.

You don’t need to say this.

Most established companies have so much inertia that they will keep the same old business running, even when the market is changing . Stating it as an OKR is just a distraction.

And why are you worried about “keeping the business running?” is your business not growing as fast as the market? Are you struggling to bring new offerings to market? Perhaps you need a strategy to change HOW you do business.

The OKRs are not the strategy. The OKRs are how you deliver the strategy.

The strategy is ‘what are we not doing now, that we’re going to start doing really differently in order to change our market position?’ Figure out the answer to this question. Once you feel the pain of not changing fast enough, then you are ready to start thinking about OKRs.