How to Set Goals Using OKRs

OKRs expert Tom Perry explains how goals set using Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) are an improvement over traditional goal setting.

1. OKRs are shared goals, not individual. They are designed to work across the organization, crossing boundaries between teams and departments.
2. Instead of being meant for individuals, ORKs are part of a holistic system that includes assessment and reviews performed along they way towards shared objectives.

Transcription:

Hi folks, Tom Perry here. I wanted to talk to you a little bit right now about goals. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been in the business world for a while, and you’re plenty familiar with how goal systems work, right? We all deal with smart goals, right? We need to have criteria to establish those goals, and then we’re going to take those goals, which are cascaded down to us, and probably have very little bearing on our day to day work.

And at the end of the year, we’re going to be assessed on our performance to those goals, which usually by that point is completely irrelevant. And we will be given our annual appraisal based on some imaginary hypothetical relationship between our performance and those bogus goals we were given at the beginning of the year.

I’d like to talk to you about something different. There’s a different way to operate. They’re called OKRs. OKRs are objectives and key results. They’re really quite simple, not a whole lot different superficially from your traditional SMART goals that you may have used in the past. But OKRs have some key differences.

Number one, OKRs are shared. They’re not individual. So unlike those old goals in the past that came down to you and were your individual goals, OKRs are shared objectives. They’re designed to be collaborated on. They’re designed to work across the organization. They’re designed to cross boundaries, bring people together.

Secondly, they’re part of a larger system. So OKRs do not exist in isolation. There really is no meaning to trying to introduce OKRs just for Tom, just for you. OKRs are part of a more holistic system that includes assessment and review so that you get progress along the way towards those shared objectives that I was talking about.

And those two factors are really what make OKRs unique compared to our old school objectives that I’m sure you’re familiar with. Thank you very much for your time. This Hyperdrive. Thanks again.