Summary
OKRs do not fix culture or replace strategy, and they failed in my own teams before I understood why. Kept to a few objectives, tied to day-to-day work, and reviewed on a fixed cadence, they cut through ambiguity and show people that their work matters. Expect the first six to nine months to feel like extra work.
Why I keep coming back to OKRs
I have a strange relationship with OKRs. At NZZ they failed spectacularly, and I learned why. At Vorwerk Home we are still finding the form that fits. In between, I advised friends and colleagues as they introduced OKRs in their own organisations. Some of those efforts ended in frustration, some in quiet success.
What I have learned is simple: OKRs are not magic. On their own they do not fix culture, replace leadership, or align people around a vision. Done with focus, discipline, and a willingness to keep them simple, they change how people work together. They reduce the noise and give people a sense that their work matters.
Most organisations get them wrong. The framework is fine. We overcomplicate it.
What OKRs are
Objectives and Key Results were born at Intel in the late 1970s. Andy Grove needed a way to steer the company out of trouble. Instead of handing people a rigid list of instructions, he set an objective and let them work out how to reach it. Intel pulled ahead of Motorola and revenue took off. Later, the investor John Doerr carried the method into Silicon Valley, and Google adopted it.
Below are Grove’s memo to the Intel field sales engineers announcing Operation Crush, and the corporate objective with its four key results for Q2 1980.
The structure is deliberately plain.
- Objective. What do you want to achieve? It is aspirational, qualitative, and time-bound.
- Key Results. How will you know? They are quantitative, challenging, and not binary.
- Plans. Which activities will move the Key Results?
Doerr’s sentence is still the best shorthand:
I will [Objective], as measured by [Key Results].
A pacing system, not a contract
Grove’s High Output Management makes a point about this kind of structure that is easy to forget: it helps, but it should not be applied mechanically. You can execute every step, miss the stated goal, and still create real value. You can also hit every Key Result and fail in a bigger sense because you ignored an unexpected opportunity. OKRs are a pacing system, a way to hold the stopwatch yourself.
Why they work
They cut through ambiguity. Most organisations drown in it. Everyone is busy, nobody is sure it matters, leaders keep adding priorities, and alignment turns into a game of telephone.
With OKRs everyone knows what we are trying to achieve, how we will know we are getting there, and what has to happen this week. Individuals see how their work connects to the bigger picture. Leaders decide on progress rather than gut feeling. Teams drop the idea that everything is equally important.
Larry Page put it this way:
“OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth, many times over.”
There is a catch: it works only if you keep them simple.
Where it goes wrong
Many organisations treat OKRs as a ritual. They run workshops, build spreadsheets, and expect the framework to deliver. I call that cargo-cult OKRs. These are the traps I see most:
- OKRs as strategy. They are a tool to deploy a strategy. They cannot replace one.
- Overcomplication. Objectives grow so long that they need footnotes.
- Disconnection. They are written once and buried in a slide deck.
- Stretch goals without buy-in. The bar is so high that people quietly give up.
- Too many. More than three per team is too many.
- No cadence. They are set once and never revisited.
- No owner. Nobody is accountable for a given Key Result.
- Activities instead of outcomes. Teams write “run a campaign” instead of “increase conversion by 10%”.
The pattern never changes: enthusiasm, then fatigue, confusion, and cynicism. The Asana Playbook calls it the missing link: OKRs that are not tied to day-to-day work end up as abandoned documents. The fix is simple but not easy. Keep them in front of people, tie them to real work, and review them regularly.
The simple recipe
A template that works:
We plan to succeed in [Objective], as measured by [KR1], [KR2], and [KR3]. We plan to achieve this by [Plans].
An example:
Objective: Launch a successful weekly newsletter.
Key Results:
- Grow the subscriber base by 15% in Q1.
- Raise the click-through rate above the 3.5% industry average.
- Finalise the content strategy and topic calendar for the next six months.
Plans: Draft the January outline. Decide the Q1 topics. Send articles for editing.
It is simple, clear, measurable, and doable.
My own tweaks
I rename the parts to make them more human. Objectives become Missions. Key Results become Success Metrics. Teams new to the process find it easier, and the conversation changes: we stop filling in a template and start chasing a mission.
I also tell people to expect pain. OKRs are not plug and play. The first six to nine months feel like extra work, frustration, and confusion. If you persist, the culture shifts.
What you get when they work
Employees focus on fewer, more meaningful goals, see how their work fits, and feel more engaged because progress is visible. Leaders get real-time visibility, decide on evidence, and align teams without micromanaging. Gallup found that highly engaged business units are 21% more profitable than disengaged ones. OKRs are not the only route to engagement, but they are one of the most practical. I have seen them give teams confidence. People start to believe “we can actually move the needle.”
What OKRs are not
- Not projects. They are not task lists.
- Not annual KPIs. They are meant to stretch people further than a box-ticking target would.
- Not easy. If you hit 100% of your Key Results every time, you are playing it safe. Doerr’s advice holds: 70% is the sweet spot.
Not magic, but work
Done well, OKRs make goals clear, keep teams aligned, and give you a way to measure progress. Grove said:
“There are so many people working so hard and achieving so little.”
That line stayed with me. What those people lack is focus, and OKRs are one way to turn their effort into progress.